Some outward symptoms are sometimes referred to as ‘cries for attention’ in a very dismissive way, like if people really wanted help they would ask for it. The problem is that sometimes people want help but they don’t know what they want. Or they are afraid. Or they have been ignored so many times that they think asking will result in silence, because they’re so used to being invisible. Or they think that no one will offer the help they need, that people will sneer at them for daring to occupy space with a request for assistance. So they stay silent, and they seek deeper into wherever they are.

[..] Outward symptoms of mental illness can be scary, I get it. But mental illness can also be really scary. When you’re in a place where it is expressing outwardly, that’s sometimes a really, really scary place to be. I have been a shouter on a street corner and it is not pleasant because there is a part of you that is screaming in terror and longing for someone to come help. But you can’t say ‘help me’ because you don’t know what help looks like, you think you don’t deserve help, you’re afraid that ‘help’ might take a form that actually hurts you, so instead you shuffle through life, invisible, thinking this can’t be the only way.