School of Thought: Mental health treatment for all
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STUDENT INTRO: This week's School of Thought was written by Parkersburg South High School sophomore, Gabriel Rice and is a follow up to last week's submission. Gabriel enjoys drumming and plays drums as a member of the Parkersburg South Marching Band. He also enjoys playing basketball, writing and traveling.
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Mental health: one of the hardest topics to talk about today. I would like to take the time to share some personal experiences, facts, viewpoints, and support for those who are suffering at the hands of ignorance, and neglect of their own mental health.
The mind is something very beautiful. We've used it to create massive structures, inventions that have completely changed how we function as a society, devices that have made our lives much easier, and so many more things that we've done with our brains. With that, though, comes the part of the mind that can get dark. See, mental health and everything that is incorporated into that term can be good and bad. The bad is what we're working to fix as a society, the bad thoughts, and bad actions.
One of the big problems with understanding mental health today is that it also is not specific to any certain race, gender, culture, or group. Again, we all handle our own situations differently, but our mental health matters the same. I most commonly hear about men's mental health being undermined, and while that's true we cannot forget to still contribute to building up other people's wellbeing. As a man myself, I have felt weak in years prior due to opening about my mental health and showing emotion when other people make me feel like I shouldn't open up. That is one of the most dangerous things you can say or do to anyone, not just men. The important thing goes back to everyone's mental health mattering the same, instead of pushing for men to open up more and be more emotional, just say everyone. "Everyone can open up, everyone can be emotional" sounds a lot more inclusive than "Men can open up, men can be emotional." Using the second phrase looks revolutionary and inclusive, but it's basically dressing up.
This is going to sound controversial, but all major rights movements look like they worked so well because people saw it start, went into the streets, and stuck up for the cause. The same is happening for men's mental health. People started seeing the push for it and decided to listen to peer pressure. In reality, we should be trying to fix all mental health at once. If we only say men can open, that sets everything up for failure at the beginning. If we instead say that everyone can open up, it doesn't attract attention to any particular group, we're more focused on fixing the equality issue in general rather than fixing negative attention toward a single group, and it sets us up to succeed at the very beginning.
The brain is so complex and beautiful, but it can also be the death of us. For example, the brain sends a message to raise your hand in class before you even formulate the thought of why you're putting your hand up. The way our mind can torment us, though, is the same way that bullies target who they want to bully. It's a predator/prey system. Bullies find someone smaller, then separate them from the pack, then strike. It's the same with mental health. In this case, your own brain is your predator AND prey. Your mind can find a minor insecurity in the deep dark pit of thoughts, separate it into the spotlight, focus on and torment you over it, and when it's finished, you'll hate something about yourself that you hadn't thought of since you were six.
We can help treat these insecurities and other mental health issues with so many different kinds of support and treatments. For one, there's therapy. Coming from almost four years of personal experience, it's worth it. When you open up and tell your therapist what's wrong, you'll no doubt get better. On the other hand, it won't help you at all if you sit there and say nothing. There's also support groups, just talking it out with your peers, medication, and even inpatient hospitals for when it's severe. At the end of the day, we've come a very long way from where we started in terms of the progression of mental health in our society, but we still have a long way to go. All we can do right now is keep pushing forward and keep up what we're doing.
One final thing, anyone that's reading this that is suffering right now, you're not alone and will never be alone. Please, find some form of treatment that can help you. I know it's scary being in a mental rabbit hole, but you can dig yourself out. I believe in you.