Raising Mental Health Awareness

By Monica Alifia

The second grade students of SMAN 21 Kota Bekasi. Her majoring is Science Class. This speech was presented in HIMADIKSARIS National English Contest 2021with the theme, “ Distance doesn’t matter, Educational spirit makes us strong together”.

Assalamualaikum Wr.Wb

Good morning everyone.

My name is Monica Alifia, I’m a student of  SMAN 21 Bekasi. First of all, I would like to say thank you to all of Committee of English Contest 2021 from Indonesia Education Institute.

Today, I will tell the world that we must do the campaign for the people to be aware about the raising mental health awareness. I think there are many people in this world don’t care about their mental health. My question is why raising mental health awareness is important for us?.   Jake Ttyler said, “Depression is the biggest, most inclusive club in the world. Anyone in the world can join. But it’s biggest trick is convincing everyone who’s a part of that club that they’re the only member”.

Based on the question above, I want to talk about raising mental health awareness. Let’s  discuss  about raising mental health awareness. Firstly,  I would like to talk about what is the mental health awareness. After that, I will talk about the ways of raising the mental health awareness. Then, I will explain and describe the characteristic of  healthy mentality.

According to Mental Health America (MHA), one of five people will experience mental illness during their lifetime. Because of  anxiety, depression, OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder), and schizophrenia, we can be stress for working, studying, etc.

Awareness means the knowledge or perception about the situation and the fact or the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events.

To start raising mental health awareness, you must consider what mental health means to you and those around you. In my point of view, mental health is one of the most important things that we should concern about it, it  includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how do we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.

But, mental health is still often stigmatized, dismissed, scorned, or just ignored. Many people still think that mental illness is something that taboo. This stigma that eventually makes people feel ashamed or doubtful when they want to talk about mental illness and they are confused how to raise mental health.

One of the ways that can help us to raise the mental health awareness are keeping  the conversation together,  increasing  the demand for mental health and well-being, and finding someone and environment that can help us achieve safer and more inclusive communities, happy and fulfilled citizens who all have something to contribute to raise mental health.

Now, how to know the characteristic of the healthy mentality? People who have healthy mentality will avoid  mental disorders, be able to adapt, self development, and achieve  happiness both personally and with others.

Ladies and gentlemen, being concerned with mental illness means that we care about our self and others. So please, if people whom you’ve known feel like you need to talk about something, don’t be afraid. Searching for the right therapist is torturous. When you find a great one, we hope that they never retire, change careers, or pass away before you. I want you to know that you are not alone.

Take a break if you need it, talk to someone you trust, it can be your mother, father, sister, brother, or just friend. Do something that makes you are happy, you can do anything such as drawing, painting, singing, or dancing. I love dancing, I will play a happy song and start dancing awkwardly. I’m happy when I can do both of them.

In my view, this is the time to make the awareness of the people that raising mental health awareness must be propagated so that there are many people will understand that  mental disorders are not scary and embarrassing. I want to tell the world that the people whose mental disorder can achieve the biggest  dream like anyone else. I also want to show that they can live normally, they whose the miracle of their life, and they will be happy if the want to raise mental health awareness by doing the positive action, sharing about their problem, praying to Allah SWT, etc.

Finally, our compassion, love, and affection are the most important aspects for raising mental health awareness.   Shannon L. Alder said, “One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know that they are not alone’.

Hopefully, this speech brings spirit and advantage to us.

Thank you very much, wassalamualaikum Wr.Wb