Mental Health Awareness

By V. Machado

Mental health refers to a person’s well-being including its psychological, social, and emotional aspects. It affects everything: how we act, feel, and deal with emotions. Many things impact mental health, ranging from genes to life experiences and traumas. There are various illnesses which are the root of mental health, such as, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
Despite being present in everyone’s life, there is a ‘taboo’ involved with mental health and its disorders. The stigma associated with it has many negative impacts on those who suffer from any related disorder, they are usually pushed and ‘forced’ to suffer alone without anyone’s support. This can, not only, have negative impacts on the social aspect of one’s life, but also, on the psychological part. Mental Health Awareness is a social effort pushing to break these negative taboos about mental health disorders and allow it to become a normal conversation to be held. This is done in many ways, including sharing of personal anecdotes, to enhance the fact that no one should suffer in silence. This movement doesn’t only promote awareness, but it also allows people to have more chances at getting help for what they need.
There are countless benefits of mental health awareness to an individual and the society. It spreads knowledge about the topic and slowly breaks the stigma associated with it, opening up more channels of communication and understanding. Moreover, it provides a sense of unity and clarity between people, allowing those who suffer from disorders to understand their feelings and feel understood by the people around them.