Attention: National Deaf Dog Week is officially over! Yes you heard that right, and yes that is a real national week.

Who the heck comes up with these things? I don’t know, but all my sympathy goes out to those poor puppers.

The Official theme of the National Mental Health Awareness Week during the first week of October.

So I know you’re wondering now, what’s the theme for this week? I’m glad you asked! This week it’s National Mental Health Week. A more serious theme for the week, but one that is undeniably important.

Sometimes talking about this topic can make people uncomfortable, but it is a conversation that needs to happen. There’s a stigma surrounding mental illness in our society that we need to break away from. We need to take that stigma, throw it away, and turn in the opposite direction.

We have already made a lot of progress in diagnosing and understanding it more, but we still have a lot farther to go. I think the biggest roadblock for people is that it’s not like a physical condition. If you break your leg, you go to the doctor and get the surgery done. If you have a headache, you take some Aleve.

The reality is there’s no handbook or guide for dummies to tell us how to recognize or deal with mental illnesses.

In my opinion, the way to break down this barrier is to gain different perspectives and outlooks on it. For me, one of the best ways to do this is through reading. Reading is able to transport us into another world and show us life through a different pair of eyes.

So that’s exactly what I did this past week, I picked up a short story on mental illness in order to expand my horizons on the topic. And boy am I glad I did.

The official logo of the Mental Health Foundation, which was founded 70 years ago. It wasn’t even created until 17 years after Silent Snow, Secret Snow was published.

Reading Silent Snow, Secret Snow by Conrad Aiken gives the reader the different perspective they’re looking for. What first intrigued me about this piece was that it was written in the 1930s. During this time, more common mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety were rarely even acknowledged. I was excited to read this short-story because it was ahead of its time in terms of describing more of a “taboo” topic.

No doubt about it, Aiken’s is a great writer who has written countless successful poems, short-stories, and novels. However, what stands out most to me about him is his childhood. When he was young, he dealt with severe emotional trauma after discovering his parents corpses after his father killed his mother and then committed suicide. It’s clear that this life-altering event fueled his drive to write this story and his openness towards this dark place he was in paid off in creating this powerful, thought-provoking piece.

The story itself is about a young boy who feels like he is living a double life between hiding what he really feels and trying to appear happy to the outside world. It describes his increasing emotional detachment from the real world, as he uses fantasy to try and ignore processing his confusing emotions. While he knows that he should speak up about how he’s feeling, he feels as if there’s an invisible force telling him to stay quiet and keep suffering. Overall, it illustrates the effect the depression is having on the young boy, as well as the unintended consequences that it causes for his family as a whole.

It’s easy to read, but is still written elegantly. It’s poetic in a sad, twisted way. It provides descriptive imagery and symbolism that shows the complexity behind having a mental illness. It takes that gray area in our feelings that’s hard to properly express in words–sometimes even to ourselves–and clearly amplifies the meaning behind it.

With no doubt in my mind, I would rate this a 5/5 stars. It is a MUST read. Its message is timeless. The insider’s perspective it gives the reader on the many layers of mental illness is still just as relevant, even though it’s almost 100 years later.

Our mental health is constantly changing and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives. We all know somebody who is struggling with a mental illness, whether it’s ourselves or a loved one. Genuinely understanding the issue at hand makes a big difference in supporting one another and seeking the proper help when we need it. Any light shed on the complexity of mental health, no matter how big or small, is invaluable.

So do yourself or a loved one a favor, and pick this one up. You won’t regret it.

After Apple came out with the update that told you how much time you were spending one each app daily and weekly– I was horrified. Not only was I spending too much time on my phone, but the main time sucker had been from Instagram. I was constantly scrolling through it during my downtime, whether it was on my couch watching tv or for a few minutes in between passing periods at school.

I’m not gonna lie, I love Instagram and I think it has many benefits. I love being able to stay connected with my friends and what they’re doing and I love the memes. But when I looked back on how I spent my time on Instagram, I realized that I was mainly looking at social media influencers and celebrities feeds.

After taking the time to reflect on why I spent the time doing this and how it made me feel, I realized how many of my insecurities stemmed from this habit. The sad reality is that these influential people (along with many of us) use extreme photoshopping and editing in order to present the best highlight reel of their life that they can. It’s this false image of perfection that creates a toxic and cookie cutter environment because it sends a signal that if you don’t dress, look, or act a certain way then there is something wrong with you.

For me, seeing everyone’s photoshopped bodies made me feel insecure about my own looks. I felt like I wasn’t tan enough, blonde enough, or skinny enough to meet the societal standard of beauty. I felt like my life wasn’t good enough because it wasn’t as perfect and consistently happy as everyone else’s. It seemed like everyone was just posting to compete about whose life was more perfect, and I always felt like I was losing.

But one day it hit me, Instagram itself wasn’t the problem. The problem is how people are using it. I was too busy following the wrong people who were promoting this false idealism of perfection and who were displaying the message of “the skinnier the better”. Instead of following people with this negative influence, I knew I needed to make a change to the content I was seeing on Instagram.

And that’s exactly what I did. I said goodbye to the Kardashians and all the other people who made me feel worse about myself after looking at their posts. I have started to transform my feed into one that makes me feel uplifted after looking through it by following inspiring and positive people.

My favorite account that I have started following is called @I_weigh and was founded by actress Jameela Jamil. The account is part of a revolution to change the beauty standards created by photoshop and to make them more inclusive of all body types.It also centers its content around motivating people to value what’s within and to stay confident in the potential that they have (examples of her posts on the side).

For me, this technique of changing who I follow has been really successful as it has helped me stop myself from using the app for comparison or validation. Now I find myself using Instagram less obsessively and I don’t feel any negative emotions after using it because I no longer view it as a competition. I’m using Instagram for better purposes now, to stay connected with those I care about and to laugh.

Sadly, studies have shown that the more adolescents use social media, the more likely they are to show symptoms of depression or anxiety. Whether or not your symptoms may be this extreme, you should still be cautious of how much time you are spending online. For me, simply changing my purpose behind why I was using it helped to fix the anxiety of not being perfect enough compared to everyone else. Maybe this same technique will work for you, maybe it won’t. But it’s worth a shot.

The next time you’re scrolling through your social media, ask yourself, what is the purpose behind me looking at this? How is it making me feel? Be honest with yourself. If you don’t like your answers then make those adjustments of changing who you follow or how much time you spend on it.

Because at the end of the day, our mental health should be our biggest priority. So do yourself a favor, and think before you scroll.