I 'm thirteen years old when my mom drives me across town to a mental hospital. She 's worried about me, she says, her eyes avoiding mine. I 'm worried about me, too. I have felt this way for as long as I can remember, but during health class I find the word for it- depression. When we arrive, I 'm interrogated. Do I do drugs? Am I part of a gang? Do I worship the devil? Do I harm myself? After an hour of prying, the lady asking all these questions shuffles her stack of papers. She takes off her glasses and pinches the bridge of her nose. "In my twenty five years of working here, I have never seen anyone as depressed as you." When I get out of the hospital, the kids at school look at me like I’m a monster. I feel like I’m walking with
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As everyone knows, people are afraid of what they do not understand. And as anyone who has dealt with a mentally ill person, they will tell you that the illness is bewilderingly complex. To fill in the gaps of knowledge we have, people invent lies. That perhaps the mentally ill are just lazy, stupid or both. Anything to justify their judgment. As many as 60% of mentally ill characters on television are depicted as violent, when only 4% of the mentally ill actually are [1]. More than half of Americans are mentally ill, and ⅔ of those will not seek treatment. Stigma leads to a lack of education as well as the fear of rejection and discrimination [9]. So to solve this problem, you must first ask: is it the truth? I once had a friend who confided in me that she was terrified of the mentally ill, as if it were a disease she could catch. After I told her the truth about mental illness and how it affects our society, she changed her views. This is what led to me to destroy the lies and stigma against my people and advocate for more than half of our …show more content…
[4] We should treat someone speaking about their mental illness just as they would a physical illness. You wouldn’t tell someone with cancer to “snap out of it,” but that’s what many think is the solution to depression. The truth is, being open, honest, and understanding about mental illness would build better relationships between family, friends, and the community. This comes first through better access to resources and healthcare. There are more than 250,000 mentally ill homeless people in America and it is quickly rising [8]. I am one of the thousands of youth on the streets struggling to find ways to pay for medication and therapy. I am a bright young woman full of potential, but because of the lack of resources in America, I am tossed to the wayside and left to my own devices. When we build goodwill by having open healthcare and resources for the mentally ill, people like me will thrive. People like me, albeit mentally ill, will change the world if only given the chance to see past our
As everyone knows, people are afraid of what they do not understand. And as anyone who has dealt with a mentally ill person, they will tell you that the illness is bewilderingly complex. To fill in the gaps of knowledge we have, people invent lies. That perhaps the mentally ill are just lazy, stupid or both. Anything to justify their judgment. As many as 60% of mentally ill characters on television are depicted as violent, when only 4% of the mentally ill actually are [1]. More than half of Americans are mentally ill, and ⅔ of those will not seek treatment. Stigma leads to a lack of education as well as the fear of rejection and discrimination [9]. So to solve this problem, you must first ask: is it the truth? I once had a friend who confided in me that she was terrified of the mentally ill, as if it were a disease she could catch. After I told her the truth about mental illness and how it affects our society, she changed her views. This is what led to me to destroy the lies and stigma against my people and advocate for more than half of our …show more content…
[4] We should treat someone speaking about their mental illness just as they would a physical illness. You wouldn’t tell someone with cancer to “snap out of it,” but that’s what many think is the solution to depression. The truth is, being open, honest, and understanding about mental illness would build better relationships between family, friends, and the community. This comes first through better access to resources and healthcare. There are more than 250,000 mentally ill homeless people in America and it is quickly rising [8]. I am one of the thousands of youth on the streets struggling to find ways to pay for medication and therapy. I am a bright young woman full of potential, but because of the lack of resources in America, I am tossed to the wayside and left to my own devices. When we build goodwill by having open healthcare and resources for the mentally ill, people like me will thrive. People like me, albeit mentally ill, will change the world if only given the chance to see past our