I was told to give up on my dream of becoming a psychologist during my first semester of my bachelors degree. I was told that because I am on the autism spectrum that I would never be able to help anyone. I never understood why my own professor would tell me that I was not going to be needed in the mental health workforce. This did not stop me, however. It did not even slow me down. Now I am pursuing a masters degree and have long since passed that class with flying colors. I became interested in psychology, specifically mental health psychology, back when I was in middle school. I was 12 years old and a self harm hotline called me every Tuesday and a suicide hotline called me on every third Wednesday of the month. I was depressed, anxious, and needed help. I never got that help as a child, and instead turned to psychology. I did all I could to learn about what was happening while on the internet, doing small tips and tricks that therapists supposedly used as homework to help myself in any way I could. With the help of some friends along the way I became someone who could function on a day to day basis without needing to be checked in on. But I also knew that I was not the only kid out there who was hurting the same way I had been, and I knew plenty of people who were becoming adults or already were adults who suffered the same issues. While some people like to tell others that they “would not understand” the problems that they are facing, when it comes to at least some of the more difficult mental health illnesses, I will be able to say that I absolutely do understand. I decided that I needed to be part of the change I wanted to see as a child and that I can not feel fulfilled in this world until I know I have helped other people the same way I wish that I had been helped. The mental health field is constantly growing and expanding as we develop new understandings of mental health issues and as society itself develops. Gender therapy is not something that anyone would have thought about as more than “conversion” before the 2000s, but nowadays it can help people in the LGBTQ+ community find peace within themselves as they affirm their identities. As we as humans progress in society, we need more help as well. I am sure gambling addictions also were not a thing a long time ago, and yet now it is its own disorder in the DSM-V. These changes don’t just mean that current psychologists will need to be on a constant search for new knowledge, but it also means that we need new psychologists to take on this work, to specialize in these fields and research them. I have not yet found a type of mental health illness or disorder that does not interest me to work in, and I would love to find what type of work is most needed in my area so I can try to help as many people without access to these resources as possible. A growing field also does need fresh faces, as unfortunately not every psychologist out there intends to learn the new social norms and standards- discrimination and diversity is a challenge people face in every facet of the world. This can be battled, however, every single day as we strive to make change in our respective fields and walks of life. I have seen my fair share of mental health in my day to day life. People I love struggle with suicidal ideation, family members struggle with varying degrees of autism, nearly all my friends having anxiety or depression, my brother-in-law having schizophrenia and being in prison for an episode he had without medication. Beyond just the people closest to me, however, when I talk to strangers I see it is common. I work retail and try to be interested in anything people tell me, and the amount of people who have confessed being depressed, relapsing drug users, agoraphobic, or even suffering with major depressive disorder from the loss of a family member would probably surprise someone who does not know how bad the mental health crisis in America is. Many of these people do not think that therapy works, assume it is just a direct line to getting prescribed “anti-personality pills” as I have heard them called so many times, or quite simply cannot afford mental health care. Some of them even seem to think that making memes on the internet might cure them. While relatable and funny, this has always concerned me. Although I cannot make people believe in the effectiveness of therapy, I can do my best to make it as accessible as possible and to do my best to reach out to as many people as will allow me to. What I can do is change the statistics, even if only somewhere in the decimals, as much as I can. I want mental health care to be as normalized as getting an annual check-up at your doctor’s office or your dentist. While unrealistic for current day America, that does not mean that we should not strive for it. It would be an extremely effective way to bring down the numbers of people who have ideation of or are committing suicide, I would imagine. Of course, mental health therapy just is not as accessible to some people as it is to others. I have studied, both in my own time and during my undergrad, American Sign Language in hopes that I might be able to give access to a whole group of people in my area who may have never been able to consider therapy. I once met a Deaf lady while I was still in my first semester of American Sign Language who asked me why my hands were shaking. I explained to her that I had anxiety since I had not communicated using solely sign language outside of class before. She told me that she was not aware of a word for “anxiety” in sign language and did not even know what the word meant. Together we went online and I showed her a very basic outline of both the feeling and the disorder and she told me that she was very happy to have learned something new. She also admit to me that she could recall quite a few times feeling anxious, although did not know if she could consider it a disorder. I asked why not seek therapy, to which she told me she did not know how since she was deaf. That was when I realized that an entire populous of people was being sorely underrepresented and likely going widely unhelped and untreated for all sorts of mental health disorders and illnesses. I hope that I can also become fluent enough in American Sign Language to be able to reach out to people in the Deaf community as well. I have been under the impression since that day that even these extreme statistics that are reported by the CDC, MHA and NAMI are very likely underrepresenting or possibly not even accounting for people in the Deaf community, depending on what kind of sampling was taken for those studies. This is even more alarming and is something that I would like to hopefully either be proven wrong in or be able to help rectify. I am studying to get my masters degree in clinical mental health therapy psychology. I want am defying what my professor told me during my undergrad, because I know that even if I would not be the perfect fit for every single person as a therapist, I know I can be the right fit for plenty of other people. Her false, stereotyped perception of what my own mental disabilities make me will never define who I am or what I can do. My own experiences help me empathize with others and have made me aware of how desperately some people just need the support and the knowledge to start their self-healing journey. Some people need something much more intensive than that, and that is okay too. Even if someone needs help beyond autism, depression, anxiety, PTSD or suicidal ideation, I strive to learn and not let those people flounder around in the dark. I will make sure someone can help them with even their most difficult mental health struggles. I will become the help I once needed and I will become the change that this world so desperately needs to see.