The week of March 21st through 25th is known at Michigan State University as Mental Health Awareness week. To bring awareness to the monolithic disease, the University puts on events during the week to aid and help people suffering from mental health issues. However, after taking a gander at these events the first reaction I have is: “Why are they all during class periods, and how is ‘community coloring’ and relaxing at a planetarium going to aid me in battling this bastard of an illness?!”
This was my first reaction, one of frustration and contempt, and only to add to this I then viewed an info graphic showing me that 50% of students rate their mental health at average or poor. If you’re thinking it stops there, you better put a helmet on because I’m gonna throw some more statistics at your head. From left to right on the info graphic it reads: 1 in 4 students reported having suicidal thoughts or feelings, and another 1 in 4 of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have a diagnosable mental illness.
It is tragic that we only designate a week to deal with the issue of mental health. The previous statistics illustrate that it will not take a week, or even a year for that matter to deal with this issue. So why in the name of God are we only dedicating a week to this epidemic (I call it an epidemic because it is one, if 1 in 4 people reported having Zika the whole damn United States would implode)?
We can not allow our youth to suffer from the continuous nightmare that is mental illness, we can not allow our future generations to go day to day wondering if this one will be the day they let their illness win (because we are all too familiar with the end result). It is not enough that we are just “aware.”
Many of you at this point are probably wondering: “Well if it is that bad why don’t people go get help with it.” Well that my dear reader is precisely the issue with this fickle illness, it makes you believe that no amount of therapy, no amount of talking, no amount of medication will alleviate the pain and agony. It is not enough for us to simply acknowledge that this exists, it is not enough to put on silly events.
What we really ought to do as a school, and a society as a whole is allow people who are plagued with this disease to come forward and share their pain, share their grief, and realize that it is not uncommon for these kinds of thoughts to occur. In fact as stated by the facts above it seems very prevalent.
Do not judge the friend who feels like there is no hope, do not deny another person’s pain based solely on the fact that you can not see it, do not label or vilify those who seem ‘crazy’ or ‘insane.’ Because inside their head there is a war raging that we could not even fathom. Their is a daily battle of choosing to get out of bed, of choosing to participate in daily life when it could just be easier to give up and leave it all behind.
For those of you fighting: do not quit. For those of you who feel hopeless and alone: you are not alone, because you may walk alone but I am right there with you. All you need to do is tell a friend, a mentor, or anyone caring enough to listen and they will join you in your fight. Do not feel afraid.
Signed,
A Fellow Fighter
wilbblog 
Ok, so a couple of things:
1) Mental Health Awareness Week is not put on by the university. It is put on by student organizations. So, that’s why it’s a bunch of events. We can’t fund massive campus wide mental health care with the student government. Especially when so many suffer from mental illness.
2) MHAW is not just for those suffering. It is to bring awareness to the issue for those that don’t know how many of their peers suffer or what it’s like. It is to start conversations. It is to get a big campus-wide push so that it is on everyone’s mind as opposed to the more easily ignorable little thing this week, little thing next week.
3) MHAW planners wanted to make sure that we promote mental health for everyone, not just those with mental illness. Coloring is stress relieving. I didn’t plan that event, but I do own a coloring book and it’s good.
4) I’ve been depressed too. For several years. But let’s not act like mental illness = depression. There are lots, and anxiety disorders are also a bitch.
5) MHAW is going into its third year and it has really opened up campus conversations, given students a way to show that they support their suffering peers with shirts and ribbons, raised awareness of campus resources, raised awareness and publicity of the issue that we were then able to leverage for more money to be given to the underfunded counseling center, and given students a platform and opportunity to speak out about what it’s like to have mental illnesses and how it does not define them. So, I’d say it’s done a lot of good.
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Thank you for your comments, I really do appreciate them. The post was not meant to slight any student organizations that put on events on campus. I just wanted to bring up the fact that there can be, and should be more done to help people suffering from this terrible terrible epidemic.
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