September is Suicide Awareness Month. And as someone who has experienced suicidal ideation and mental health challenges through the years, I feel this is the best time to have some bold conversations around complex mental health issues. 

The Stigma Around Mental Health

The stigma around mental health exists not because people are not empathetic. It’s maybe because they just don't get it. It's the nature of the illness that makes it really hard for society, in general, to accept. 

Depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues are often not obvious to anybody but the person struggling. 

It's an internal struggle most of the time. 

And it can get really hard for other people to understand what someone is going through if they haven't been through it themselves. 

The Internal Stigma and the Hierarchy of Struggle

Sometimes, the biggest stigma lives within ourselves. Especially as athletes, we think we shouldn't be upset about our lives because we’re healthy. Or that we can’t look weak to our opponents. 

But at the end of the day, some physically healthy people still have internal struggles. 

And just because they look “healthy” doesn’t mean their degree of internal suffering is not heavier than someone with obvious trauma. 

Therefore, from the perspective of a mental health provider, there is no such thing as a hierarchy of struggle in mental health.

Seeking Professional Help

If you feel like you’re having suicidal thoughts and you’re not able to keep yourself safe or take care of yourself, go to the emergency room to get evaluated. Emergency rooms are equipped to evaluate you directly and determine if you're appropriate for psychiatric admission or not. 

Part of working with a mental health professional is to somehow normalize the stigma. They help make people realize they’re not the only person struggling with certain things like depression or anxiety and that it should not be shameful.

If you want to learn more about how to raise mental health awareness, check out the Tales of Toughness Podcast on https://gosonja.com/podcast​.