    October is a month that has various activities going on including Halloween, Breast Cancer Awareness, Depression/Mental Health Awareness, Lupus Awareness, Domestic violence Awareness, and many more. The month of October has claimed these issues and provided a platform to bring more awareness to private topics that are hard to discuss openly. Mental health is a very controversial topic to discuss. Many people feel they cannot talk about their feelings openly without judgment or misunderstanding. As a future public health psychologist, my goal is to allow others to express themselves openly and to address the hardships that they face on a daily basis.
   Bringing attention to mental illness is such an important deed because the brain is the most essential for survival. The brain is the body’s control center, as it sends and receives signals to other organs throughout the body. When the brain is not well, the body is not well. Many individuals are finding detrimental solutions to their problems without getting access to the help that they need. Society does not like to acknowledge mental illness, because no one wants to feel as though they are “crazy” or abnormal. A mental illness is simply a chemical imbalance within the brain, something that one cannot control. Personally, I believe that if we brought more attention and acceptance to mental health issues, we could be helping one another rather than dividing ourselves.
   Some basic symptoms of possible mental illness include feeling sad or down, confused thinking or reduced ability to concentrate, withdrawal from friends and activities, significant tiredness, trouble understanding and relating to situations and to people, alcohol or drug abuse etc. If you or anyone you know displays these symptoms, please seek professional health. We are all human and putting your health before the opinions of others is the best thing you could do for yourself. HCXO!