The term “normal” can have a variety of meanings. Crying when you’re sad is considered to be normal. Laughing when you’re happy is considered normal. Yet, if you have a chronic condition that makes you cry and feel down the majority of the time, then you aren’t “normal.”
You aren’t “normal” if you hear voices, see things that no one else sees, need things to be in a specific order, feel very little joy in your life, worry about everything and how that might affect you and if you need to find help in taboo ways such as medications or inpatient admission.
If you take medications, you are crazy. You have something wrong with you. If you have to get admitted into a safe space to keep yourself safe, then you clearly have something wrong with your brain. I mean, isn’t mental health contagious?
If you think that any of what I said above is true, then I believe you are the one who isn’t normal.
“Millions of people are affected by mental illness each year,” according to an article by the National Alliance of Mental Health. “Across the country, many people just like you work, perform, create, compete, laugh, love and inspire every day. 16.5% of U.S. youth aged 6-17 experienced a mental health disorder in 2016 (7.7 million people).”
Currently, 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. suffer from a mental health disorder. That makes 22.8% of the adult population in America, which is 57.8 million people.
So, when you look at the larger picture, I guess mental disorders are normal. If they impact 57.8 million people, then mental health shouldn’t be a hushed subject…right?
Mental health is normal, thus we can talk freely about it without getting weird looks or assumptions made about us.
At least that’s the way it should be. But is it that way in reality? No. It’s in fact the complete opposite.
“More than half of people with mental illness don’t receive help for their disorders,” an article by the American Psychiatric Association read. “Often, people avoid or delay seeking treatment due to concerns about being treated differently or fears of losing their jobs and livelihood. That’s because stigma, prejudice and discrimination against people with mental illness are still very much a problem.”
Many teens are currently scared to talk to their parents about what they’re going through in fear of being invalidated and treated like they’re no longer human beings. I know that when I told my parents what I was feeling, they started treating me like a porcelain doll that can crack and break any second.
It shouldn’t be that way. When a teen tells someone what they are feeling, they shouldn’t be met with a face that tells them they aren’t normal. That they should either “walk it off” or “ignore it.”
In our post-COVID-19 world, it’s important to recognize that there was a rise in mental health disorders as a result of the pandemic..
According to the World Health Organization, “In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%.”
You also need to keep in mind that in this post-pandemic world, the cost of insurance and health care has increased significantly to the point that people can no longer afford to see a doctor for the flu.
With the influx of mental health disorders, many people are being prevented from getting medications and the help they need in order to feel “normal.”
Even writing the word “normal” makes me cringe. People who feel depressed shouldn’t be seen as broken or dramatic. People with schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder (DID) shouldn’t be seen as insane. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or severe anxiety shouldn’t be seen as weird.
Instead, all of that should be seen as normal.
In case you didn’t know, the brain is a very sensitive yet powerful organ.
“[The brain] makes up only two percent of our body weight, but it consumes 20% of the oxygen we breathe and 20% of the energy we take in,” according to the National Library of Medicine. “It controls virtually everything we as humans experience. Hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions occur every second in the brain; those reactions underlie the thoughts, actions and behaviors with which we respond to environmental stimuli. In short, the brain dictates the internal processes and behaviors that allow us to survive.”
It is unknown to doctors why mental health disorders arise in so much of the population, but if you think back to how sensitive the brain is, anything could change the DNA of our brains.
When we have depression or anxiety, the DNA in our brains is actually altering who we are. We don’t know why this happens, but when looking back at past data, the fact that 57.8 million adults experience this alteration proves that it’s very common.
There are probably more than just 57.8 million people with changing DNA in their brains. Many people just don’t want to say what they feel, however, because of the stigma of it.
I guess my main point is to say that just because you have a mental illness, that doesn’t mean you’re broken. You’re not insane, crazy, nuts or weird.
You are normal.
Anyone who says otherwise needs to understand this.
