I Believe

  I believe that mental health issues should be taken seriously by the society. You might ask, why? It’s because we are trying to fencing off stigmas towards mental illness and at the same time trying to help those in need.

For those who wondering, No. Mental illness is no easy business. You can’t just straight up patch a band-aid to cure mental illness. Just like cancer diseases, mental illnesses can’t magically disappear.

Mental illnesses are varied. Most of mental illnesses are usually can’t be seen with naked eyes. Some of them are Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Eating Disorder and many more.

People with mental illness often rejected or feared by society. Those who suffering mental illness tend to suffer in silence because of the stigma society held for a long time. They are also often seen as ‘sub-human’ because of their wounds. Even worse, they might get stigmatized even by their loved one.

You also might ask, why do people stigmatize mental illness? Well, there’s too many factors leading to why mental illness often got stigmatized. Here are some of the factors.

One of the main factors is the media itself. Medias often painted the mentally ills as insane, psychotic savages. They portrayed mental illness as a vile thing. Some of the famous people who got the blames are Britney Spears, Meghan Markle and Demi Lovato. Even royals from history got painted as lunatics for their delicate mental condition such as Queen Maria I of Portugal, Queen Juana of Spain and King George III of Great Britain.

Other than that, the society itself. Society usually avoids talks containing mental health awareness because they painted these issues as taboo. Some of them even counted mental illness as ‘sinful’ and ‘satanic’.

So, is there something we can do to help our folks? The answer is, yes, it is. But how can we help them? Here are some ways to help them lighten their burden:

First thing first, ALWAYS asks them how are they doing. You can try to approach and greet them. Always ask them politely. A simple “how’s your day going today, mate?” will do.

Secondly, observe them. Always observe their behaviour changes from time to time as this might prevent them from doing unpleasant activities. Some of them including self-harm, isolating themselves and even committing suicide. Prevention is the key.

Last but not least, we must change our perception towards them. This is the most important step because the root of people can’t open up about their mental health because of the stigmas and stereotypes we’ve been living with since ages ago. We can block the stream of stereotypes by spread awareness about mental health through many platforms such as social medias, newspaper, magazines, and brochure.

As a result, we can significantly improve on our lifestyles also enlighten people that mental health is not something just to play around. We also can control suicide rates from skyrocketing. Not just that, we can finally hear the people’s voices expressing their gratefulness for helping them.