Deming 1

Kelsey Deming

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp Pd.4

1 October 2021

College Application Narrative

Mental health is a topic that is often overlooked or generalized. Mental health is

constantly evolving and there is always more to learn about it, which makes it captivating to me.

Almost everyone has been affected by mental health in their life, both positively and negatively.

People must not only deal with their own mental health, but their peers’ as well.

Personally, my mother deals with bipolar disorder. This disorder is commonly understood

by having a large quantity of mood changes that affect the person’s emotional stability and

connection, and their ability to function in daily life. Most people do not truly understand how it

works. Certain life changes can throw people with this disorder out of their normal routine,

which can cause the extreme highs and lows, commonly referred to as episodes. The episodes

can last throughout periods of days, weeks, or months. These mood episodes not only cause

plenty of stress on the individual themselves, but their family and friends as well. Recently, my

mother went through one of these episodes, which spiked my interest to become more involved

and educated about mental health.

These episodes are often extremely difficult to cope with for both the person in the

episode, and their support system. For the person with the disorder, it can be hard to find ways to

deal with it, but therapy is often helpful. Talking to someone they are close with can seem like a
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relief or a burden. People with bipolar disorder are not able to understand why they feel the way

they do, and sometimes they would rather not talk because they feel like an annoyance to their

loved ones. Psychiatrists are able to help because they can prescribe medications or adjust

previous medications that can help decrease the episodes’ severity, and they can help the families

discuss and understand the disorder.

There are hundreds of different types of mental health disorders; however, most of them

are often linked to another, or people tend to have multiple at the same time. This can make it

hard to diagnose an individual because some of the symptoms are similar to another. It is also

hard to diagnose someone because not everyone experiences the same symptoms or symptoms of

the same severity. Unlike regular health care, where diseases and other problems have general

signs and symptoms, mental health is not the same. Numerous mental health disorders are

affected by environmental factors, home life, and age. Traumatic experiences can entirely shift

one’s mindset and the way he or she is able to function and feel. Some mental health disorders

have the ability of being treated, but almost never cured. This is interesting to me because it

describes how the brain responds, and it emphasizes the uniqueness of everyone in the way their

brain reacts to routine or change.

Considering the circumstances the world is enduring right now, countless people are

experiencing issues with their mental health. The isolation and time spent alone can force

someone to learn more about themselves, for better or worse. This just emphasizes the

importance of maintaining a good mental health.

Throughout the US, suicide rates have been increasing yearly since 2007. Since 1999, the

suicide rate has increased by 35%. This outlines that throughout the years, mental health issues
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have become more of a severity, and it shows how important it is to understand not only your

own mental health, but your peers’ as well.

Mental health is a significantly important factor in everyone’s life, making it an important

subject to understand. This is particularly interesting to me because although it affects everyone,

it doesn’t affect everyone in the same ways, therefore making it difficult to understand. Since it

is a complicated subject, it is vastly consuming to try to fully understand it, especially in a way

that could allow me to help someone else to understand it.