Blog 3 - Mental Health

    

    A big thing that I learnt from the self quiz was that suicide was the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 15-34 in the USA (Quiz - Mental Health - CDC 2018). I know that suicide is a big killer and that a lot of people die each year from suicide but I was not aware that it ranked so highly in the cause of death polls. I also found out that half of all mental illness occurs before the age of 14 and that 3/4 of mental health occurs before the age of 24 (Quiz - Mental Health - CDC 2018). It was really shocking and upsetting to learn that at the tender age of 14 some children are facing mental battles that are challenging even for mature adults. It is heart breaking that mental health is as underrated as it is. I was a little less surprised to learn that 3/4 of mental illness occurs before the age of 24. For me personally 17-20 were some of the most mentally tough years of my life. From graduating high school to working and going to college, moving away from home, all these big changes and new stressors in my life caused my mental health to decline. I know this is similar for a lot of people in this age bracket and I think more mental health resources need to be available to people during these big transitions. 

    Yes I have known many people with mental illness. I have seen Anxiety disorder take a free spirited and happy individual and turn them into someone I didn't even recognize. They went from being a super productive individual who could run errands, keep a house hold, juggle multiple tasks at once, enjoyed exercise and going to do things, to someone who preferred to stay home, or not stay out too long, who didn't have the energy to workout and was scared to go out in fears that something bad would happen to them or their family. Someone who would have panic attacks that threw her into fits of rage and have her yelling at the people she loved the most, not because she wanted to but because she was sick. She had people tell her to fix herself before she lost everyone she loved but not many people were willing to help her do that. She lost friends because they thought she was too busy for them but in reality she was just drowning in her mental health, trying to juggle everything on her plate and feeling very alone. It was heart breaking to watch someone I loved so much suffer so badly and not know how to help her. 

    From knowing this person with Anxiety disorder I have learnt that it is not just a mental illness that people use for attention. I have learnt that it's not just something that someone can wish away, it takes a lot of work and whilst a lot of people run from individuals with mental health issues in fears of making things worse or saying the wrong thing, what they really need is for us to run towards them. To help them out of the hole that they are in, sometimes all it takes is for someone to sit with you in the middle of an Anxiety attack and tell you that they're here and they have you. We need more people like that in this world. There is no cure for Anxiety disorder and I have to check on this individual daily but she's doing really well right now, all she needed was to know that someone cared and was willing to listen. 

                                                                             Citations

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, January 26). Quiz - Mental Health - CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/quiz/index.htm.