Mental health awareness week takes place between the 13th-19th of May this year. We all know that our mental health wellbeing is important, or at least we should ! Mental health problems can affect anyone, any day of the year, but this week is a great time to have a chat with a friend, family member or colleague and have think about it.The event is coordinated by the Mental Health Foundation https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/
The Mental Health Foundation, sets an annual theme each year. The theme this year will be Body Image, how we see ourselves and how that makes us feel.In a UK-wide stress survey in 2018, the Mental Health Foundation found that three in ten people felt so stressed by their body image and appearance at some point in the past year that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.
Nearly half (47%) of all 18-24 year olds felt this way about their body image as did almost one in five (18%) people aged 55 and over.
This is an issue that affects us all throughout our lives. Our body image can change as our bodies change, whether that’s in puberty, or in later life. Our sex, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and the way we, and the world sees our diversity can all play a part.
According to the World Health Organisation ;-,
https://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/
roughly 450 million people currently suffer from mntal health conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide.
It's no overstatement to say that Britain is living through a mental health crisis. From depression, to anxiety, to eating disorders, one in four of us will experience a mental health problem each year. Many of us increasingly experiencing daily life as a battle. Emotionally, our heads are only just above water.
Sadly despite the efforts of many, the subject of mental illness remains a taboo subject, the fact is that many in your community suffer from a wide of different problems like clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, and anxiety and others. In my community it is hardly ever talked about, many of us are left to face our problems in silence, we have to choose between societies consensus ways of dealing with things, medication, psychotherapy, counselling etc etc, or simply learning to forget. I don't have clear answers, but I now no longer bottle up my feelings or emotions, I have learnt techniques to release them. I refuse to be labelled.
I have also noticed how the press stokes up the fears and anxieties of mental illness, stigmatises people that should be getting some kind of support, in the midst of this the current tory government daily attacking the most vulnerable amongst us with their attacks on welfare claimants, cuts in services that are essential to peoples well beings.
What people with mental illness really need is support and understanding, to be accepted as we are openly and warmly, not to be used, as scapegoats, to be hidden and forgotten about. People who live with mental illness are among the most stigmatised groups in society. We are challenged doubly. On one hand with the struggle of our symptoms that result from our illnesses and then by the stereotypes and prejudice that results from peoples misconceptions about mental illness. Many people are robbed of opportunities that help define a quality life, jobs, safe housing, health care and affiliation with a diverse group of people, and are left feeling almost invisible and on our own. Prejudice leads to discrimination and so on. Everyone needs to experiences of 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' without the resort to crude stereotypes and attacks that do not help remove stigmatisation. It is time that people change their attitudes and outlook, and for politicians to redress the balance.
I personally have a trusty black dog that calls regularly that has made me the person I am. I unfortunately have no control over it, it just comes and calls when it likes. It suddenly creates sadness, fear, and all those turbulent feelings that drives one to self destruction, and nights with no sleep. I also get so angst ridden that I cannot leave my house, let alone phone a GP to seek help, because I fear I will be judged and blamed somehow, embarrassed and ashamed for something I have no control over. A tendency to affix blame and leave me feeling even more unworthy. I don't have clear answers, but I now no longer bottle up my feelings or emotions, I have learnt techniques to release them. I refuse to be labelled.
Mental illness scares us and shames us. Those who suffer are often, like me, ashamed to speak of it. Those who are lucky enough to be free of mental illness are terrified of it. When it comes to mental illness, we still don't quite get how it all works. Our treatments, while sometimes effective, often are not. And the symptoms, involving a fundamental breakdown of our perceived reality, are existentially terrifying. There is something almost random about physical illness, in how it comes upon us , a physical illness can strike anyone – and that is almost comforting. Were mental illness to fall into that same category, then it too could strike any of us, without warning. And that is terrifying.
But more than simple fear, mental illness brings out a judgmental streak that would be unthinkably grotesque when applied to physical illness. Imagine telling someone with a broken leg to "snap out of it." Imagine that a death by cancer was accompanied by the same smug headshaking that so often greets death by suicide. Mental illness is so qualitatively different that we feel it permissible to be judgmental. We might even go so far as to blame the sufferer. Because of the stigma involved it often leaves us much sicker.
It should be noted that many people believe that our Governments policies are actually fuelling the current mental health crisis. Budget cuts to mental health services combined with no genuine support are driving many people to the edge. As a result many young people and adults are left isolated facing long waiting lists for mental health therapies and diagnostic assessments. Prime Minister Maggie May herself said "On my first day in Downing Street last July, I described shortfalls in mental health services as one of the burning injustices in our country.
Despite these gestures the Tories have not delivered on their promise to give mental health the same priority as physical health.They have not offered no extra funding and have consistently raided mental health budgets over the last eight years. There are now over 6,000 fewer mental health nurses than in 2010. The number of psychiatrists employed by the NHS has fallen by four percent since 2014 , with a 10 percent drop in those who specialise in children's mental health and a similar drop in those working with older adults. Eight years of Tory Government have left those with mental health problems without the support they need. The only thing that the Tories deliver are empty words and actions that are shaping a society that does not help to tackle the injustice of unequal treatment in mental health. Also because of how dire the times are getting: not only are benefit cuts driving people to think of killing themselves, but low wages and welfare sanctions are making people ill, shortening people's lives. For many insecurity has become the way of life. You simply can't trust May and co on mental health.
To often mental health is swept under the carpet and ignored ,either because of the stigma and taboo surrounding it, so we have to keep battling to destroy the negative attitudes and stereotypes that is directed towards people with mental health issues that disproportionately affect people living in poverty, those who are unemployed, people living in isolation and those who already face discrimination, so we have to keep challenging policies that exasperate these problems. In the meantime lets hope that one day mental health becomes a genuine Government priority that would treat people in suffering with the respect that they deserve.
Some final thoughts, at the end of the day, remind yourself that you did the best you could today, and that is good enough. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to live a life that lights you up. Don't ever forget that. Try to keep fighting and surviving, despite the odds, if you are struggling to feel positive, remember you're not alone
If you need to talk to someone, the NHS mental health helpline page includes organisations you can call for help, such as Anxiety UK and Bipolar UK. or call The Samaritans on 116 123.
