World Mental Health Week – #TimeToTalk

What Is World Mental Health Week?

World Mental Health Week is a week which runs annually across the planet in an attempt to encompass people of all conditions and normalise such whilst ending the social stigmas which surround an issue that currently affects millions of people across all walks of life and across the world. The initiative offers people the opportunity to speak out about the various issues, as well as offering advice – ultimately contributing heavily to the ongoing efforts to break down the horrific social condescencion upon negative mental wellbeing.

In this piece, I plan on talking about a number of issues on the agenda of mental health – things which both positively and negatively contribute to leading a fulfilling life. My overall message is to reinforce the message that it is simply impossible for people to be happy every single day of their lives – and that when help is needed, it is always at hand – somewhere, in some form – from somebody,

There’s a social stigma towards being open with mental health – not just in Ireland, but with a lot of countries across the world. The particular stigma I find one of the most striking is the one regarding men. Men are supposed to be this big strong brick wall that allow nothing to get past or go through to them. Any show of emotion or sign of weakness is simply a crack in our masculinity and is damaging to our reputation and social status.

Men can’t cry, men can’t be upset, men can’t be anything other than happy. So society would lead you to believe. Men can’t talk about how they feel, open up on emotional issues, or even as much as show a glimmer of their real selves without it being referred to as their ‘soft side’. I find this genuinely ridiculous.

Men and women experience many of the same mental disorders and feelings of negativity, stress, depressive episodes, anxiety among any others. However, the way the modern man has been constructed – we are fooled into believing that men are immune to the trials and tribulations of life. Realistically, there is an added pressure on males when they are feeling down – as there is a social expectation that they keep a stiff upper lip and bottle up their issues, rather than speaking out and seeking help. Having a mental health disorder or feeling down is not a weakness by any means. What is weak minded is that we expect men to be an all conquering picture of strength and authority at all times – that’s not the case.

Sadly, it’s as if we believe everything that we think. We never question our own thought processes. The mind is such a powerful thing that you can never really truly know somebody. You can be sitting in a room having a nice conversation but for all you know that person may be rotting away inside – their thoughts could be eating at them, driving them slowly insane. The signs are not always obvious – that’s why looking out for people is unfathomably important.

People turn to coping mechanisms – drug abuse, alcohol abuse, gambling. So much more. For me, I think a real man is someone who can stand up and not be afraid to show their emotions. Someone who can admit when they’re not feeling OK, someone who’s willing to talk to other people and seek help when necessary.

The bravest thing you can do is to admit to people when you’re not feeling yourself – which brings me to my next topic.

Across the internet, thousands of people have opened up and shared stories of their own personal issues with mental health – documenting their progress and explaining how they felt during the case of a bad spell of mental health. What these people are actively doing is encouraging others to follow suit and take action before the consequences become somewhat dangerous.

By speaking out about their experiences – people have been accused of attention seeking, fishing for likes, and so many more negative assumptions. What is actually happening is that when people speak out about their own experiences – they encourage others to come forward and do likewise, whilst also prompting others to realise it’s normal to feel the way that they do and that help is out there if there is a need to seek it.

Anyone who comes forward and willingly speaks to others about their own personal experiences is an incredible person. Whether they have suffered from depression, anxiety, have a mental disorder, a social condition – or have generally even just lead a challenging life. By coming forward, the stigma takes a hit.

We don’t talk about mental health enough. It’s the elephant in the room. More and more people are coming forward each and every year to talk about issues and things which have been troubling them – and that is absolutely fantastic. However, until we all learn to accept that not every day can be perfect – then can we ever truly be content with our lives?

We need to stop pressurising and pointing fingers at one another – and instead come together to support each other when it comes to an issue of such complexity.

If one person can inspire another to seek help or even just to talk to somebody – then they have made a telling difference in making a massive overall difference in modern day society.

The figures which surround mental health issues across the world, are absolutely horrific. They make for difficult reading.

Around 20% of the world’s children and adolescents have mental disorders or problems – most low to middle income countries have one child psychiatrist for every four million people.

Imagine having one psychiatrist for the entirety of Ireland – to put that case into perspective,

About 800,000 people commit suicide every year – suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.

For every adult who dies of suicide, at least twenty others attempt it. If you take this into account – it means that up to 16,000,000 people attempted suicide last year – 3.5 times the entire population of Ireland.

Stigma and discrimination against patients and families prevent people from seeking mental health care.

Human rights violations of people with mental and psychosocial disability are routinely reported in most countries – denial of basic human liberties,

One in five young people in Ireland are experiencing a mental disorder.

1 in 5  people in this country will suffer from depression at some point in their lives.

 

Take a close hard look at that last fact on that list, 1 in 5 people will suffer from depression at some point in their lives, Yet – we are a battle hardened society who refuse to believe that people can be or should be anything else other than happy.

This world is a very hard world to live in. In the age of social media and technological advances – it’s as if sometimes we’ve stopped living in the real world and let our lives become dominated and lived upon platforms of social media rather than in the here and now.

We are an era which thrives upon the instance of self-validation – we seek our happiness in other people and not in ourselves, We are constantly comparing our lives to the lives of others. We are greedy – always striving for more than what we already have, never content with what we have actually got. We never sit down and take a look at the bigger picture,

I appreciate that there are times when life can get too much for us – but perspective is a very very important thing. We cry when our phones freeze, when someone eats the last bar of chocolate, when we can’t find our keys – simple things, There’s people out there in some part of this world – that whether we can accept it or not, would only love for their problems to be as small as ours, They are starving, they are poor, they are homeless, they are war-torn, they are sick, they are dying,

We always jump to compare our lives to the lives of celebrities who seem to be the epitomy of happiness – but money and fame don’t equal a happy life. Sure, they probably help in some manner or means but when you truly can be content with your life is only when you are grateful for what you have and content with what is to come.

Sadly, whats wrong with our society is that we don’t accomodate for mental illness as an actual thing, People are treated as numbers, rather than human beings, People are thrown into institutions rather than being given the adequate care they may need to receieve to recover personally.

There are five key barriers currently in existence that are hindering the encompassing of mental health across the world:

 1. The absence of mental health from the public health agenda and the implications for funding.

2. The current organization of mental health services.

3. Lack of integration within primary care.

4. Inadequate human resources for mental health.

5. Lack of public mental health leadership.

Our society frowns upon those who suffer from mental health issues – and without these forms of activism, services will never be improved enough to help those who vitally need it.

Essentially, because of our historically condescending attitude to mental issues – we only have ourselves to blame that the appropriate systems of care are not entirely up to standard.

World Mental Health Week is the catalyst – in an era of change.

Help, is always at hand. No matter where from, no matter who from, no matter when, Whether you believe it or not, help will always be there. Be it from a professional or be it from someone you trust or someone you love – there is never nowhere to turn to. Someone will always be willing to listen, People are a lot more loved that they genuinely believe.

Like I said earlier – the modern world is a tough world to live in. It’s full of stress and it can be hard to cope with the trials and tribulations of every day life. Whatever is getting you down – whether you want to talk about it or not, you should – and you should always remember that you can.

There are services, there are people there, there are reasons to live and there are reasons to go on and beat mental illness.

Everybody has a rough patch in their lives – whether they admit it or not. I hate to sound cliche – but we genuinely, simply put – need to accept that it is OK not to be OK.

On a personal note – my own reflections on Mental Health Week would be just to offer some advice.

Life, is very short. Days can not always be good days. People will always be willing to listen.

Be grateful for what you have – appreciate all that is good in your life and be thankful that you have opportunities that other people would be willing to die for.

Tell people you love that you love them – you never know when is the last time you’ll ever speak to somebody.

Don’t be afraid to feel alone – it’s natural. We’ve all been there – we all know what it’s like.

You don’t need a diagnosis to feel mentally unwell – it can happen to anybody. Never be too embarassed to come forward about something that’s worrying you.

And finally, just to touch upon the issue of mindset and perspective once more. Read the following poem.

Today was the absolute worst day ever.
And don’t try to convince me that
There’s something good in every day
Because when you take a closer look
This world is a pretty evil place
Even if
Some goodness does shine through every once in a while
Satisfaction and happiness don’t last.
And it’s not true that
It’s all in the mind and heart
Because
True happiness can be obtained
Only if one’s surroundings are good
It’s not true that good exists
I’m sure you can agree that
The reality
Creates
My attitude
It’s all beyond my control
And you’ll never in a million years hear me say that
Today was a good day.

Now read it from bottom to top.

If writing on this issue will encourage anybody to feel less alone in their struggle with mental health – then my aim is certainly complete.