If you end up with depression, anxiety, OCD or any other condition, it can be hugely debilitating, often consuming your daily existence. Having someone, be they a family member or total stranger, dismiss it outright or accuse you of "faking it" or similar can only make it worse, compounding the problem.

    This is how campaigns to raise awareness of the issues can be beneficial. Just like how increased exposure to people of different ethnicities or backgrounds has been shown to reduced feelings of prejudice and suspicion, so increased exposure to mental health problems and what they mean for those who deal with them can enhance the understanding of those who don't have to.

    The human brain can still be overwhelmed by the complex world we inhabit, so when it comes to creating mental models of how the world works, it operates a general "stick to what you know" policy. As such, things that are different or unfamiliar, especially if they're confusing and uncertain or introduce an element of perceived threat or danger, are met with suspicion, doubt, dismissal and so on. All are defence mechanisms, in a way; it's the brain saying "this is not how the world is meant to work, so I must dismiss this challenging new information".

    But the brain is not that inflexible. Our idea of how the world works is adaptable and ever-updating. based on what we experience in our day-to-day lives. And if those experiences involve people discussing mental health and the issues around it, that's more likely to become part of how we see the world and so has less chance of unsettling us overall.

    This is especially important for mental health, as opposed to more physical ailments, because mental health problems often affect people's minds and understanding rather than their bodies (although there's copious overlap). Basically, someone experiencing a mental health problem or crisis may not realise this. Many need help and assistance to even accept they have an issue that requires dealing with. And the more there are people around them who are "aware" of mental health problems and how they manifest, the more likely this assistance is.

The main idea of the passage above is ....

(KISI-KISI SBMPTN 2021)