When I was watching the Tokyo Olympics, I saw a decorated Olympian, by the name of Simone Biles, deciding to focus on her mental health rather than to compete in the events. Seeing that lets me know that, although many of us know that mental health is a serious issue, many of us do not believe that it can have catastrophic effects. Mental health issues affect not only athletes, but also your everyday men, women and children. One of the major mental issues that is rarely spoken about, but affects millions of individuals within society is depression. Even within the prison system, you have many individuals who are battling with depression during and after their incarceration, so it is safe to say that this issue was happening prior to their incarceration. When untreated, it has the potential to exacerbate the longer that they are incarcerated. Depression does not differentiate between black or white; or rich or poor because it is costly for everyone. I understand that mental health is a very important issue that we really need to look into and not continue to overlook, ignore or take for granted.
Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash