On World Mental Health Day, Robin William’s daughter Zelda Williams returned to social media for the first time since her father’s death.
She spoke out against the stigmas attached to mental health issues and insisted people treat them as a physical disease.
“So please, let’s help stop the misconceptions & support those who need our help. Healing the whole starts with healing minds,” Zelda Williams wrote in a Twitter post on Oct. 10.
Robin Williams committed suicide on Aug. 11.
According to psychcentral.com, suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students ages 20-24, one in every four college students suffer from a form of diagnosable mental illness.
Mental illness can be a life-long battle, even after recovery.
“Some try to hide it … but it’s still there. It doesn’t go away,” said Atika Khan, a Delta student, who has known someone suffering.
After Williams’ death in August, awareness regarding the seriousness of depression and other mental health problems spread.
This unfortunate event made people around the world realize depression hurts everyone and is not “just being sad.”
Mental illnesses are often misdiagnosed and misunderstood.
Modern society has put stigmas on mental health issues, making it difficult for people to talk about them.
“It’s different and sometimes we don’t like differences. We don’t want to talk about it so we don’t acknowledge it,” said Khan.
Depression, anxiety, addiction, eating disorders, bipolar disorder and other mental health issues are all things we need to start talking about. So many people who are suffering feel like they can’t reach out for help and they shouldn’t feel this way.
Zelda Williams is just one example of the many celebrities trying to make a change.