24/11/2025
FEATURE | The Real Act Behind Curtains
How the youth silently battle their mental health with a pretend facade.
Struck by the spotlight, hitting your face tight, acting to let the audience believe that it's true — the character you show to anywho. Along the crew of chatters and big laughter, the strings get pulled through; the red curtains open something new — the truth. The act of torment and pain, the struggling mental state, battling it all alone, wailing in the dark, navigating the light on their own. The youth performs the role of acting fine when, in fact, their mental health declines.
The Mask Cracks
To perform on stage, you must be able to portray your character well by putting on a mask – changing your whole persona to channel this role, illuminating the people that the character is you.
However, upon putting this mask on are the consequences you will face, pretending to be someone that you are not and in the state of mental instability. Instead of seeking the help you need, you internally try to conquer your emotions – not burden those around you.
Setting in a battlefield as a lone soldier attempting to combat your own emotions. And when your mask gets attacked, its fragments begin to crack, to reenact no luck battling in your own act.
The youth begin to hide their true feelings behind the masks and silently conduct the play of war in mind, causing the ultimate stress to these individuals, expressing their mental instability on their own through meltdowns and breakdowns and as this follows their masks become their hidden faces with broken pieces.
A Costume That Consumes
Sketched by the designers of the society, a garment specially designed, tailored to your growing years. Wearing the feel of societal expectations through the textures of academic pressure, judgment, and social norms.
Scripts and emotions, adjusted to the cue. This costume becomes the skin you shed to, replacing the dead inside you with something brand new. Appearing to look better and stronger but the cells of who you are still remain true.
In the ultimate idea of change and adjustment, according to the studies of the World Health Organization, one in seven adolescents around the globe experience a mental disorder. A number of the youth experience overwhelming feelings of isolation, burnout, insecurity — especially to those who seek to appear strong, creating a stronger sense for mental illness as they create incredible stress leading to depression and anxiety which are the leading causes of illness to the young as UNICEF reported.
Showcasing the truth of many adolescents, relentlessly persisting in their own battles in silence. While social validation may comfort them, as the act continues to play, the costumes slowly become heavy to display, carrying the abundant weight until when the performance will culminate.
A Muted Mic, A Mental Fright
Rehearsed, practiced, repeated all over again. You are prepared to tell your lines on the stage. However, as soon as you step by it. Once the ready becomes the needy. Your mind took a flight, in this act. You are your own mic, you amplify your voice but the microphone is muted, it defects and the silence deafens the stage. Malfunctioned by the function of your mental health, a mental block. Afraid to try again as all eyes wander around you, demonstrating silence, frightened to create any more mistakes.
This is a common experience of the youth where mental blocks occur in fear of failure and judgment. Instead of getting back on track, to avoid further happenings, they let it affect them – Diminishing their confidence, paralyzing their thinking – Continuing in the deafening silence in muted microphones.
Where technicality is needed to let the voice be heard, the microphone must be fixed. Through the mechanical use of opening up the parts that need repair — the mental stability of the youth - one must practice seeking help from those who can truly support your well being. Admit that you are not well inside and need a stable bond in order for your components to function in union.
It is okay to not be okay. The first stage in this restoration phase is to call for help when your mental health is tangled in distress. Reaching out through personal relationships and professional help in your battle of mental silence is a step in allowing your microphone to now finally amplify — with nothing but the truth of your voice.
To Perform Is To Reform
As you take your final bow, hearing the screams and shouts for how you’ve now become. There is something to be proud of — the act of improving from the state you had lost. May this be the future experience of the youth that silently battle their mental states on stage.
Through the rehearsals of the lines — admitting that you may not be fine — and the choreography of seeking help when your mental stability is not in line, being able to perform is to reform – Practice and develop yourself to achieve mental well-being.
While these velvet curtains close, may there be no one backstage playing the role of pretend — for that act should be put to a forever end.
Feature by: Victor Adam Arquillo
Art by: Maureze Dream Ornillo
Layout by: Jenica Jay Robiso
