Antonia Rodriguez

We need to have a real talk. I feel like this topic of conversation has gone around and around, especially in the last two years, and yet there is still no easy way to approach it. It’s a little embarrassing, possibly awkward, and even painful for some. I believe it is my duty to bring more awareness and ease the stigma around this important topic as someone who has experienced the struggle first hand.

We need to have a mental health talk.

First, I’d like to let it be known that I know what it is like to take that first terrifying step of admitting that you might need help. This help might come in the form of talking to a counselor, taking medication, or just seeking an ally who can lend an ear and their time. But asking anyone for help may seem daunting, especially if you are a pretty independent person otherwise, and that was a big hurdle that I had to get over in order to start my own journey to complete health.

The fear of being judged for having or struggling with a mental illness is what makes most people stay silent. The fear of being perceived as a burden makes people stay quiet. The fear of being associated with words that have been portrayed to have a negative connotation makes people shrug off real issues that can be worked through.

This stigma needs to change now.

Second, I’d like to offer some advice to anyone that might need it: Do your own research. I mean it. (And no – I’m not talking about WebMD.) Look up actual definitions of words like anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. Understand the differences between nervousness and anxiety, sadness and depression.

Personally, I watched documentaries. Mauro Ranallo’s documentary on Showtime, “Bipolar Rock’n’Roller”, was such an eye-opening thing for me because he is someone that I personally admire in a field that I would love to work in. He was open and raw with his experiences battling his bipolar disorder, in a time where they didn’t know what it was, and was honest. That’s what I appreciated the most. Recovery is a relative term, which a lot of people like to throw around in my opinion, when talking about mental health. It is a long journey with sometimes no set end.

Research, to me, means to gain knowledge about things that you aren’t familiar with. I think everyone should do more research on the topic of mental health. Part of erasing the stigma is becoming well informed about these issues. For someone who isn’t directly affected by mental health issues, statistics would say that someone around you most likely is. By getting informed, you would become a more reliable advocate for those who need it. If mental health issues affect you, then gaining knowledge will show that you are not alone. To me, that has been a fact that has allowed me to breath a little bit easier.

Lastly, it will take a handful of strong people who speak out about their own struggles and introduce the topic of conversation more openly. By making mental health an “accepted topic of conversation”, more people will talk about it. This is about creating safe spaces for people to admit that they might not have every aspect of their life together at any given moment. I believe our society today creates this environment where it is impossible to admit that you aren’t perfect and that you don’t have your stuff together all the time. That is the environment where these mental illnesses flourish and grow, rather than become manageable. That is the environment we need to change before we have any chance of reducing the number of people we lose every year to the struggle of mental illnesses.

I have anxiety and depression; it’s unfortunate how they sometime come as a package deal. I have been talking with a counselor who is great and has truly helped me in many ways for almost six months. Some days are better than others but everyday is a battle. It’s so hard to retrain your own mind to not be an enemy, but I have found reasons that make it important to do so even when it might be easier to succumb. I opened up to a select few of people that I feel comfortable talking to but it’s still difficult to actually talk. It’s still hard. My hope is that one day it won’t be this hard for us to talk about our realities. Maybe one day.