THE RAFFLE IS FINALLY CLOSED!!! Happy Saturdayyyy 🌈🌷🌞 OKAY..

THE RAFFLE IS FINALLY CLOSED!!! Happy Saturdayyyy 🌈🌷🌞 OKAY, so as many of you know, mental health is a subject that’s very important to me. I, myself, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 5 yrs ago, but have struggled with it my entire life. I also have attention deficit disorder, which is a learning disability, but has also had a major impact on my life. Luckily, I have parents who, while they haven’t actually experienced any mental illness firsthand, have done everything they could to try and understand what I’m going through, as well as to get me the help I needed. Sadly, this isn’t the case for many of the people who live with mental illness. Oftentimes, people aren’t taken seriously when they open up about what’s going on and they never even get a diagnosis. Or they feel they’ll be judged and ostracized if they tell people, so they keep it all inside until things get so bad, they end up hurting themselves and/or others. This is really unfortunate since it’s been proven how extremely beneficial early intervention can be. The main problem seems to be lack of awareness, as many people don’t realize how common mental illness really is. It’s (understandably) hard/impossible to put ourselves in another person’s shoes and fully understand something we’ve never experienced. But it issss very possible to sympathize and be supportive without relating. This is why I’m so open about my diagnosis. We don’t choose what we go through and there shouldn’t be any shame. It’s heartbreaking to me that access to treatment is a privilege that not everyone has access to. That’s where charities and public donations come in. If you’re in a financial position to help, I ask that you please consider contributing, even if it’s just a few dollars!! Plus your donation doubles as a raffle entry! I mean come onnnn, how could you say no to that?! Hahah ;) I’ve done a lot of research on all the different mental health related charities and decided to go with the 👧🏻🧒🏼 (Chi l d) Mind Institute, because again, early intervention can make a huge difference. More about them: **”Mission: To transform the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders. Since half of all mental illness occurs before the age of 14 and 75% occurs by the age of 24, the 👧🏻🧒🏼 Mind Institute focuses on bettering the lives of children and families of children struggling with mental health and learning disorders. As a national nonprofit, they focus on direct care, education, community support, advocacy, and advancing scientific understanding. They make the following commitments: 1. Provide children with important access to effective and personalized care 2. Advance the science of the developing brain through crucial research, which will improve diagnosis and treatment. 3. Create and provide useful, accurate materials with information to empower families and communities to seek the help they need. Their personalized care offerings include in-person treatment at offices located in either New York City or the San Francisco Bay Area. Virtual telehealth treatment services are available to patients in California, New York, and New Jersey. 👧🏻🧒🏼 Mind Institute provides excellent support for families and teachers. In 2020, 👧🏻🧒🏼 Mind Institute pivoted all its programming to help serve families struggling with mental illness during the pandemic. They also helped provide additional resources to over 75,000 educators in New York City.”** Here are some more facts from NAMI (national alliance on mental illness), in case you’re still not convinced that this is a problem: •20.6% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2019 (51.5 million people). This represents 1 in 5 adults. •16.5% of U.S. youth aged 6-17 experienced a mental health disorder in 2016 (7.7 million people) •44.8% of U.S. adults with mental illness received treatment in 2019   •The average delay between onset of mental illness symptoms and treatment is **11 yrs** •55% of U.S. counties do not have a single practicing psychiatrist •High school students with significant symptoms of depression are more than **twice as likely** to drop out compared to their peers •37% of adults incarcerated in the state and federal prison system have a diagnosed mental illness •20.5% of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. have a serious mental health condition •suicide is the **second leading cause** of death among people aged 10-34 in the U.S. Okay, thanks for taking the time to read this!! If you’re not in a position to donate, that’s okay too! I think it’s just as important to educate yourself and learn to recognize some of the main signs of mental illness. We all know at least one person who’s suffering in silence, desperately hoping someone will notice they’re in pain. You can’t fix someone else’s problems, but it can be really helpful just to hear someone say “I don’t understand what you’re going through, but I understand you’re not okay and me not being able to relate doesn’t make it any less real” 😊💖 P.S. OnlyFans takes 20% of everything I earn on here, but I’ll be replacing what they take so that every dollar tipped on the raffle post will be donated!