Two years ago, I didn’t understand what anxiety was. In fact, I wasn’t really that well up on mental health as a whole. We don’t educate young people on mental illness and we grow up somewhat acknowledging its existence in the same light as dust under the carpet – it’s there alright, but lets not talk about it. Well I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it because it needs understanding, empathy and support. I want to talk about it because this uncomfortable stigma attached to having a mental illness needs to go. I want to talk about it because the other day in college I heard people debating the fact whether mental illness was ‘even real’. I want to talk about it because I need to talk about it.
When I was diagnosed with anxiety, I was more worried what people would say about me having anxiety than anything I’d ever been anxious over…which was pretty ironic. I was scared I’d be told I was attention seeking or soft. I was scared of being called a drama queen or that people would now tiptoe around me, treating me as some new girl who couldn’t have a laugh. So I didn’t tell anyone. Now I guess I’ve told the internet, but that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is that there needs to be a society where it doesn’t take having a mental illness to understand a mental illness. There shouldn’t be such a huge period of wondering if you are just really stressed, emotional and moody before someone actually suggests you should go and see a doctor. We need to be more aware and comfortable in our diagnosis. We need to be as on the ball and in touch with mental health issues as we are with physical illnesses and equally as supportive.
The common misconception of mental illnesses like anxiety is that there has to be something there to justify you being anxious. Truth is, there doesn’t, in fact that is pretty much the basis of the illness. Another misconception is that the anxiety is a permanent, long lasting feeling…which it can be, but not in every case. So chances are someone you know could have anxiety and you’ve just never been around to see it. I probably have the loudest laugh out of most people I know. In fact, everyone comments on it, often willing me to stop. I’m confident and opinionated (wallah) and I’ll happily dance and rap in front of a room full of strangers to Kanye West’s Goldigga. That doesn’t seem to fit most people’s premeditated idea of how someone with anxiety should behave. What I’m trying to say is that mental illness is so complex and varies beyond our comprehension. Why? Because we haven’t even begun to comprehend it. The understanding we do have is limited and stereotypical, leaving millions of people’s feelings unaccounted for, misunderstood, or even dismissed because they don’t fit the bill. All because we don’t talk about it!
The thing that shocked me the most about mental illnesses is that loads of us are going through it. Like seriously, loads. Yet we don’t talk about it to the point where even writing this, knowing so many people feel the same, seems weird. Everyone has experienced the feeling of anxiety at some stage in their life and it definitely becomes a more frequent feeling in the teenage years, where exams, grades, future decisions and social pressures take up such a huge lump of life. Imagine that feeling with a greater magnitude and frequency and you’re half way to understanding. If the government don’t see an educational curriculum that regards mental illness as worthy as issues like bullying, drugs, alcohol and safe sex then I think it’s time we took matters in to our own hands. We need to talk and educate about mental health because mental illnesses are affecting just as many young people as drugs and alcohol are and no one really knows what to do about it. Furthermore, the government only seems to keep increasing their ignorance to these issues by creating much more stressful education and examination systems. It’s really not okay and it’s time we stopped silently pretending it is, acknowledging that mental illness is real, it is happening and something has gotta change. It really is time to talk.
