I sit and listen to my mother. She is lecturing me again, telling me how I’m fine, that I’m like the rest of my generation; I just want a label. I try to fight back and explain no one wants a label like this. No one wants to struggle mentally.

I want to explain every day is a struggle, and I don’t mean getting out of bed. Yes, that’s hard too, but there are so many days where I feel like I can’t find any motivation. Days where I want to stay in bed, turn my phone off, and sleep. Days where I want to shut the world out and listen to the silence. I want to scream and tell her I haven’t felt pure happiness in months. How every day I want to end my life, tell her how I wait for the day where all falls quiet and I take my final breath. 

Dear older generations,

We are struggling. Every day is a fight, our mental issues are real. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth ages 15-24. There were twice as many suicides than homicides in 2017. It’s been two years since then and just imagine how high the suicide rate is now. Too many kids today are dying. What is it going to take for you to understand, this isn’t a game? This is real, there is no label. Only the ones you’ve created by trying to drill this idea into our minds. This is our life. Every day we wake up wishing we hadn’t.

  A study from the ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America) mentions how anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States. You cannot tell me that it isn’t a growing issue, this epidemic is going to continue to grow, more kids are going to hurt themselves unless something is done about it. The assumption that we all put these “labels” on ourselves is absurd. No one has woken up one day and said “I really wish I was depressed and bipolar.”

Dear Youth,

I’m sorry you have to deal with this; I’m sorry you find yourself struggling. It gets better; you will find hope and be happy. It takes time. Don’t listen to the people who try to bring you down. You are strong; strong enough to get through today.

You are going to have lows and highs. Things are going to get worse before they can get better. But the reason they get better is because we are learning how to deal with our issues and the things life throws at us. We learn to cope because of the things we endured.

Whatever your mental health status, whether you have a mental illness or not, please remember it is okay to be sad. It is okay to feel weak and to feel low. The important thing is that you stay alive, and come back to the surface. Don’t hurt yourself; it won’t help anything. You are worth so much, every breath you breath is special. 

“If you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise”- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur.