Mental Health Struggles Feel Isolating
Struggling with your mental health feels like a battle you have to fight alone. Society tells us to keep it together, to smile through the pain, to avoid being a burden. But what if the real problem isn’t our struggle—it’s the silence we’re forced into? Let’s talk about the shame, the stigma, and why we need real spaces for honest conversations about mental health.
There’s a deep shame that comes with not doing well. Even when we get the chance to share what we’re feeling, genuine and effective help can be hard to find. Everyone has their own problems, their own burdens. We can’t expect them to take on ours, too. And let’s be honest—most people aren’t therapists. They don’t have the tools to guide you through difficult emotions or experiences, even if they care.
Opening Up Comes with Social Risks
Opening up about mental health comes with risks. You might not want to be seen as needy. You might fear revealing personal details that could damage relationships or your reputation. You could be labeled, stigmatized, or even ostracized. People want to feel good, to stay positive. They don’t want to deal with what’s weighing you down.
Is that selfish? Maybe. But it’s also self-preservation. It’s only logical for people to avoid discomfort or perceived threats to their own wellbeing. Let’s say you’re the most positive person alive and you were to try to helping a room full of deeply negative people see the positive in their lives. Even being the most positive person on Earth, their struggles and energy will likely affect you. Bringing up mental health in any conversation can make people uncomfortable, whether it’s your struggle or just the topic itself. Since we’re only human, that discomfort could be projected onto you, making people associate you with negativity and avoid you altogether. That’s a risk worth avoiding since so much of our lives depends on our social status.
Shame and Stigma Prevent Open Conversations
This is why so many of us instinctively hide our struggles. Why, when a friend asks if we’re okay, we force a smile and say, “I’m fine.” Why, when a colleague notices something is off, and asks us “What’s up?”, we shrug it off. Deep down, we understand the social consequences of admitting we’re struggling. Research shows that mental health stigma leads to discrimination in personal and professional settings, making people less likely to seek help (Corrigan & Watson, 2002).
Many people don’t have someone they can confide in—someone who will truly listen without judgment, without rushing to offer hollow advice. The truth is, showing weakness rarely plays in our favor. And in a world that’s becoming increasingly detached, individualistic, and solitary, mental health is suffering more than ever. Studies have linked social isolation to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and even premature death (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015). In my opinion, the fear of being vulnerable perpetuates these issues we’re experiencing as a society.
People might ask how you’re doing out of obligation, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to carry any of the weight. Once they ask, they feel relieved of the guilt had they ignored your struggle entirely. But after that, you’re still left alone with your reality. Possibly feeling even more isolated than before.
At the end of the day, the truth is, your life is in your hands. Your mental health is in your hands. If you’re feeling depressed—you have to try to fix it. No one else can do it for you. If you’re anxious—you have to learn to manage it. If you’re suicidal you have to reach out—the risk being you might terrify people who don’t know how to help you. What if we could prevent it from even getting that far? What if you knew where to go to find wisdom?
Build Better Support Systems
We are also responsible to our communities and the greater civilization as a whole. We must better support each other without fear of being judged. We must install this as a given social staple and not go monetizing it into oblivion. The current systems in place are not as effective as they could be. Mental health care is expensive, with many unable to afford professional treatment (SAMHSA, 2021).
So where does that leave us? If it’s not in our best interest to share our struggles publicly, then we need spaces where it is safe to talk about them. We need social resources—groups, organizations, clubs, forums, events—something beyond therapists that most people can’t even afford. Peer support groups and structured communities have been shown to significantly improve mental well-being (Repper & Carter, 2011).
Mental Health Struggles Are Worsening
Millions of people struggle with mental health every day. We live in stressful and rapidly changing times. And yet, expressing that struggle is still seen as shameful and unwelcome. Are we really just supposed to shove it down and “push through”? How many more people have to suffer in silence? How many more suicides? How many more people hopelessly wandering through life, drowning in emotions they don’t know how to manage? Especially the younger generations who have been saturated with dooming forecasts non-stop.
Enough. If open conversation about mental health carries social risks, we need dedicated spaces where people can discuss their experiences. We need to dismantle the stigma surrounding mental health struggles. The statistics show that this issue is getting worse. We’re evolving faster than ever—technologically, culturally—but mentally, we’re being left behind.
We can pretend it’s not happening, we can avoid the discomfort, we can keep ignoring it. Or we can build something better.
If the world is getting more challenging and we refuse to adapt, we are doomed. But if we choose to help each other—to create support systems, to talk openly, to evolve—we can turn the tide.
It will be important to have guidelines and leadership within the resources we create so that people not only get to express what it is they’re going through but also learn how to move on, to make peace, to enjoy the present and plan for the future.
This fight is almost all mental in the first place. We either face it together, or we suffer apart.
“Don’t be ashamed of needing help. You have a duty to fulfill just like a soldier on the wall of the battle. So what if you are injured and can’t climb up without another soldier’s help?” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.7
Sources:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2021). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Corrigan, P. W., & Watson, A. C. (2002). The paradox of self-stigma and mental illness. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9(1), 35-53.
Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., Baker, M., Harris, T., & Stephenson, D. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227-237.
Repper, J., & Carter, T. (2011). A review of the impact of peer support on mental health service users. Journal of Mental Health, 20(4), 392-411.