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Facade

By: Anna M.

2nd · Middle School Writing (2018)

Have you ever felt like you were alone, even if you were in a crowded room? Like it wouldn’t matter if you were there or not? Well for people dealing with mental illness, these are recurring thoughts. Mental illness comes in many forms and affects a wide variety of people.

Mental illness has a stigma around it telling sufferers that they are just seeking attention. This keeps people from asking for help because they don’t want people to judge them. To me, People suffering with mental illness are brave. They fight their battle alone. They choose to keep fighting.

Mental illness is like a storm. It’s dark and gloomy for a while, then it leaves, bringing along with it the good weather, but it comes back. Many people seem to think that you can control your illness, but your illness controls you; you can’t just turn it off. How are you supposed to escape your own thoughts?

I’ve always been an outlet for people suffering. It’s helped me realize that so many people suffer, but they are also scared to get help. Mental illness means acting like you’re okay. It’s means sleeping all the time in order to escape your thoughts. It means putting on a fake smile so that people think you’re happy, putting up a wall to protect yourself from the pain of reality. Depression isn’t just being sad. Anxiety isn’t just being nervous. Eating disorders aren’t just being scared of food. Mental illness is laying in bed, wondering why you’re not good enough.

Mental illnesses aren’t things that should be taken lightly, but we don’t talk about it out of fear of making others uncomfortable. We should act now to get sufferers help. Unfortunately for some, people only realize there’s a problem when it’s too late.

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