By Delilah GraySpecial to the Chronicle

This past weekend, four American students studying abroad fell victim to an acid attack from a reportedly mentally ill woman. While my heart aches for the victims of the attack, there’s another side to this story that needs to be discussed. As a society, we need to bring more awareness to the mentally ill and abolish the taboo around it. I find it ridiculous that even with 1 in 4 people in the world having a mental disorder, we still find the need to hush down around the subject.

To the bare basics, mental illness is a common health condition involved with certain thinking patterns, changes in emotion or behavioral function through problems in their social life, work, family issues or life itself.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, 1 in 24 adults have a serious mental illness. Even with nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults experiencing some form of mental illness, society deems it as a taboo subject. The underlying reasoning for stigma towards mental illness is fear. Growing up, no matter who you are, stereotypes are embedded into our minds for analysis on people at a young age, children refer to certain people as “weird” or “crazy” as an identifier for people with mental illness. Although, as an adult, through watching media stories unfold, we see certain assailants described as “mentally ill.”

While this may be a staple term, it’s too broad of a term for the media. Mental illness can be used to label hundreds of types of disorders, big or small. In my opinion, using one term is dangerous, it paints a picture that anyone with a mental disorder is violent and unsafe. This is the opposite case for the majority.

As daunting as it may seem, the ability to bring awareness is simple. I believe that the bare basic approach to any source of awareness is three-fold: know the facts, educate others respectfully on the subject and show support with positivity. Awareness starts with the individual – practice empathy, do research on the different disorders and how common they are, talk it out with people and make sure that you hold no stigma on the subject. While some may fight the stereotype, we need to bring awareness and call to action.

Mental health has become political and it’s something to worry about. According to the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum, mental illness represents the biggest economic burden of any health issue in the world, costing $2.5 trillion in 2010. Whereas 60 percent of those with mental illness do not receive any form of care in the U.S., 90 percent of those in developing countries are not receiving any within the 450 million people diagnosed with a mental disorder worldwide. The political implications held within the situation is that people still hold a stigma to the mentally ill and the stereotypes we’re taught need to end.

I find the taboo element surrounding it laughable. Many have a mental disorder – including myself – and it’s time to stop viewing them as violent people. Mental illness is something many people live with every day. It’s not something to be feared, rather it’s something to be discussed.

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