Approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year.
Almost 9 in every 100 suffer with generalised anxiety disorder and depression. Here's what some of them want you to know:
1. I'm not "attention seeking".
"Quite the opposite actually – I hate attention. Please don't give me any, that's what I'm scared of."
- Connor, 21.
"Things like self harm aren't for others' benefit. Sometimes it isn't even a cry for help, let alone attention. It can be a release of frustration and an escape."
- Terri, 20.
2. Not everyone with mental illness is the same.
"Not every mental illness itself is the same. We're all different people, with different struggles. We have different coping mechanisms and different triggers. Just because something works a certain way for one person doesn't mean it will work that way for all."
- Connor, 21.
"Yes, I "look normal". Every person's mental health is unique, even those that suffer with mental illness might fail to comprehend another's."
- Terri, 20.
"It affects everyone differently. It can even affect you differently on different days; some days I can handle it as if it isn't there and others I feel like a prisoner in my own mind and body."
- Carys, 20.
3. It's not my fault. I didn't choose this.
"Believe me, if I could choose, I certainly wouldn't choose this."
- Connor, 21.
"I don't want to be this way. Telling someone with a mental health condition to "snap out of it" or "be happy" doesn't help. In fact, it makes them feel worse and even more alone. It's really hard and sometimes impossible to take control of it."
- Carys, 20.
4. What I'm showing on the outside isn't always what's going on inside.
"I can be "normal" to hide how I'm really feeling. I'm trying to not let people to know because it's embarrassing."
- Connor, 21.
"You can't "see" if someone is mentally ill. Just because everything looks okay doesn't mean it is."
- Terri, 20.
"Just because mental illnesses are easy to ignore doesn't mean they should be ignored."
- Carys, 20.
5. Not everybody "has those days" like I have them.
"Yes, everybody feels emotion. No, not everybody suffers with a mental illness."
- Connor, 21.
"People say they understand because "everybody feels down sometimes", but they really don't even know the half of it."
- Carys, 20.
6. It doesn't "make you evil", by the way.
"The media needs to stop excusing crimes by justifying that the guilty party suffers with mental illness. Having a mental health issue doesn't mean you're a terrible, scary person. Don't associate purposely bad people with people that can't help how they are, who aren't even a threat to anybody."
- Connor, 21.
7. I'm not lazy!
"There are days when your whole body and brain can just feel numb to the point you can't even do the things you enjoy. That isn't laziness. Sometimes, I have to try very hard to get through basic everyday life. I don't like having panic attacks, so if I want to avoid them for my own sake, please don't assume that I'm lazy."
- Connor, 21.
8. I do have "something to be sad about" actually.
"I once had someone say to me:"You're pretty, what have you got to be sad about?"
I'll never forget that comment. To think something as shallow as looks could play a role in apparently curing your mental illness."
- Terri, 20.
9. My mental illness doesn't make me weak.
"I'm practically fighting with myself all the time. From the second I wake up to the second I go to sleep, I have to combat something in my own head to live the life I want. Is that weak?"
- Connor, 21.
"I am far stronger than people understand. With mental illness, you're fighting for yourself to live a normal life and continue moving forward everyday."
- Carys, 20.
10. I'm still me.
"My mental illness is just a part of me, but it doesn't define me."
- Connor, 21.
"Please don't let it make you love me any less."
- Carys, 20.
Headline image by The People Speak! (CC BY 2.0)
