The growing popularity of mental health awareness during the past school year because of COVID has in a way helped students.
As more people are growing aware of mental health, the meaning of the word has changed to something greater.
“Mental health is the condition of someone’s emotional well-being, each person has different experiences and different lively routines that can affect that individual’s mental health greatly,” sophomore Harris Breyonci said.
Growth in mental health awareness has made everyone ‘hyped’ about it and open up to it.
“Mental health ‘hype’ is a result of the fact that open acceptance and research on these conditions has led to more discussion of them. Although mass information can hinder clarity, it has also brought many of these issues into the light where they can finally be treated,” senior Chase Pyne said.
With the growing attention being afforded mental health topics, some think it’s not getting the proper attention it needs.
“I think it’s something that needs to be paid more attention to,” senior Gillian
Modler said. “
“I think it’s good that people are starting to be more aware and understanding of mental health and the great affect it can have on others. However people are also glamorizing mental illness as if it is a cute and quirky thing to show off to your friends which gives people with actual mental illnesses a bad reputation, causing people to assume that they are faking their illnesses and not allowing them to get the correct treatments,” Harris said.
When people think about mental health, most think depression and anxiety but it’s so much more than that.
“There are plenty of mental illnesses. Some have cures and treatments while others don’t, for example the most commonly known mental illnesses are depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, PTSD, and many more,” Harris said.
The hype that mental health is getting some people are abusing it which causes problems for the people that really need help.
“I think it’s good that people are starting to be more aware and understanding of mental health and the great affect it can have on others. However people are also glamorizing mental illness as if it is a cute and quirky thing to show off to your friends which gives people with actual mental illnesses a bad reputation, causing people to assume that they are faking their illnesses and not allowing them to get the correct treatments,” Harris said.
People with mental health problems need to remember that it can’t always be good there will be down times too. There just needs to be a stable amount of good and bad.
“Yin and Yang, you have to have a balanced mind,” senior Sage Lujan said.
Mental health is as important as physical health and physical wounds.
“I’m always reminded of the time I heard some call them our ‘unseen wounds’,” Pyne said.