Dear Future President,

I, and many around the world believe the issue of mental illnesses, specifically, depression needs to be looked at and discussed more. Depression is one of the most common sort of mental illnesses and most devastating because it takes a great deal of lives and greatly hurts much of the people involved with them. A change in providing mental illness aid is in dire need of attention, so those without or little help can find the help they need.

Depression is extremely devastating because it often leads to suicides, which is one of the biggest life takers in our land according to Mental Health America, “Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than 1% of all deaths”. A common problem that adds numerous deaths to the graves, yet we don’t see any government bring attention about this serious issue nor do we hear about most of it in the media. To add onto that, Mental Health America states, “30,000 Americans die by suicide each year; an additional 500,000 Americans attempt suicide annually”. When half of a million people annually attempt suicide, you know there is a problem that needs attention. Also, consider this, more years of life are lost to suicide than to any other single cause except heart disease and cancer. Depression isn’t a joke, so many lives are lost because they can’t find the help the need.

I really wanted to discuss about this issue because it connected to me on a personal level, I’ve had a few friends that had depression and suffered from it, one of which even considered suicide. A problem my friends have noticed is that they don’t even know or are aware that they’re depressed because there’s little to none information about where they can receive help for their mental state.

You see all sorts of things help for drug addicts in the web or media, but yet to see any help for depression. I just believe that if we bring more attention the issue of depression, we can reduce the amount of deaths & suicides, we can provide the help the depressed need. For the next president, I urge you to provide more options for the depressed for them to get help and cure/handle their mental illness.

Sincerely,

Vincent