Written by L.R Jinji
Hello my fellow reader! Today we have something unconventional in nature, unlike the first post, today the post is about someone else’s outlook to mental health. For Mental Health Awareness Month, I decided to conduct an interview with a singular man, a man who struggled with mental health himself. His perception on Mental Health is an interesting one to say the least, we covered five questions that allowed us to get a view into his opinions over this subject. I ask of you to be open minded to his opinions, as we are with yours, so let's dive in!
To jump into the start of this, Julian Castor was questioned five different questions all retaining to the subject of mental health. The first question being, “What is mental health to you? What do you think of when you hear the term ‘Mental Health’?”, which was a tough question. Not a lot of people have a stable description of such a complex concept, yet he was able to sum it up to the best he could. He answered with..
“The mentality of someone, like the state of mind someone could be in. For example, they could be depressed, you could be on a happy high, or like even in the mid range where you aren’t happy nor sad. Like where you are trying to figure out yourself.” End of quote.
Castors original outlook on mental health, without having a true amount of time to fully come up with a more defined definition of said concept, is that it's simply the state of mind of someone. Bound by emotions and how we “feel”, he uses the common emotions of happiness and sadness as examples to give a clear view. This being said, this is a common outlook on mental health, not degrading his outlook at all, but it is a common outlook after all. By definition it is the state of mentality somebody is in, and it is within the limits of how emotions affect our daily life. Although a question emerges from this opinion of his, why is this base outlook so limited to just emotions? Mental Health is a broad spectrum, full of vastly different situations, unique to every human being. Surely it cannot be contained by just happiness and sadness, such as “ecstasy” or “depression”.
“Um, for a couple years I was pretty depressed, not going to lie. I thought about sui**** a lot.”
The second question, “How has Mental Health impacted your life?” Here, Julian provides a gateway for us to see why he has such a compact definition of mental health, not the entire story, but a reasoning as to why he commonly associates Mental Health with just depression and happiness. He too has faced the dark side of such a confusing state, he did not fall into the deep pits of depression though, that was him finding a solution to his problem, but not before he had to revisit his dark past. Being faced with the third question, “What was your mental health journey like?”, it was not a pretty one to say the least. Experiencing family loss,and watching horrible atrocities being committed against someone he felt strongly about, it brought his self confidence low. How could he help himself if he couldn't help others? Even if it's his own family, he felt as if he was weak. Through the constant pain, the perpetual torture, and days of thinking, he learnt a solution. He surrounded himself with friends, not to distract himself, but to help himself realize that he in fact was not weak. Through friends and going out more, he was able to understand that people loved him, whether he was weak or not, his family and friends loved him no matter what.
“Probably around last year, when I met you and Keith, and me, you, and Keith both became close. That was what started to bring me out of that, going out a lot and hanging out, even my mom noticed me getting out of my room more. She even said to me that I was coming out of my room more and I’m actually doing stuff, she even said I looked happy. It’s tough, life is tough, just gotta make sure to get over the little hump and strive to become a better person.” End of quote…
His journey was full of hardship, it was tough. He walked over the little “hump”, stood tall before relieving himself through exhaling and inhaling new air. The shadow of the hill he had to climb no longer engulfed him, he instead casted his own shadow over it, leaving it in the past and continuing to move forward. It’s tough, life is tough, and just like he said, you have to get over that little hump and strive to improve as a person. This was his journey, but what about when he compares it to others? What happens when his views clash with other’s opinions? Enter the fourth question, “When you observe others, what is your opinion on their perception on Mental Health?”, and through disagreement or not, he understood that opinions are opinions despite the studies of this subject.
“I know people who believe that depression isn’t a real thing, even though science has even proved that a certain part of the brain produces serotonin and dopamine, so it is right there that it is real. I try to explain to people like that, but they just keep disagreeing, still that's their opinion, so that’s fine. I just leave it at that.”
Even with scientific proof, or even facts that back up his claims, Julian encounters those who decline the existence of mental health. They commonly associate it with just depression, anxiety, BPD, and such. The open mind of Julian does help with this difficult situation, he does not understand the complication of the brain, but he understands that there is a severe complication of the brain and mind present in the health of someone. He refuses to dismiss such a major plague that haunts people, which is why he feels so strongly about the subject. Later in the interview he does touch on some of the other aspects of Mental Health. Introducing the fifth question, “How do you feel about the publication and how mainstream media portrays Mental Health?”
“A lot of big instagram influencers, snapchat users, youtubers, tiktokers even, they all talk about how they believe mental health is a real thing. They even touch on how they struggled with their mental health”
“Those people who have such a big reach on people can truly change someone's life, I know fans of other people who have said ‘I don’t even know this person and they’ve changed my life, I just watch them or listen to them’, even rappers change lives.”
These two statements provide us with the insight of how he believes that the big names do in fact help with awareness of Mental Health. Which is huge, he does not alienate them due to their fame, or even dehumanize them because they have a huge audience. Everyone is still human no matter how famous or how much money someone has. The influencers who do take notice of such things do truly help out with awareness of Mental Health. They use their platform to spread it and it not only makes them open minded, but shows that “Hey, I am a human just like you, I understand”, which can help pull some people out of the darkness. It’s amazing how the media can do that when someone carries a message correctly, through the internet, some people eventually find solutions or seek help. In unconventional ways it may be sometimes, but advocacy is still “help” nonetheless.
For the last question, it was a lap back around to the first question. Julian was now given time to truly come up with a new answer, after being on the subject for a given time, his answer was a lot longer and more detailed. This was to show how he “truly” felt, mainly since his mind was warmed up to the said subject, he was given time to come up with a final conclusion to how he perceives Mental Health and what it means to him.
“I honestly think, like how I said at the beginning, like the mental state of the person. A person can seem as happy as they want, but it’s what's inside that matters, they can be just as depressed as anyone else.”
Yet, his views were not altered. That was not the point, but the ending to his first statement did raise an eye. He had gone to touch the fact that Mental Health is internal, not external. Although it can become external, it all originates from the internal state of one being. We all can carry the same state of mind, we are no different from one another. Through that Julian carries a last message, “I would like to say that if you are struggling with mental health, I would suggest seeking help. You don’t have to, but I strongly suggest it. It’s what helped me, it’s what helped a lot of my personal friends. It doesn’t even have to be multiple people, it can be one person that you trust entirely. It can be friends, parents, family, anyone you can think of. I believe that no kid should die before their parents, whether it should be by suicide or car accident, please think about how your mental health can effect others. I promise you that there is always going to be someone who cares, no matter what happens.”
With that I shall close out, please do seek help as Mr.Castor stated. You have nothing to be ashamed of, your health is top priority, no matter the severity of it, you deserve the world.
-From Unconventional Advocacy,
Written by L.R Jinji
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