The Truths of Mental Health in Society

By: Maria Canoy

The topic of understanding and treating mental health is indispensable to everyone. Even
then, I’ve noticed numerous problems with the way that mental health is perceived, reacted to,
and handled. My advocacy, “Truths of Mental Health in Society,” aims to shed a light on these
issues that are important to me.
Mental health is a concept and idea that has only been actively presented and received just
a few years ago. Prior to that, resources and information were scarce. Even if society has been
making efforts to further understand more and educate people about these issues, many stigmas
and misconceptions and much misinformation and discrimination still persist. It is evident that
way more support, love, resources, and encouragement have been garnered in the past years
regarding this social cause, but even then, oftentimes many numerous mental health issues,
illnesses, and disorders are portrayed in a way that does more harm than good. Even if the image
and reality of a person dealing with mental health issues is inherently negative, many times it is
portrayed in a way that shuns the person, stigmatizes the illness or disorder presented, and
discriminates both the illness and the victim in a way that makes it even harder for them to
receive love, support, and most importantly, the proper help.
Just from a few searches alone, we can already make an image in our head about just how
depressing the situation is. Just from simple articles on the internet alone, we can learn that at
least 50% of adults in the US get diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetime, and that 1 in 5
Americans develop a mental illness within a year [1]. In the same way, 1 in 5 children have
experienced a seriously debilitating mental illness in their life [1], and at least 46% of suicides
are attributed to mental health issues [2]. Alongside these harrowing pieces of information, there
are many factors that contribute to untreated mental illness, such as the cost of treatment as well
as stigma, lack of support, and discrimination. Only a few groups of people have treatment
percentages that surpass 50%, but the more marginalized’s percentages can go as far down as
21% [3]. Even then, we can’t know for sure that we’ve managed to document all known accounts
of mental illness, as some people don’t open up out of fear and even die without having ever
made it known. As Stowe (2021) put it, “The prevalence of stigma and discrimination toward
people with mental illness makes it difficult to have a transparent conversation about how we
feel.” [4]. And the reason for this is that society still has yet to completely understand and
sympathize with sufferers of mental illness, and sometimes even their own personal beliefs,
traditions, ideals, mindsets, and thinkings contradict that of the logic of whatever the mental
health victim is dealing with. Human society as a whole being has yet to fully provide mental
health support, facilities, awareness, and transparency completely, which should be taken into
account when considering accounts of both diagnosed and undiagnosed, treated and untreated
mental illness.
 In accordance with the percentage of mental health amongst children, I would like to
address the problems that I have dealt with in this regard. There have been numerous periods of
time over the past two years when I’ve had to deal with issues regarding my own mental health. I
coped with it in some ways that were harmful, and even then, I never told anyone about it. I dealt
with my own demons alone, and they still haunt me occasionally from month to month. Now
imagine that, but on a way more dreadful and tragic scale, happening every single day.
Afterwards, extend that to at least a tenth of our global population, which is a tenth too much of
unnecessary suffering that people have to go through. With that, like I said earlier, keep in mind
the undiagnosed and unnoticed mental health issues that we have yet to document, or were never
documented.
It’s sad to say that, even as a youth, I am completely downtrodden by the mental health
situation in our society. It is a good thing that we have at least made steps to bring even a few of
these problems to light, but there is definitely more that we can and should do, as we are lacking
in so many aspects. Even as I speak here right now, imagine that you yourself are dealing with a
mental health issue that nobody is taking seriously, that everyone is discriminating and ignoring,
so much so to the point that you are frozen in silence and feel as if you can’t tell a single soul, for
fear of intolerance. I would like to thank everyone for letting me share my two cents on the
situation and give my own inputs and insights, and I hope that everyone who walks away once I
am done would think just a little bit harder on just how disastrous the world’s mental health
affair was, is, and will be if we don’t do anything. I hope that we can strive to do better than how
we are right now, without those being empty words but instead full of actual, true effort. Thank
you for listening, and may we change the lives and futures of the many people that hold the
world on their shoulders.

Reference list:
[1] About Mental Health. (n.d.). https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm
[2] Akkas, F., & Corr, A. (2022, May 2). Mental Health Conditions Can Contribute to Suicide
Risk. The Pew Charitable Trusts.
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2022/05/02/mental-health-
conditions-can-contribute-to-suicide-risk
[3] NAMI. (2022, June). Mental Health By the Numbers. National Alliance on Mental Illness.
https://www.nami.org/mhstats
[4] It’s OK to Talk About Mental Health. (2022, November 2). University of Utah Health.
https://healthcare.utah.edu/hmhi/news/2021/lets-talk.php