The first full week of October is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Mental health is a topic I’ve written at length about before, but I feel it is worth reiterating how important seeking help is for those suffering. I’ve been struggling with mental health issues for most of my life. The burden has been more cumbersome at some points than others, but its existence has been constant throughout. Over that time, I’ve been in-and-out of treatment sporadically, through several different practitioners and facilities. One thing has become abundantly clear to me in the times I was out of treatment: I don’t know how to help myself.

Whether it be because of financial burden, social stigma or any other reason, seeking out professional help presets a major barrier for many suffering from mental health issues. However, coming from personal experience, suffering in silence is one of the worst things for your mental state, allowing for it to deteriorate further. So, for the sake of your own well-being, please, please, please seek help, in whatever form that may be.

One thing I want to be made abundantly clear is that caring for your mental health is not one size fits all. Professional care providers treatment tailored to your specific situation rather than uniformly treat every person the same. Beyond just differing diagnoses, an individual’s own circumstances and different levels of severity within their condition(s) determine the best course of action for their treatment. A psychiatrist won’t just blindly toss you a bottle of Prozac and shove you into talk therapy. Much of the process with seeking professional help is related to finding the best course of action given your own, personal circumstances.

As well, no treatment is set in stone: Doctors will modify and regulate medications and other outlets over the course of your treatment to find what works best. Don’t allow yourself to be discouraged if your path of treatment doesn’t work right off the bat, or if you have an adverse reaction to a medication. Everything can be modified with proper oversight to make sure that treatment does not stagnate or make your situation worse. Even diagnoses are subject to change over time. I’ve made the mistake of ending treatment in the past because I didn’t like the way it was progressing. This didn’t solve any of my issues and my mental health only continued to be an issue while I was out of treatment.

The main advice I can give to someone seeking mental health care is to be persistent. Recovery doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time—in many cases, years—to really see substantial progress and to find the ideal treatment path. Making the initial step to be vulnerable and externalize issues that have been internal for a long time is a massive undertaking for anyone. And the path beyond that first step can be difficult and grueling. But no matter how difficult it may become, you just have to push through. You want to get better, no matter how long it takes or how hard the process may be.

I feel very unjustified in my decision to not consistently stay in treatment for the majority of my life. I deeply, deeply regret this and wish I had just pushed through and kept up with getting help. Like I said earlier, I didn’t know how to help myself. But a trained professional does. Even if professional treatment isn’t an option for you, other sources, such as the campus group Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling and Resource Center, are available to supplement (to a degree) expert, professional treatment. But my point is thus: Don’t let yourself suffer. Reach out; seek help; let yourself get better.

I feel this goes without saying, but if at any point you become suicidal, please seek immediate help from the multiple on- and off-campus services, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

SAMHSA’s National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255