Why is in patient so scary?

Words, They hold power even years after they've left the mouth.

I remember being a little girl and saying whatever came to my mind, In fact I still do- But back then I didn't understand the weight that words have on one another,I didn't understand one simple sentence could change someones life. I just didn't get it. When I told my dad he looked like salami because he had so many freckles, We laughed it off, Because it was a funny sentence out of a child's mouth.

Yet, We all still remember me saying it.

When I was in second grade I was telling a friend about an episode of N.C.I.S. that I had watched with my family during dinner. I had told her about a gay couple who had been in it and about the rest of the plot. The moment I uttered the word gay her face turned to horror and she told me never to say that word because it was bad. Even though I was only nine, I knew what she said was wrong and ridiculous and I had pointedly told her exactly that.

You see what Im getting at, Right?

-Because that conversation was a decade ago, And I remember it clear as day, Because words can never be shoved back in the mouth and forgotten, They stay with you, Buzzing around your head and popping back in your thoughts when they find the right opportunity.

So to cut off the memory lane I had been taking you on and to get to my direct point, I want you to understand the weight of the words you use. When my cousin died, I was only nine years old and in elementary school, People were throwing around the phrase 'go die in a hole', Or 'hope you die!' In a quirky voice as if their words didn't have meaning, As children often do.

Those terms are something you learn, Children are the very definition of 'monkey see monkey do.' In fact, If you go on tiktok and look up videos of teachers talking about their experiences you'll get a truck load of stories from kids who relay the things parents say without knowing what it actually means. The same thing goes for behavior, But thats for another time.

To cirlce back to the actual point of this post, Why are Teens so terrified of Out-Patient therapy and facilities? If we're being honest, Which I always am on my posts, Out-Patient hasn't exactly been protrayed in the best light in the last- Well..Ever.

Mental Health facilities have been referred to as Asylums, Funny Farms, Mental Hospitals- And all of those sound like old terms that haven't been used in decades but I can name multiple places in pop culture where they've been shown as eery, Sad, Scary or just reffered to as those terms.

Scooby Doo, Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars, Good Burger, Charmed.

Dont get me wrong, Those are some of my favorite shows, But my point still stands. The media has protrayed mental health facilities in such a horrible light that anyone who actually might need to get treated are down right terrified to go.

I'll be honest, I've never been to a full blown facility on the point that I don't want to leave my dog. I'm sure I'd probably benefit by going to one but from everything I've been through with just the term itself, I think i'll stay at home where I have my laptop.

Theres a huge stigma in relation to Mental Health facilities and really mental health awareness.

When I had first been diagnosed with depression, I noticed quickly how misused the term actually was, And I would go out of my way to let people know when they were misusing an actual Mental Illness. Needless to say, It didn't make me very popular.

There was a study about how the color blue didn't actually exist for thousands of years until the silk road existed and people were exposed more to one another. The study wasn't saying the color didn't actually exist, We just didn't see it because we didn't have a word for it. Its similar to Mental illnesses and knowledge.

I never noticed how much people misused Mental illnesses as emotions until I was diagnosed with an actual illness. I have Bipolar disorder and I never actually noticed how many people used the term so disrespectfully until I understood what it really was.

In highschool I got into a fight with someone who knew I had bipolar and still laughed at someones joke about the Illness. She had told me it wasn't that deep- But it is.

People suffer every single day, Living to see the sunrise the next day is a feat in itself. When people make jokes and create stigma on an illness they know nothing about it actually harms people, Even if they dont see it.

The show "Shameless" has two bipolar characters, And Most people would be super excited to see representation, But the way they "represented" us in turn actually just made me uncomfortable. I had to stop watching the show.

Television and other sources of media use Mental disorders and Mental health facilities as plot devices to move a story along, Often putting an image into the Audience head of what they are. Essentially spreading false information to people who already don't know any better.

You may be able to sit and watch tv and find something funny until you stumble across a scene where someone with a disorder you or a loved one have is being misrepresented.

People need to start understanding that the way the represent mental health facilities and Mental illness in media actually effects the world around you and the people in it.

To wrap it up? Kids are scared to get help because the media uses our Mental Health options as a plot device to make money.