It’s surprising how ignorant the people in my country are about mental illnesses. Im not sure why.

Rewind to when I was 15. Weirdly enough, I stumbled upon depression. Info about it, not the actual depression itself. Note: I stumbled upon it. Stumbled. And I was curious. This isn’t in our national (blasted, if I may say) curriculum. I had heard of depression, but as I dug in deeper, I uncovered a lot of things I’d hardly known, or even bothered to think about. Reasons, causes, feelings of a person with depression. Not the general they-went-through-something-so-they’re-in utter-sadness-part. A lot more.

For some reason, I was hooked. I’d discovered a gap in my knowledge. I knew nothing about mental illnesses and emotional health, and from what I gathered from kidshealth.org, I should be knowing. Teens, they said, go through a lot of these things. Intrigued, I dug deeper. That’s when I realized that this knowledge was crucial. And we should all be knowing the basics of these. If not for ourselves, for the people around us.

That month I learned about all sorts of things about emotional health and mental illnesses. I was in a school with a population of over 2000 kids, and there was a good number who did “messed up” things. The most common issue among that I found to be disturbing among my peers was cutting. And the way people judged it.

The more I read about it, the more I began to understand them and realize that judging them was totally wrong. People who cut aren’t asking for attention. It is their relief. It may be hard to grasp, but they are in a lot of hurt, and that gives them solace. Relief. Proven scientifically. When you’re injured, endorphins are released. Endorphins are also the “happy hormones.” That’s what relieves them. They convert their emotional hurt into physical hurt. It’s the only thing they can think of doing. You can think of a whole page of other things they could do, but at that time, their thinking was clouded. They weren’t thinking straight.

Rather than pointing fingers at them, or being disgusted with them, or thinking they’re just plain insane and asking for attention, reach out to them.

That’s what they need. Someone who cares. Someone to unload their emotional burden on. They are shy to reach out to talk to someone. Most people don’t even think they have anyone out there who’d listen. Go up to them. Just let them know that you are there for them, and they can always talk to you. Let them lean on you. Give them a hug. Let them trust you. And when they do, talk to them about cutting.

I remember reaching out to several girls after that. People don’t really tell you when you’ve had an impact on their life, unless you are buddies. But one did, and I could tell the others were grateful to have someone who understood and not judged. And not just people I knew, but strangers too. People need people. Be nice enough to be that one who spares the time to help out.

And then there’s schizophrenia. It’s insulting the way the“civilized” people I know treat them. Cast them aside. Push them out.
It’s not meant to be that way. People think that people with schizophrenia are insane and dangerous. You don’t stop to think how frightening it must be to hear voices in your head that don’t belong anywhere. How frightening it must be to see things that don’t make sense. How awful it must feel to think of yourself as someone who isn’t able to look at things the way the rest of the world does.

And let me tell you something: They have jobs, have families, have normal lives. Above all, they have feelings. Just like you. In fact, exactly like you. They aren’t ignorant, or any other label you might slap on them. And they would keep having normal lives, if you didn’t point fingers at them and whisper and avoid them like they’re madmen. With medication, you could hardly tell the difference between them and anyone else. They might do something offhand once in a way, or maybe regularly, but treat them human. They weren’t in control of themselves at that time.

Although there are psychotic and non-psychotic cases of illnesses. Some people have absolutely no control over what they do. Some. Some. They could harm you. But it is extremely unlikely that you’ll meet them. They’ll be found in facilities where they are being held and treated. Know it, but don’t let it be something that makes you shrink away from people with mental illnesses.

People with Anorexia. So you think she’s skipping meals because she’s so obsessed with herself? Maybe, or maybe its just low self esteem, and the bad image of herself, and her head that keeps telling her she’s too fat, even if she isn’t.

It’s all in the head.

Clinical depression. Not the little one all of us go through. The more serious one, that if left to be, can grow and keep growing, till it takes their life. So you think they’re just faking it when they sit alone at that party? And you think that she’s gone all weird when that friend just doesn’t hang out anymore? No. They’re in a dark place. Somewhere you would know is horrible. It’s like there isn’t a hope in the world. Nowhere they could go to escape, nobody they could talk to. It’s not pretty inside their head.

Talk to them. Identify issues. Help them out of it. Or understand it, so you can get along with them. It’s not too difficult to try to understand something. Depression is one of the biggest mental health issues out there. Wouldn’t you know, with the rate of suicide in this god-forsaken country you live in. (no offense, country. I love you. But it was a good line, wasn’t it?)

One more thing to think about: here’s what it would look like if you treated physical illnesses the way you treat mental illnesses right now

Something that many of us, the people of Sri Lanka, don’t get is mental and emotional issues. Im not sure why.

’Course, they don’t have it in our curriculum. Personally, I think that this should be taught with more importance that algebra or history. This helps you with life. I can tell you many things that need changing in our national curriculum, but just not now.

Maybe it’s because when someone is afflicted with this sort of a thing, all our people associate their superstitious, deep religious and cultural beliefs with it. To explain:
When they, the people, see someone behaving in an unheard of way, or doing things out of norm, they have no idea why people do so. There’s this gap in their knowledge. They don’t know anything about this. All they know is that this person isn’t normal. Or so they think. Assume. This country of ours, it’s a beautiful country, and it has all sorts of vibrant beliefs, customs, cultures and mysterious superstitions. But these superstitions and such, mysterious and somewhat fascinating they may be, may be the ground that people use to misunderstand mental illnesses by associating it with being possessed or any such thing. Well, maybe.

I don’t know. I can only assume myself. All I know is that education about this needs spreading. It needs to come into our lives, so that we learn to recognize it when we encounter. So that we can help. So that we can reach out. So that we can medicate, and treat. Medications exist. Therapy exists. With good reason. It’s not disgraceful to go see a shrink. It’s for your own good. Stop judging those who do. Wouldn’t you go to see a doctor if you were sick? And if you do need therapy, for goodness’ sake, go out there and treat yourself. Your life is only going to get better.

The difference between physical illnesses and mental ones is that the mental ones are harder to see. And they don’t go away that easily. But they need treating.

You see the suicide rates out there? And the way they blame facebook for it? Bloody crap, facebook is a website. Those kids didn’t know how to deal with their emotions. Maybe they could have been saved, had they known how to reach out for help, and if they had school counselors to talk to.

You could bring that suicide rate down. Educate yourself and reach out to them. Don’t bring them down by judging and casting them aside.

Let’s get rid of this social stigma. We can do something about it. All of us. I can’t do it alone. Lord help me, Im only an 18 year old with a raging-hormone life to get back to.

Just treat them human.