I talk every once in a while about mental health topics. I have suffered with depression during childhood and for most of my adult life. I'm not ashamed of it and no one who suffers from it, which includes a giant chunk of the population, should be. There's no shame in it.

Why is it that when you have a problem such as a migraine, it's considered a physical health problem and there's no stigma behind it. But if you have a problem with the EXACT SAME PART OF YOUR BODY, your brain, and have anxiety or depression, there's some sense of shame in it?

It doesn't make any sense. Issues that affect our thinking or mood often have a physical component to it.

But we don't make people feel bad or like they're defective when they go to the doctor because they have a physical injury.

We do when people have mental health issues.

And because of this, a lot of people who need help resist getting it. Which, again, doesn't make any sense.

There is nothing weak about having a problem and owning up to it and getting help to fix it. That's strength. That takes courage.

The same thing is true for people who choose to take on other mental health issues such as addiction. There is nothing wrong with getting a problem fixed. That's how we become healthier people.

A lot of us are carrying serious baggage around with us that we've been carrying since childhood. A lot of us have chronic issues with anxiety and depression and many people try to deal with it through unhealthy means that create even more problems. Why not get better?

On the extreme end, suicide is and has been for quite some time one of the top 10 leading causes of death. There is no shortage of people who are suffering, quietly and not-so-quietly.

But we can get better. There have never been more ways to get help and to get better than now

The irony is that anxiety and depression are both extremely treatable. We can live a better life. We don't have to stay where we've been.

We can't do anything about yesterday. But today and tomorrow can be incredible. We just need to get healed up.