VOX Blog: "Mental Health is Health" - Victoria Hernandez

I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to start this blog, and this series. I was so overwhelmed; I didn’t know where to begin! See, mental health isn’t easy. It’s not nicely wrapped in a little bow ready to go like other things. Take cancer, for instance, everyone hates cancer. You’re either trying to cure it or beat it. There’s not much more to it than that. Mental health is a lot more nuanced.

I’m about to make some wild, sweeping generalizations: If you’re Generation Y or Z, you’re probably a huge proponent for addressing mental health. You want the people to get the right care they need. If you’re Generation X, probably a little less so. And if you’re a Baby Boomer or a Traditionalist, you probably think we’re too sensitive and need to just “suck it up.”

Well...not exactly. 

Image: "Thinking Tree" - Pixabay

Mental health is such a vague term, and it encompasses so much. Mental health is your emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It’s the intangible. Just because you can’t be diagnosed with something in the DSM doesn’t mean you’re mentally healthy. Life leads to stress and anxiety, and that can lead to other problems with your body. We need to take care of our minds and ourselves as much as we need to take care of our bodies as a whole and their parts. 

It’s always been hushed or taboo to talk about mental health. We’re told to keep it to ourselves. Not to talk about it. But why not? We talk if we are going through chemo. We talk about how we had to get a filling or getting Lasik like it’s no big deal. Why can’t we talk about our seasonal affective disorder openly?

We go to the doctor if we’re sick. We go to the orthodontist if we have a cavity. We go to the optometrist if we have trouble seeing. Why don’t we all go to the psychologist or psychiatrist if we’re not feeling well upstairs? Some people do. Plenty don’t. There is a stigma of seeing a doctor for our brains and it’s time for it to end.

We go get check-ups and cancer screenings. We go get our teeth cleaned before we get a cavity, and to prevent gingivitis. We see to the optometrist to prevent glaucoma, or to catch it early. Preventative medicine is just as important for our brains as it is for our bodies. Just because we’re feeling good doesn’t mean it wouldn’t do us well to talk to someone.

This year at Vox we are focusing on mental health. And I have one goal for this year. I know we can’t completely change everyone’s mindset, but if we destigmatize mental health, generally speaking, that would be fantastic. A huge win, or at least a nice little step forward. Let it be okay for someone to say they aren’t okay. Let it be no big deal for someone to say they’re going to the psychologist. Let it be okay for someone to say they’re depressed and need some time away. And let the kid in the grocery store have a meltdown because he has autism and it’s a sensory overload...And let it be okay for someone with anorexia talk about how they’re feeling. Mental health is health.  

By: VICTORIA HERNANDEZ, Vox Blogger