Empathy is the ability to sense what others are feeling as well as understand them. Many people have problems they go through every day and nobody truly knows what they feel because they aren't them. Whenever a close friend or family member comes to me to get something off their chest, I try my best to understand the situation they're going through and hope to have a similar experience as them so they know that they aren't alone. I listen carefully and give them all my attention so they'd feel I'm there for them. By looking at their facial expressions and actions, I could tell how serious something is. I've shown sympathy to a girl in the bathroom when I saw her break down in tears, not knowing what she's going through, I would ask her what's wrong. By letting her know that I'm willing to listen even though I don't personally know what's the situation. Sometimes talking to a stranger would make things a little better because they're an outside person.

Mental health has been on the rise in the last decade. Between 1 to 2 people in 100 have developed severe mental illnesses. Illnesses can be from depression, bi-polar, to schizophrenia. Between 76% to 85% of the people in the world aren’t able to find the proper treatment they need due to low income and can’t afford the therapy hours needed causing them to carry the burden all through their life. Majority of the population tend to keep their mental health issues hidden from family members or friends who wouldn’t understand and are afraid of their reactions to the issue. This causes them to live with the conditions alone and cope with the symptoms badly. Anxiety and depression is the top illness that today’s millennials experience with their parents telling them it’s not really real, causing them to struggle to live their daily lives. Many of my friends are the children of immigrant parents and foreign parents, including my own, aren't the biggest believers of mental health problems. The lack of education provided about mental health wasn't given to immigrant parents because of money issues or to find a better place to start a life, mental illness is the last thing on their mind. Children of asian American, Pacific islands, and Latinx immigrants have a significantly higher percentage of developing depression, anxiety, and PTSD. These issues are seeds planted by their parents and new people around them who express inequality, cultural segregation, and language barriers. These kids have the weight of their whole family on their shoulders causing them to feel stressed, seeing that they need to be successful in the future to support their parents who moved to a new country to give them a better life. Though I haven’t helped a whole community, I do like to say that I’ve expressed leadership to a few of my friends. I’ve experienced, hopefully only a small symptom of mental illness. Many wouldn’t feel comfortable talking to strangers on the hotline crisis, as I’m being honest, sometimes it doesn’t feel like the best option when talking about a personal issue. But everyone has their preferences of getting help for their mental illness. The way of helping my friends cope with their personal mental illness, I let them feel safe and comfortable with talking to me. By building a trust and an understanding connection with them, it tends to feel easier on them when someone who truly understands them is there for them. Letting them understand that they aren’t alone when it comes to coping with these symptoms. I hope to help anyone I can when they go through these terrible times, reminding them that there’s always a rainbow after a bad storm.