Mental Health Awareness is during May. The stigma behind mental health has hurt the growing community and kept mental health in the dark.

A stigma is an association of negative feelings towards something or someone. The stigma for mental health has become a barrier to people processing and seeking help for their own illness.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has decided to spend the month of May, raising awareness about the effect predispositions cause. The campaign #curestigma or #stigmafree has spread across their social media platforms. The goal is to keep the conversation about mental health in a constant stream.

Key mental health statistics include:

  • One in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental health condition.
  • One in 25 (10 million) adults in the United States lives with a serious mental illness.
  • Sixty million people in the United States face the day-to-day reality of living with a mental illness.
  • Half of all lifetime mental health conditions begin by age 14 and 75 percent by age 24, but early intervention programs can help.

Understanding mental health and the illness that ensues has become a critical part of our society. So many suffer from different types such as depression, bipolar, borderline, schizophrenia, etc. While, some types are beginning to be decriminalized, there are other types that need a higher level of compassion. May is a month that highlights the need for more information and understanding of mental health.

 

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