*thumnail image: https://www.exposingtruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mentalhealth.jpg
Mental disorders—depression, anxiety, bipolar—are often described as “invisible diseases.” They’re the issues that people know about, learn about, but often don’t talk about. Even worse, mental disorders are often stigmatized, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, glamorized. Add these disorders and hush-hush attitude to the stress and social pressures of college, and you can often get disaster.
How can we battle this attitude? How can we make Wake a more accepting, safe zone for mental health? The answers are not as complicated as one might believe.
Utilize Counselors
Universities are fantastic in that they provide easy access to therapy right on campus—and one way to make mental health a priority, as well as erasing it’s perceptions as “abnormal”, is to see one for yourself. Counselors aren’t just their for those with severe mood disorders; they are perfect for unloading emotions you might not feel comfortable discussing with friends, or for learning coping mechanisms for stress or time management.
Don’t Talk, Listen
When your friend—with a mood disorder or not—shares with you their anxiety, emotions, and frustrations, the best thing you can do is listen. Don’t try to relate or draw it back to a similar problem of yours—it’s a common tactic, but not effective. Mental disorders are different from traditional stress. Chances are, you don’t understand what they’re going through, because their brains may be interpreting it in a more extreme light. The best thing you can do is just listen.
Learn About It
Yes, you might cover the basics of some mental health disorders in your Intro to Psychology courses, but by doing your own research you begin to strip away the myth and stigma behind these issues. This helps make them less scary and also less glamorized. It allows you to see mental disorders as they are and not as they’re depicted in movies or extreme cases.
Don’t Define People By It
While you may know who struggles with mental disorders, it doesn’t mean that is all they are. Resist the urge to say he or she “is depressed” or “is anxious.” These tangle identity with disorder—which is not true. This is a major source of stigma that causes some to resist revealing their mental health status. Labels are fine on clothing—not on people.