Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of celebrities post “let’s spread mental health awareness!! Here’s some suicide hotlines” but I don’t see anybody talking about the very real and heart breaking mental illnesses such as bipolar, schizophrenia, Shizo-affective disorder, OCD, and not the ocd that has people obsessive over cleaning. The OCD that causes you to obsess and think about something for hours and hours and days. It still hasn’t sunk in how very real mental illness is. Seeing a loved one go through it and to you, reality is clear, but to them, their reality is different. Growing up with my two brothers and me being the youngest girl, I have so many amazing memories with both of my brothers. So many family trips, so many memories of us fighting, and having to go to time out in our rooms upstairs and then poking our heads out perfectly in sync and devising a plan to sneak downstairs and not get caught by our mom. And in the blink of an eye he started to go downhill. Hallucinating, losing track of reality, entering a world of anxiety, depression, manic episodes, OCD, depression. We didn’t know what it was, stuff like this never gets talked about. Little did we know that this would be his life still 10 years later. With about 20 hospital visits and countless different medications, countless nights searching for him because he decided to just leave in the middle of the night with no plan, no money, no shoes, and wander aimlessly for days to the point of almost failed kidneys because he wasn’t able to notice that he was thirsty. Looking into his eyes when he has an episode and not seeing the brother that would sneak out of time-out with me. Having no friends, no social life because they don’t understand this part of him. Having family that is scared of him, and a step mom that absolutely despises him and has forbid him from coming over my dad’s house. This is the life my brother lives. I treasure the good days we have, which are many. From going out to eat and enjoying food together, and laughing and joking, but when those storms hit they hit hard and I just want my big brother back and want him to live an amazing life. So in honor of mental health awareness, let’s really start having discussions about the real mental illness that may not sound “normal” to most but is the reality to many out there and the families that watch their loved ones go through this. People with mental illness are the strongest of people. Because they are at a constant battle with their mind. You are SO important and so strong and my heart is with every one of you who struggle with something similar or have a loved one that does.