If your friend broke his leg, would you take him to the hospital? Hopefully the answer would be yes. You are treating an injury and they need help. This is the same as if someone is depressed or bipolar. Bipolar is a chemical imbalance in your brain. You are telling me people need to just get over it and that they are over reacting? Anxiety disorders or panic disorders are also serious problems. Imagine how you would feel if you were having a heart attack, suffocating, or just dying. That is how it feels to have an anxiety attack, but they are just faking it and asking for attention (catch the sarcasm). People who have PTSD, whether it is from being overseas fighting for our country or a traumatic event happening, have many triggers that cause them to have episodes of complete fear,  aggression, or at night they will have night terrors. One in five teenagers of the ages 13-18 have a mental illness. That is 50% of teens that are struggling everyday with an illness.     

In our society there is a stigma that comes along with mental illnesses. People look at mental illnesses as “weak” or “faking it for attention”, some get approached and told to just get over it. It is not that easy, many have to go through extensive therapy or multiple medications to find the perfect concoction to relieve some pain from the racing thoughts going through your head. It is a serious problem and students need to be more educated on this horrible illness.  Everyone needs to be educated about mental illnesses because a lot of people around you are probably struggling through life everyday with the weight of their illness. Being insensitive, making jokes, telling them to get over it, and saying they are doing it for attention doesn’t help them at all and most of the time it makes it worse. Students should be taught about the effects of the illnesses and prove that it is a real thing and it is a major problem.

Mrs. Blackburn, the school social worker,  has noticed an increase of mental illnesses sparked by social media. She says she is very concerned about how mean people are on social media and that girls are influenced a lot by what they see like what people wear, how they look, or trying to be one of the most popular girls. She was asked what could we change and said replied,”There should be more education and to teach students different strategies to help them get through hard times.” The conversation continued and she brought up many ideas she had, for example, get a group of students to teach people about mental help, a topper time, and going to the middle school to talk to them.

Mrs. Blackburn wants to get the students and the community involved, if any ideas come to mind let her know so we can raise awareness about this major issue. Remember you are not alone and there are a lot of people that love and care about you. Speak up if you are hurting, you aren’t weak for asking someone for help.