As a Journalism major, the power of the written or spoken word is never lost on me. With my double major in Psychology, the power of words on people is also never lost on me. It is impossible to be in these areas of study and not be aware of how apparent the mental health stigma remains today.
We all do it. We toss around words like “anxious” and “depressed” without fully understanding the overwhelming, consuming disorders that these words classify. We claim depression after a bad test, when the reality of the disease can take a person’s life. We claim anxiety over a big presentation, when in fact the disease can cripple a person’s social life.
I was recently explaining to a friend about my own experience with panic attacks. She very sympathetically replied, “Oh, those are the worst. You just can’t stop crying.”
I did not quite have the heart to explain to her just how far off she was. Panic attacks are terrifying and debilitating. They invoke a fear so profound, you wonder if, in that very moment, you will ever feel normal again.
I do not blame my friend for not understanding the extremity of a panic attack. People who have never experienced it will undoubtedly have a skewed idea of mental illness. Mental illness is so challenging because there is no strict course of treatment. Every case is different. Every person has a different experience with it. It can consume a person’s life and impact everyone around them. It is essentially cancer of the mind, with no cure.
Mental health issues are made even more difficult by the lack of understanding that surrounds them. Many more people are coming forward and being open about their experiences with it. It is a huge topic in today’s society.
Even though it is becoming more recognized, mental health awareness is still missing a huge component: knowledge. People need to be educated on the topic in order to understand it. It is only with a better understanding of mental health that we can begin to ease the minds of its sufferers. It is only with this knowledge that the sufferers of mental health disorders can heal in a society where their disease is recognized.