World MH Day: What do you wish more people knew about mental health?

I sincerely wish that people knew that therapy isn't just for schizophrenics, or war vets. Mental health is for everyone-- it's just like going to a doctor for a physical.

I wish more people knew that invisible illnesses are just as real as the flu or pneumonia.

lemme try to organize my thoughts......

because of a certain online community that i'm in, this comes to mind... that depression isn't an excuse. it's an actual reason. some of the people in that group would probably call a coma "just an excuse to be lazy"

that cleaning, for me, is not as simple and easy as "look around for what needs to be done and just do it" and that me not cleaning does not mean i "like living in filth"

that just because YOU don't have the problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist, or you having been through so much worse doesn't make all 'lessor problems' nonexistent

that social anxiety is not always this strange irrational thing, but can come from actual past experiences

also i don't like how some 'mental health help' seems to imply that you're just automatically wrong if you have any sort of negative thoughts. went through one of the things on this site and it's just like 'here you have to select the blantantly correct choice to proceed.. you have to think in exactly the way we say'

depression isn't sadness. its the constant feeling of emptiness and numbness, either eating too much or too little, sleeping all day or not sleeping for days, lacking concentration, wanting to distance yourself from everyone you love, never feeling enough for anyone and just an overall overwhelming feeling of heaviness upon you at all times. but we are trying our hardest everyday too get better and i wish people realised this isnt our fault and we are really are trying.

I wish people knew that you can

I would like people to know that mental health is a very important issue. Everyone faces some kind of issue in their life, and there should never be judgement about that.

@Kate I wish more people knew just how brave others are for even venturing out of their beds. I wish more people understood how challenging little things can become, how quickly and easy it is to lose yourself in a tidal wave of emotions. I wish people knew to be kind to themselves and others because you never know what people are dealing with.

I want people to know that mental health is more important than grades, work, achievement, etc. Being the best I can be doesn't always mean economically or acedemically successful. I would rather have a regular job with a decent wage and be emotionally stable than to own a large company and be utterly devastated. The big achievments are only possible through small steps. I try to remind myself that when someone tries to put me down for "not doing enough" or "being incapable". Sorry if I started rambling, this is something that I struggle a lot with on a day-to day basis

Alrighty, I'll stop now haha

@Kate

I wish that people realized that we cannot control our illness.

@Kate I wish that people knew that a mental health illness doesn't look EXACTLY the SAME for everyone. My panic attacks will not be the same as the next person's.