Mental Illness Awareness Week: Caring for Your Mental Health

The first full week of October is Mental Illness Awareness Week, an opportunity to continue conversations about mental health, reduce stigma, and remind ourselves that taking care of our mental health is an important part of our overall wellbeing.

Awareness and acceptance of mental health concerns have grown over the past several years, but stigma and barriers to care still exist. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.2 billion people worldwide were living with a mental disorder in 2023.

Younger adults are also experiencing mental health concerns at particularly high rates. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 26.6% of adults ages 18–29 experienced symptoms of anxiety, the highest rate among the adult age groups studied. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) similarly reports that young adults ages 18–25 had the highest prevalence of any mental illness among adult age groups.

These numbers are an important reminder that mental health challenges are common and affect people, families, and communities around the world. Understanding some of the pressures affecting our mental health can help us respond with greater compassion, healthier habits, and a willingness to seek support when we need it.

What Can Affect Our Mental Health?

There isn’t one reason someone may experience anxiety, depression, stress, or other mental health concerns. Often, several things are happening at the same time.

Financial pressures related to food, housing, healthcare, and savings can leave people feeling overwhelmed. Social media can sometimes intensify stress through comparison or take the place of more meaningful connections. Isolation and social division can also make it more difficult to build supportive relationships and feel connected to others.

Life changes, relationships, work, school, family responsibilities, grief, and other stressors can also affect how we’re feeling and functioning.

That’s why paying attention to our mental health before we reach a crisis point is so important.

Checking In With Yourself

Mental health awareness can begin with something as basic as checking in with yourself.

How have you been sleeping? Are you feeling more stressed or irritable than usual? Have you stopped doing things you normally enjoy? Are you feeling connected to other people, or have you started pulling away?

Recognizing physical and emotional changes can help us notice when we may need additional self care, coping strategies, or support.

Small daily habits can make a difference. That might include monitoring sleep and stress, setting reasonable goals for the day, taking breaks, practicing mindfulness, spending time doing something enjoyable, or setting boundaries around social media.

Connection matters, too. Making time to interact with people you trust, reaching out when you’ve been feeling isolated, or being open to developing new connections can all be important parts of caring for your mental health.

When It May Be Time to Consider Therapy

Self care and healthy coping strategies are important, but sometimes we need additional support.

Therapy can provide a safe and supportive space to talk about what you’re experiencing and dedicate time to your mental health. Through conversation, reflection, and skill building, therapy can help people better understand themselves, recognize patterns, develop healthier ways of coping, and work through challenges affecting their daily lives.

Therapists can also use evidence based approaches to help people experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship concerns, grief, stress, and other mental health challenges.

You don’t have to wait until things feel overwhelming to consider counseling. Sometimes recognizing that something hasn’t felt quite right and deciding you’d like some support is enough reason to start the conversation.

Mental Health Awareness Beyond October

Mental Illness Awareness Week gives us an opportunity to talk openly about mental health, but these conversations matter throughout the year.

Continue checking in with yourself and the people around you. Make room for rest and connection. Pay attention when something changes. And if you or someone you know is struggling, remember that reaching out for support is an option.

Taking care of our mental health doesn’t have to begin with a crisis. It can begin with noticing how we’re doing and deciding what we might need next.