Mental health matters

I wrote this over a year ago in my old job for mental health awareness day and I felt it would be good to post onto my blog and reflect on it. I haven't written a post like this before but I feel very passionate about supporting mental health and thought it would be good to share this post.

The thing about mental illnesses is that it isn't short-term definitions of how you feel. It comes into your life unannounced and uninvited to mess with the way you perceive your entire existence. Things you once found interesting suddenly appear to be bleak and pointless.

Worst of all, mental illnesses are issues you have to face every day because there is no real cure or explanation. No matter how manageable they may seem, you always feel like the diagnosis defines some part of you.

1 in 4 British adults experience at least one mental disorder, and 1 in 6 experiences this at any given time. They are unable to work a full-time schedule.

Kids who suffer are prone to perform at a lower level in school. Both groups are more likely to commit criminal acts, abuse substances and attempt suicide. None of these results impact one person; they contribute to and make up problems that affect local, regional, national and global communities.

I regularly find people actually don’t believe mental illness exists and that people should just ‘cheer up’ or ‘get over it’ people think depression is just sadness. People think mental illness’ are people crying over ‘nothing’ and being ‘dramatic’. In reality it is actually an overwhelming sense of numbness or a whole host of other experiences. Days aren’t really day’s they’re obstacles that need to be faced.

I remember the day my mother was diagnosed with severe anxiety and clinical depression. She blankly stared outside the window to an empty road and avoided making eye contact with anyone. I knew there was more to it than depression and anxiety and people just did not know how to deal with it, including myself.

My mother didn’t receive any proper help or treatment until very late into her illness. They didn’t realise how bad it had got and kept missing visits and not calling to see how she was when on her own. Worst of all, the day they came to take her into a mental hospital was the day she took her own life, it was too late.

It is about time we realise that mental illnesses have never been the problem. Rather, it is the way people ignore or categorise them. I hope the future holds more support for mental illness' and that the stigma ends.

Thanks so much for reading,

Love Natalie x

#Lifestyle #Mentalhealth