Mental health matters. Apparently that is what M.H.M stands for. Which is crazy because I had no idea that was a thing. I feel as though mental health is important until it interferes with your social life, or your academic life or extracurricular activities. Teachers and professors will swear up and down to take care of yourselves, and mental health is important but also seem to purposely make the course load hard and heavy, for the sake of force feeding the material down your throat. We talked a bit in class about how there should be less focus on attendance as a grade because sometimes people need mental breaks or a mental health day. However most teachers don’t have systems in place for mental health days. What I mean is that if you’re sick, you get a pass on coming to class and sometimes you have to have proof, so you get a note from the hospital and there you go…no penalty for you. What about your mental health? I feel like when it comes to your mental health the excuse has to be an extreme to get a day off from class like, someone died or some tragedy just occurred. And maybe it’s not as hard to get a pass off class for a mental health issue but it is hard to ask for one, because it also isn’t really all that talked about.
I also wanted to discuss mental health in the household when it comes to different cultures. As a blasian woman, mental health wasn’t really discussed at all growing up. From my Filipino side, if you feel depressed, you’re not…you’re just sad and all you need to do is work harder and pray. For my black, African American side mental health has more of a negative stigma. It really wasn’t acknowledged at all. Mental health was seen as unlucky and if someone in the family was possibly mentaly disabled.. They weren’t, they would never actually get diagnosed until later. Two different cultures and yet the same reaction to mental health. Unfortunately knowledge and awareness of mental health has a long way to go.
Unruly Bodies 
Hi, I enjoyed reading your response and I’ll add M.H.M. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. From a black female in the African community, there is truly alot of stigma attached to mental health issues. Someone who suffers from mental health issues are more likely to be mocked or called weak for seeking help or even called ‘dangerous’, ‘crazy’ or ‘incompetent’ rather than unwell. As a social work student from a black community, it is important to continue bring awareness, practicing acceptance and developing healthier ways to cope.
I can relate when it comes to mental health in the black community, it is equivalent to a pothole you all see it but no one does anything about it, but they all talk about how so and so was “acting crazy” at the function when in reality they were having mental crisis or they have undiagnosed issues. In my family, I was raised believing that mental health and issues were a white thing and black people don’t go through that stuff because historically we have been though way worse than whatever you are going though. The black community has a tendency to belittle individual experiences and focus more on the collective. The same goes with mental health, no one talks about it so we write it off as if it’s not there.
Mental health is becoming more recognized in schools nowadays, but it still isn’t taken seriously. Throughout K-12, I always pushed myself really hard in school and had breakdowns every other week (mostly in middle and high school). I thought that was normal because I didn’t know anything about mental health. My parents (Asian) don’t believe in it and none of my classes in school taught about this subject. Not even in health class in middle AND high school. It wasn’t until college when I really let go because I was so sick of always crying about school, but I ended up failing my classes. I’m still learning how to manage my academics along with my mental health and its gotten a lot better, not the best, but better. I know campus provide resources that help but I’ve never asked for any help regarding mental health so it’s kind of nerve wrecking to reach out. I wish schools prioritized teaching about mental health at a young age. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have parents that are educated and not everyone is comfortable with asking for help even if they know they need it.