Intention

Breaking the stigma around mental health

The main purpose of Love’s essay is to encourage more openness with and acceptance of mental issues – particularly in men. Love points out that mental problems get much less attention than physical ones. This is both because they are typically harder to see, and because speaking openly about one’s mental well-being is sometimes associated with weakness (especially among men and boys – see below).

More specifically, Love wants to remind people that it is good to share their emotions, and that other people may be going through difficulties even if they seem tough on the outside: “Everyone is going through something that we can’t see” (l. 101).

Love’s goal is to improve the situation by sharing the story of his own panic attack (showing the negative consequences of suppressing difficult emotions), and the therapy sessions that followed (showing the benefits of being open about mental issues). Love thus uses his personal story to make some generally relevant points about mental health, hoping to play a p...