Je-an Cedric Cruz
Salma Ibrahim
Contributors
What does mental health mean to you?
As an economics major with little to zero understanding of mental health, I can only illustrate my views based on personal experiences. For me, certain forms and disorders of mental health are more physically apparent than others. This leads to a subjugation of individuals who tend to be misunderstood. Mental health is mainly the psychological condition in response to certain situations.
Through the awareness campaigns and advertisements, individuals like me have the opportunity to understand the dilemmas of those suffering from mental health illness.
Despite acknowledging the need for medical awareness, I personally believe that a large portion of individuals in our society discredit the severity of this problem through false self-diagnosis.
– Leon Tang, fourth-year economics student
Why is fighting the stigma surrounding mental health important?
We need to know that anyone with mental health are suffering from it. If we ignore those who are struggling from [mental health illnesses], it can hurt themselves and others around them.
They can’t just shake it off and go on with their lives and act that everything is okay because they cannot control the state of mind they are in.
They need help and support. If you or a close friend or family member was suffering from mental health [illnesses], would you want to continue the struggles with everyone ignoring you? Or would you want someone you can rely on to help you in this difficult time of need?
– Denise Reyes, third-year kinesiology student
Why is mental health awareness important?
The mental health awareness fight is important because I have a family [member] with depression and giving people information is necessary but it’s not enough. Most people know about it but they just don’t know how to cope with it. Situations are sometimes hard for people in university life or work conditions. This type of stuff is hard for people to handle. It’s important to help people who don’t know anyone with a mental health problem understand the issue because if they see a person with depression they might just say “What’s wrong with them?” but if they know that they have an actual problem they can try to be nice or treat them right.
– Negar Mir Shafiri, 3rd year biology student
What do you know about mental illness?
I know depression is very hard to deal with especially when life throws lots of things at you. It’s hard to get out of bed sometimes and just do things that are normal or seem normal for others. It’s a lot harder for certain people with different mental issues like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or anything like that. It’s important to know that everybody is fighting their own battles and it’s not as easy for everyone to do the same things as others. Even if you can’t see their struggles on the outside, sometimes people are dealing with their own things and it’s important to understand and give them their own space and time to deal with it and to provide resources for them so that they can enjoy life just like anyone else. I’ve heard some people say they don’t believe it’s true or they think people are making certain issues up but you know, really no one has the right to say that if they haven’t been inside someone’s head. No one knows really what someone is going through so it’s wrong to judge people based on a mental health issue if u don’t really understand what’s going on. I know people will brush it off and just say get over it. It’s really not that easy.
– Sabrina Rico, 4th year sociology student
This article has been updated since first publishing to better reflect one contributor’s situation.
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