[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7288]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Holding) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOLDING. Mr. Speaker, the challenges we face today are different 
from the challenges we faced when Mental Health Awareness Month began 
decades ago, but now, it is more important than ever that we take time 
out of our busy schedules to speak about the prevalence of mental 
illness and understand the importance, as friends, as family members, 
and as a community, of discussing the common signs of mental illness.
  Mr. Speaker, you may be surprised to learn, as I was, that 1 in 5 
adults experience mental health problems each year; and, while each 
illness is unique, there are some common signs that you or a loved one 
could be suffering from mental illness, like difficulty concentrating 
or experiencing a change in sleeping habits.
  As parents, we must make an effort to talk to our children about 
their emotions and their mental health, just as we care for our 
children's physical health, by encouraging them to eat well, get enough 
sleep, and exercise frequently.
  Without a doubt, Mr. Speaker, America is one of the most blessed 
countries in the world. We are all offered the opportunities for life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Raising healthy families, both 
physically and mentally, is one of the responsibilities that comes with 
those freedoms.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, the more voices we have speaking up about 
mental health, the better we can eliminate stigma surrounding mental 
health conditions. The National Alliance on Mental Illness of North 
Carolina is asking individuals in my home State, North Carolina, to see 
the person and not the illness and pledge to be stigma-free.
  It is time to end the silence and stigma often linked with mental 
health conditions, and I join them happily in this effort.

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