By Esperanza Hernandez
Mental health plays a massive part in everybody’s day-to-day life. There is no way to “escape” it.
It stays with us throughout our childhood, teenage years, and adult life. It plays a part in our
relationships, self-image, and our productivity at work or school. Our mental health includes all
aspects of our physical, psychological, emotional, and social well-being. It affects our attitudes,
feelings, and actions. It also affects how we deal with stress, communicate with others, and make
wise decisions. Due to the amount of stress we might encounter while dealing with impaired mental
health, all that stress affects our immune system causing us to get sick constantly.
Unfortunately, when mental health is ignored, suicide rates increase, and due to the stigma around mental
health, people do not want to reach out for help to avoid feeling shame and embarrassment for
feeling that way. But, nothing is embarrassing or shameful about you wanting help and wanting
to get better. Mental health is just as essential as physical health and can claim lives like any
other illness. Sometimes, people who haven’t exactly gone through what you have will try to put
you down and make you feel like you have no right to feel that way but ignore them. You feel
how you think, and no one should try to say otherwise. All they should do is try to help rather than
make it worse. There are more than 52 million people who deal with mental health. You are not
alone.
