Trying to come up with a concept for this final project was the easy part. I knew I wanted to deal with Mental Health Awareness because I feel like it has had such a huge place in my life. My first encounter with mental illness was when I was in middle school and high school. I struggled a lot to understand why I felt so different. I struggled to understand why I felt things in the extremities and struggled with continuous episodes of depression and anxiety.
It became a constant struggle to keep up with schoolwork with the constant trips to the hospital and the struggle with my medications being altered all the time. All the while I was dealing with symptoms of Bipolar Disorder. This on its own was difficult but if you add the fact that while I was in middle school, I struggled a lot with bullying from both students and staff, It became a battle to get through school with the least amount of damage possible. I never sought out help when I felt myself falling into a pit of depression. I held everything in and as a result of this, I am still feeling the affects of this trauma years later into my adulthood.
A couple of years later in the very same middle school that I attended and dreaded going to on a daily basis, another young girl became the victim of bullying . But this girl was not as fortunate to leave the school unscathed. This young lady took away her life after years of ruthless torment. This young girl who found herself in a very similar scenario to my middle school experience, was unable to reach out for help and decided that her only way out was suicide.
Her death and the death of all those who cannot see past the pain long enough to stick around, is a tragedy and should be treated with the urgency that it deserves. When the news broke headlines, the community of which I am a part of were outraged (rightfully so) and urged for change. Till this day, I still feel pain when I think of this girl whose life was cut short. And I can’t help but feel like I could have done something to help if I had spoken up about the deep rooted issues in this particular middle school population. And a part of me recognizes that I could have had a similar fate to hers.
Regardless, there’s no going back and now as we approach this final project, I can’t help but think of what resources and education can do for the people of mental illness community. Maybe if she had had someone to turn to, if men (who are greatly impacted by mental illness and suicide) could feel like they CAN ask for help without judgement or fear of repercussions, then maybe a lot less people would lose their lives to mental illness.
A big part of this and an essential piece of the puzzle is getting rid of the stigma on mental illness as being a weakness. People need to understand that mental illness like any other illness or health issue needs to be addressed by professionals. Nobody looks down on a person for needing treatment for issues such as heart disease or diabetes, so why judge people who struggle with issues that occur in the mind.
If everyone could begin to see how much of an epidemic this really is becoming and realize that we are losing people every single day to situations that can be avoided, then I feel that we can begin to actually create change.
Life in the Public 