May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In addition to the signature sets I'd like to start a discussion revolving around mental health. Having a mental illness often means fighting alone. Sometimes this can be a person choice, more often it stems from feelings that there is no one around for support or if one were to ask then it would be taken as weak or that it would just be a burden to another.
I want to open the floor here, to discuss whatever it is that you wish. Tell stories of your struggles if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe you have a way to cope that you want to suggest to others. Or we can discuss some of the illnesses themselves. Whatever we discuss, please remember this is a sensitive topic to many and the point here is to raise awareness not only for the issues themselves, but also to raise awareness that there are many of us here dealing with these.
I suppose I want to start by sharing something a professor shared in a class with us once. I can't for the life of me remember what the class was or what it was even about, but this video was eye opening and I've never forgotten it. It's just a short PSA type commercial.
Spoiler: Video
At the time I'd never thought about anorexia or bulimia in such a way. That it was a mental illness. That it was literally a mental thing where those suffering LITERALLY SEE themselves overweight, even when it's not true. I'll admit I'd always thought it was a result of peer pressure of wanting to fit into society's norms, though I'm sure there's a little to do with that, but to see that it was a mental thing was not something I'd ever considered.
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