10 October was World Mental Health Day (WMHD). A fabulous initiative to get everyone talking about mental health with the primary aim to "promote awareness of #MentalHealth in the workplace," although I would argue that it did more than just promote mental health in the workplace and actually from what I could tell it got loads of people talking about mental health in general, from sharing their experiences, feelings, pain, anguish and with others providing advice, support and a shoulder. What a fantastic idea and something especially easy to join in with in the age of Twitter.
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| Sorry, wrong kind. |
Then there was Mental Health Awareness Week that took place 7-13 May this year (I remember, because I was in Ireland at the time) which did a similar thing. I wrote my Seven Steps to Stability blogs during the 2014 week to mark the 'occasion.'
These are two brilliant examples of initiatives that get people talking about mental health with, lets be honest, the main aim of trying to douse the flames of stigma that sadly still exist today. But much that I laud these dedicated periods of time to talking about mental health, I hate that we still have to run them at all. Surely by now we should, as a human race, be in acceptance that mental health problems happen, that they are nothing to be ashamed of and that we should get good quality help without judgement. Why is this still deemed as fantasy? Why is it that mental health is still not on a level playing field with physical health when it comes to treatment, when we have reams of evidence that emphasises how massive an impact mental health problems have on so many people's lives? Why do people still feel ashamed of themselves if they do finally admit to having a mental health problem?
Stigma.
Is it fallacy to think that we could ever live in a world where WMHD is not required? Time to Change doesn't need to exist because we have actually changed, because openly talking about mental health is embedded into modern society and dialect? Mental health charities don't need to provide access and referrals to private therapists because waiting times and therapy quality on the NHS is at least on a par with physical issues?
People will be laughing at these moon-on-a-stick suggestions, but why? When so many people are suffering - and I don't exaggerate the term - around the world with anxiety, depression, OCD, schizophrenia, bipolar and so on, why do we still struggle to speak out, to not be judged? Why does the fear of this fuel our illness and make it even worse, prolonging it for months and years more than it should be?
Stigma.
I am fortunate in that most people I have ever told about my history of mental illness - anxiety - has received it warmly with no evidence of blame or 'wow, you're weird' type looks, or anything worse such as abuse. But these people do exist for us to continue living in a world where speaking out about mental health problems and getting appropriate help can still be so bloody difficult.
Who are they? I will probably offend many by making sweeping generalisations here, but ultimately there are still a lot of people that refuse to open up and think the answer to everything lies in stubbornness. The same people are likely to think that anything wrong with someones life is their own fault. These people have perfect lives, of course (!), and so if any one else opens up that they have a mental health problem, that their life is not perfect, it is their fault in these people's eyes, and they therefore get blamed or are perceived as weird, weak or both. This sort of attitude isn't just to blame (see, now I'm playing the blame game - but in the right context I hope) for the stigma around mental health, by the way; it is to blame for numerous other issues we face, the likes of which I won't mention for fear of stoking up unnecessary political arguments which this blogging website is not meant to do.
This reason I give for the existence of stigma is just a theory by the way, but I know a lot of people who are, by no fault of their own, born with this sort of attitude and the sheer quantity of such individuals is possibly the reason why people fear speaking out about having mental health problem or struggle to get help for it for fear of being 'found out' and perceived negatively - which of course in most cases would worsen the mental health problem originally identified.
It is very difficult to change people's attitudes when they are like this, again because they believe they are always right. I have spent much of my 9+ year career trying to persuade people that climate change is important. Many won't appreciate that it even exists, regardless what I say. The only thing that changes their mind is when they get directly impacted by it itself, e.g. if their home gets flooded. This is utter nonsense of course, because a home getting flooded could be an isolated incident that is nothing to do with climate change, but because suddenly a potential impact of climate change affects them directly, they take an interest in it.
It's similar with mental health. If they suddenly experienced a mental health problem, or someone very close to them did, mental health would suddenly be a concern to them, because it's real. The thing they have slagged off for years and been ignorant about suddenly becomes part of their life. But until that happens, their attitude won't change.
It's basic behavioural psychology.
I would be very interested to know how many of the unconverted, if you like, i.e. those people I've been writing about who give us mental health stigma due to their attitude, have changed their minds about mental health as a direct result of days such as WMHD. Such statistics would be very hard to collect and therefore probably don't exist, but my point is, what is the most likely response to an unconverted individual about WMHD, or an equivalent day or week? Is it:
a) Oh wow, I did not realise how much of an effect mental health problems have on so many people. I am going to learn more.
b) What a load of nonsense; young people crying out for attention again.
If anything, WMHD and others could potentially just fuel their anger and make the stigma worse, although again I have no evidence to back this up. It's a bit like Greenpeace; their forceful tactics often put people off the issues around climate change rather than convert them to understanding it; I worry that WMHD or equivalent could do the same.
So, sadly, I don't know what the answer is to eradicate the stigma that we know still exists today. WMHD and equivalent initiatives are still worth doing because, as I said at the start of this blog, it helps those people with mental health problems get help due to the sudden spike of exposure that happens on such days, especially with the movement of social media. But is it really improving stigma overall?
The good news is that mental health stigma seems overall to be a lot less than it was even a few years ago, for various reasons (which may include temporal events like WMHD; I could well by wrong in my summary above). By hook or by crook, by more people talking and opening up, we're getting there. But people still suffer in the hands of those who don't understand, or even worse, belittle them because they have a problem or blame them. I fear that the attitude of some of these people will never be changed by movements like WMHD - and I say that with experience in other fields.
Which is why it's even more important for the government to ensure that treatment for mental health problems is soon not the shambles that it remains today. That doctors and police know exactly how to act when they speak to someone with a mental health problem; their often unhelpful reactions can fuel the stigma even further. Perhaps if change comes from the top - especially from this government who (sweeping generalisation) are often the government of choice for the sort of people I'm referring to - it may start to make these people think that this is a series issue. At least the government now are talking the talk, but will they walk the walk? Time will tell.
All I would say is, if you're reading this and have, or suspect you may have, any sort of mental health condition and don't know where to turn - speak to someone. And if they give you stigma laden bollocks in return, speak to someone else until you get the help you need. Don't give up. Your silence must be heard.
Best wishes,
Al
