“Mental health!? There’s no such thing.”

“WTF is depression?”

“So you’re telling me that a person just magically gets depressed for no apparent reason.”

“Why would anyone get anxious because of this?… It’s not like she’s doing it for the first time.”

Mental health jokes, am I right?? Totally hysterical.

Seriously though, let’s talk about this extremely scary topic… Mental health.

I was ready to open up to my roommates and like casually talk to them about my mental health and also see if they are not dealing with any issues. I just wanted connection and acceptance and maybe help them get through whatever they were dealing with.

So I just straight on asked, “So guys, what do you think of mental health?” Everybody went dead silent. “What do you think of depression and people dealing with depression?” I backed up my question to make it easier and maybe get an answer. “I don’t know.” Somebody finally answered, uncomfortably. Everybody was getting more uncomfortable by the minute but I was determined to talk about this. “So, none of you guys know what depression is?” I asked impatiently and curiously. “I guess I do know what depression is, I just don’t believe it exists.” Somebody said rather confidently.

I tried to keep calm after this comment and continued to ask them simple questions that made them uncomfortable. They ended up saying very stupid and sad things about people suffering from mental health issues like how they’re weak, like attention, are crazy and broken and why they shouldn’t seek therapy. These comments really hurt me because I’m one of those broken, attention seeking, crazy and weak people and all I wanted was connection.

I know that they’re speaking from a place of poor knowledge and pure judgement that they absorbed from the community but damn…

I still don’t understand. I know that we are not taught this at school and when they do teach us they pass down the judgement. I know that nobody talks about mental illnesses, like ever. I get, I really do but I don’t. I offered them a lecture on mental illnesses but nobody wanted to change their mind.

This was not the first time that this happened because literally whenever I try to talk to someone about what I’m feeling I get turned down and end up feeling worse.

I don’t know how these people still don’t know about mental illnesses because they spend like all of their time on their cellphones but they never really take the time to educate themselves. I mean, I’m just like them except I educated myself on these topics, also experienced my fair share of mental problems.

All I’m asking is for people to be a little more open minded, just a little. To educate themselves on important topics and to normalize talking about our feelings. I expected a lot more from people, I expected them to care and be kind because I kinda figured we’re teenagers and we all go through this stuff.

I don’t know, was I expecting too much?? Am I asking for too much??

Thanks for listening.