According to the Center for Disease Control, over 40,000 people ended their lives in the United States in 2013 alone ("Suicide"). It's hard to find someone that doesn't personally know a suicide victim. Too many people have a friend or loved one who committed suicide and their story, mine just happens to be Jake Eyering. He was a good man and a better friend that had bipolar depression. He would make everyone in a room smile, getting the news that he was dead was heartbreaking. However, I was completely unaware that he was battling depression until he killed himself on October 13th 2015. I think that he largely didn't tell people about it because he didn't want to be judged or have people look down upon him. Why is that a problem? That is not just a problem, that is the problem. The family and friends around him cherished his life and if he could have reached out to more people before killing himself and seen that, then maybe he would have reconsidered. There is currently a large stigma surrounding mental illnesses and this needs to end so that people with mental illnesses in the future can find help. Mental illnesses can lead to many negative physical health problems and stigma towards mental illnesses leads to: people getting criticized by family, friends, and colleagues for mental illnesses and getting discriminated against. The whole conversation around mental illnesses needs to change in order for people to more openly get help. To do this mental illness need to be treated more like physical illness in the United States and this can be done by educating people about mental health in middle schools across America. All the negative stigma towards mental illnesses needs to stop in order to make mental illnesses more manageable.

Mental illnesses can cause a plethora of other physical issues when they are left untreated: it can be a block in learning and education, lead to substance abuse, and lead to other preventable physical illnesses. Mental illnesses can even be a major block to learning in the classroom. Alvarado Beatriz talks about this in a newspaper article pointing out that, "It's hard to get a kid to learn, to focus ... if they haven't eaten in a while. Or if they are dealing with depression" (Alverdo 1). If a student is trying to battle a mental illness on their own, then they are going to have less time and effort to put towards school. So in schools, mental illnesses should to talked about. This will not only better people's lives but directly get more help students learn. Another thing that parents and schools alike are worried about besides grades is drugs. There are plenty of school functions and programs trying to reduce drug and alcohol use among teens. But why not battle substance abuse by battling mental illnesses. In a report by Alison Knopf a direct correlation between teen substance abuse and mental illnesses is found. The article finds that mental illnesses are often the root of substance abuse. Treating the mental illness would stop substance abuse by getting rid of the reason for using the drugs (Knopf). So if schools want to stop substance abuse than it is vital to implement a program to help with mental illnesses. But besides substance abuse mental illnesses have also been found to have a correlation with higher risk for preventable diseases. In one screening it was found that, "people with serious mental illnesses experience multiple health disparities, higher medical morbidity, and lifespans 10 -- 30 years shorter on average than the general population" (Cook 1). The main reason for this is that people with mental illnesses are less likely to seek treatment for physical illnesses, have worse diets, and are less likely to utilize health care systems. That is a significant amount of time for a life to be shortened. But with less stigma there could be more treatment in mental illnesses and those numbers could be battled. More people would get help and more people would take care of their bodies once there are getting help. Correlating physical affects could all be helped if stigma was reduced.

Stigma not only enables mental illnesses witch lead to physical illnesses, but also creates discrimination towards mental illnesses. This discrimination can be in the workplace or at home but always consist of being disadvantaged because of stereotypical views of mental illnesses. The effects of having a mental illness in the workplace can be life impacting. People will view mental illnesses as handicapping and think less of a person with a mental illness. They will see stereotypical views of people in the news and make assumptions about a person with a mental illness that are just untrue. It is a fact that "Citizens are less likely to hire persons with mental illness, less likely to rent them apartments, and more likely to falsely press charges for violent crimes" (Nicolas 530). People can get wrongfully fired and kept out of jobs because of their mental illness. All of these are unfair disadvantages that are put upon people who are already working on their mental illness. We should be more accepting of people with mental illnesses, but because of misinformation and stereotyping we are doing the opposite. Coupled with this misinformation is the fact that people don't generally talk about mental illnesses. So employers and fellow employees have nothing but the stereotypical views of people with mental illnesses. Someone should not have to go to work in fear of facing discrimination because of their mental illness.

The biggest problems about discrimination caused by stigma is that it stops people from seeking and getting treatment. Discrimination can stop someone from getting treatment in many different ways such as: someone not wanting other people to know they have a mental illness, denying that they have a mental illness, and even stopping people from continuing treatment due to negative backlash from peers. No matter how stigma blocks a person from treatment it, is bad. Not getting treatment for a mental illness can let it spiral out of control and can lead to things like suicide. Since having a mental illness can fester discrimination towards people, people will often know they have a mental illness and not get treatment. People do not want others to know that they have a mental illness because they don't want to be involved in all the negative stereotypes that surround mental illnesses. The main way of hiding the mental illness is not getting treatment This is opposite of what should happen but stigma is blocking people from getting treatment.

Another way that stigma can act as a block between a person and treatment is by making people misidentify mental illnesses. People can think of mental illnesses as the stereotyped disease and not think they have it. People will often deny that they have a mental illness because they do not want to be grouped with the stereotype or think that they must fit a stereotype to have that mental illness. This is prevalent in all ages. In one survey, of medical student, at a university it was found that there was a general stigma and that anti-stigma campaigns where needed (Pingani 1). Stigma is stopping people from getting treatment and stereotyping is even found from a survey in the medical field. If even medical students are stereotyping people with mental illnesses, then the issue is very deep seated. Medical students are going to be the ones possibly helping someone with a mental illness. So even in the hands of professionals who are going to help someone with mental illness people are still going to face stigma.

When someone seeks treatment and faces stigma it can even lead to them dropping out of treatment. Even if someone overcomes all these obstacles and seeks treatment stigma can still end up making them discontinue treatment. It is not a rare occurrence that someone will drop out of treatment in the first three months. This is because once a person starts treatment for a mental illness more people will know about that person's mental illness and discriminate against it. One study was conducted in outpatients with depression to determine if perceived stigma affected treatment discontinuation. It was found that, "stigma toward individuals with mental illness predicts early treatment discontinuation in elderly patients with major depression" (Sirey 480). The more stigma that a person perceived about depression the more likely they were to drop out of treatment and not seek other treatment. Stigma not only affects people by just the discrimination but the perception of discrimination too. If a person thinks that they will get negative reactions to getting treatment, then that is just as bad as if they do get negative reactions. All these views of mental illnesses from the inside and outside are negatively affecting people with mental illness and are serving as a mental block to getting treatment.

These negative ideas and stereotypies are generally created by the media. In one article Alastair Benbow argues that the media is the main reason for stigma and says that the media perceives people with mental illnesses as "dangerous or unpredictable" (Benbow 31). Although this article argues that it is the medias job to fix the current views of mental illnesses, if people talked about mental illnesses more casually this would also solve the problem. People would learn about mental illness and the struggles that come with them from the people around them. This would lead them to have a more real examples to ground what certain mental illnesses are and how they affect people. Currently though mental illness is seen as an awkward, or taboo topic, to talk about with others. This lead to the medias view of people with mental illnesses being what is imprinted into people's minds. One of the greatest consequences of this created stigma is that it can act as a barrier between people and treatment. To prevent this from happening in the future and to reduce stigma, the way that mental illnesses are treated needs to be changed.

Mental illnesses need to be talked about and treated like physical illnesses. When someone breaks an arm they go to the doctor and get a cast. When someone is suffering from depression they should too go to the doctor and seek help. Physical illnesses are manageable just like a well-managed mental illness. If someone with a mental illness finds a treatment that works, then the episodes they will have will be manageable and controlled. Similarly, if someone needs to take some time off for their mental health they should be given. People are allowed time off for physical illness and this should apply equally to mental illnesses. If we eliminate stigma towards mental illnesses, more people can understand how mental illnesses affect people and accommodate them in the workplace. In the current state people with mental illnesses are shamed for having a mental illness and mental health is seen as secondary to physical health. In one study of managers it was found that "more than two-thirds, 68%, said they would be more sympathetic towards employees with a physical illness than those suffering from mental illness, while two-fifths also admitted they 'struggled' to take mental illness seriously" (Manos 7). Managers are treating physical illnesses above mental illnesses constantly and are so stigmatized that some of them are even having trouble talking mental illnesses seriously. If we want people to improve the state of their mental illness, then we have to give them the space to do it.

However, some people argue that mental illnesses shouldn't be treated like physical illnesses. A common misconception is that mental illnesses are brought about by oneself. That a mental illness like depression is all in their head. Mental illnesses can be seen as something that can be dropped at will. That you can stop yourself from being depressed but you can't stop yourself from breaking an arm, so why should they be treated the same? However mental illnesses are not that simple. In fact, this argument is an embodiment of stigma itself. But even if mental illnesses are completely preventable then we should still be pushing for education. In this way of thinking, mental illnesses can still be seen as a debilitating factor and something that could be stopped like obesity. If you look at the "Let's Move" campaign that was started by Michelle Obama, you can see that we take pride in trying to help people with obesity. So a similar effort should be taken towards mental health. Let's move "mobilizes public and private sector resources" and is a national campaign and the same treatment should be given towards mental health ("first"). Whichever way you look at it education is needed on mental illnesses.

Education on mental illness in middle schools is the best way to alleviate stigma related to mental illnesses. This in turn will get people to treat mental illnesses like physical ones and seek out treatment when they need it. At a very young age people start to pick up on what is socially acceptable and what is not. In early education children are not just learning basic scholarly information. They are also learning what is socially acceptable and how people interact with each other. This is why we teach our children about proper physical health in middle school. It is important to teach life skills while children are still young enough for it to make an imprint and old enough to remember and interpret the information. Mental health is just as important as physical health. You are stuck with your brain your whole life and you have to take care of it just like you do your body. By educating people in middle school on mental illnesses it will never be weird to talk about mental illnesses with peers. To get rid of stigma it is best to stop it before it develops. It is hard to go back and eliminate stigma and start a conversation about mental illnesses so instead of trying to undo the taboo surrounding a topic, just make the topic not taboo in the first place. Teaching people about mental health can lead them to having correct views of mental illnesses and what it's like to have one. This can then lead to less stigma. Then less stigma will lead to more treatment for those in need. Generation by generation stigma can be eliminated in the United States by an early education program and mental illnesses can be treated as equal to physical illnesses. When shaping our kid's future, we need to say that yes it is okay to talk about mental illnesses and treatment for such is very important. It is important for so many different reasons to reduce stigma and increase treatment for mental illnesses.

Reducing stigma is very important in the United State. People with mental illnesses do not deserve to be discriminated against and treated unfairly. Stigma is leading people away from treatment when we need to be leading people to treatment. Mental illnesses cannot just go untreated. This is why a middle school program needs to be implemented to reduce upon mental illness stigma. Once this is done more people will be able to get treatment for their mental illness and this will lead to many other problems being solved. More people would be openly talking about mental illnesses and mental health and people would more freely explore treatment options. People with eating disorders can find help and try and get better. People with severe anxiety can work through their anxiety. People with depression can start to find a path to happiness. We can get closer to mental illnesses being treated like physical illnesses. We will have less of those friends who decide to end their lives and more of friends that reach out for help. We need to work on implementing an education program soon. If this program was implemented fifteen years ago then Jake could have explored more treatment options and had a bigger support group to stop him from committing suicide. Although Jake is dead and nothing can change that, we can still help people in the future who will have mental illnesses. 

