Hello readers, my name is Ruben and this is my story, hopefully this can help people within my own community that not only are they not alone but that their struggles are valid, always keep fighting. To start off, I wanted to mention how for most of my early childhood, I was a happy kid, if not a bit quiet. I had my family, my friends and my books and for a while that was enough. According to the education system, I was a “gifted” child and put into advanced math and english classes in middle school and from that moment on, somewhere in my subconscious I decided that my worth was linked to how well I could do in school. This came to a head in highschool when all of a sudden, everyone else around me was also a “gifted” child within their own school as well and I found myself no longer being exceptional, in fact I wasn’ t all that great of a student and as a result my grades were mediocre and my self esteem went along with it. I found myself staying up all night because my anxiety wouldn’t let me sleep and when morning came along the feelings of worthlessness and the depression that came along with them would hardly allow me to get out of bed. I was in a dark place, and when I’d try to talk to my parents they would tell me to just study harder and that I would get over it. I started to abuse substances, and it wasn’t until one night during my junior year where I had to be rushed to the hospital because I almost gave myself alcohol poisoning that my parents realized that I needed serious help. A few years and lots of therapy sessions later I’m at a place where I can say that I am happy with the person that I am. It was almost too late for me but that cycle doesn’t have to perpetuate itself. Let’s love and check in on each other, if someone appears to be struggling or even says that they are struggling, be there for them, help them get the support they need. Mental health is just as important as our physical health, and just like how anyone can catch a cold, anyone of us could grapple with their mental health as well.

*The names used within this post have been changed in order to maintain discretion

Belonging to the Hispanic/Latinx community my whole life, I’ve seen personally how mental health issues were running rampant amongst the ranks of my peers, not just those who were of my age but also among those who shared in my cultural and ethnic background. Now the reason I share this is because there’s another type of epidemic occurring within our lifetime and it has nothing to do with a virus. Everyday more and more of our youth are dealing with a silent burden, mental illness. I too, a kid of just twenty years of age, have struggled with depression and anxiety, and I’m not the only one. According to the Office of Minority Health, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2017 the second leading cause of death among Hispanics ages 15 to 34 was suicide. 

That is a concerning amount and it can almost feel overwhelming to stand in the wake of such distressing data but there is a way to combat this, and it starts at home. If we start to take our youth seriously when they say they’re not feeling their best, or when they say that they can barely get out of bed in the morning, then we could prevent the further deterioration of someone’s mental state. This sounds like a very general statement but it’s vital, growing up Latino, I’ve seen other Latino parents disregard their children’s issues, writing them off as dramatic, or even going as far as to say that only crazy people suffer from mental illness when that could be further from the truth. If we were to normalize these conversations, and before diminishing the struggles of the newer generation simply because they’re different from that of the older we instead seek to support them in their struggle, more of our youth would find the help they need, and those statistics wouldn’t be quite so daunting. For the next post, we’ll be taking a look at a testimonial, of a Latino youth who was affected by the stigma surrounding mental health within his community.