Maybe it doesn’t affect you. Maybe you don’t know anyone it has affected…or so you think. Many struggle with mental health, but it is deeply hidden behind a perfectly curated mask. With so much practice, the facade fools everyone, even those closest to you. Battling declining mental health is a process that is lonely, exhausting, and isolating.
You probably know someone who has struggled with their mental health. Every person you look at while walking down the street has probably grappled with it at some point. We’ve become a generation where adolescent anxiety and depression are normalized, and even expected, and it follows into young adulthood and adulthood. This is not how it should be, and this is how it will continue to be if we continue to turn a blind eye.
Many think public figures or those who “have it all figured out” are exempt from the loneliness and isolation…but that is so far from the truth. Titleholders, movie stars, singers, artists, and maybe even your own parent, for example. Take Miss USA, Cheslie Kryst, Kate Spade, Robin Williams, …the list goes on. What do these people have in common? They all took their own lives, yet all we ever saw were accomplishments, smiles, and productivity. My point here is those who have a smile on their face and even promote such causes are the ones who are fighting the hardest battles inside. But you would never know.
I am the girl that struggles in silence.
I have always been the girl that struggled in silence.
But you would never know.
I fight mental health like so many other people. No one is exempt, many have gotten so skilled at playing the part that everything is fine.
Yes, the advocacy and the work toward the cause is what has helped me through it all, but even those who are experts on this stuff still struggle too. The doctor still gets sick and the dentist still gets cavities.
Check in on your friends, especially the ones who seem like they have it all. The one with all the friends, the one with the great family, the one with the big house, the one with the great job, the one with the straight A’s, the one with the cute boyfriend, the one who wins every award, the one who helps others any moment they get, the one who everyone likes.
The one like me.
If you could save a life by checking in on someone and making them feel like they have just one person who cares, why wouldn’t you?
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