Mental Health: Real Or Fake?

Mental health has fell into one of the more questionable topics in life: Is it real or fake? Does having mental health issues make you crazy? Often, mental health is portrayed as delusional or a “phase” to many unaware people. This only makes it harder for the affected population. It builds walls and create insecurities that allow people to express themselves; and to hide your feelings and to be rejected of the help you desperately need, only piles on top of the struggles.
I have had my own an experience with mental health, and I know how it feels to feel abandoned and detached from reality. I speak for all when I say that treating mental health as a phase and not acknowledging the fact that is, not only brings more distress on those effect;

but it also makes those feel as if their feelings are not valid or important enough to be dealt with. It’s not what the media characterizes it as (being sad, anti-social, or even crazy). Anyone can experience this, but how you decide to treat it, is how it will affect you.
As a Black American female, I have seen that it has been normalized in the black community to not talk about mental health. Black parents don’t usually communicate with their children about their feelings and they easily shut ideas about mental health out. Forcing their kids to “feel better”, telling them “Oh, you won’t feel like that tomorrow” or “That’s the devil trying to mess with you”, but never actually doing anything other than “disciplining” them for being “disrespectful.” Yet, they wonder why there children don’t like to talk to them. It is a fear that has been embedded into our minds that we have to pretend to be okay, when it’s not. We know that there is something wrong with us, but because of the foolish thought that we can’t share these feelings, we hurt. We hurt, we cry, we die inside because we can’t find the will to live anymore.
There are People all over the world that feel this way. I speak for those who cannot speak for themselves; The broken, the weak, the tired. There has been far too many tragedies occur because of the lack of awareness in this bearing. I want to build a platform created for others to be able to stand on and have a voice. For those who want to see a change in the world, starting with mental health.