The month of October has been earmarked as a month in which increased focus is placed on mental health and creating awareness of it. Candid by Cayla has done a series of articles this month which focuses on just that – providing mental health tips for students and how to prioritize your mental health. Cayla has requested me, Anonymous (yes, that is my real name), to contribute to the blog by providing my personal experience of dealing with mental health challenges.
I am not a mental health professional. However, I do have anecdotal experience with mental health from childhood, which some may find useful. I did not have a particularly easy upbringing. My parents separated multiple times, resulting in a divorce when I was 11 years old. Since then, I’ve been living with Major Depression, or Clinical Depression. Further, one of my parents had to deal with their own mental illnesses and was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and has lived with it ever since.
I was fortunate enough to have my depression diagnosed and treated (through therapy and medication) early on by an incredible psychologist and psychiatrist. Since then however, I have been given a different lens through which to see the world. Often, mental health is marred in stigma. It is overlooked and not taken seriously. “Get over it”, “just focus on the positive” we are told. Worse, should our symptoms become severe, we are shunned to the fringes of society. Seeking treatment is perceived to be (and unfortunately sometimes is) difficult and expensive. The media adds further fuel to the fire, with studies showing that mental illness is often distorted, to portray those living with them as being criminals, dangerous and unpredictable in both pop culture and the news. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16478286)
Which is weird. Because everyone has a brain. Everyone experiences emotions: joy, sadness, anger, sadness, grief. And anyone could, at any moment, deal with a mental health challenge or mental illness. In the US, which has a population of just under 330 million, more than 50% of people (180 million) will be diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in their life, with 1 in 5 (66 million, slightly more than SAs population) experiencing a mental illness in any given year. (https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm) I share this statistic not to strike fear, but rather to show just how common mental illnesses are. Many more may go undiagnosed or untreated due to the stigma surrounding mental health, though.
What are we to do to solve this? Part of the solution in my eyes twofold. Firstly, if you or someone dear to you is dealing with a mental health challenge, seek professional help. Be it at a local clinic, hospital, or via a toll-free helpline (If you require any assistance, please contact SADAG at 0800 456 789 who are doing incredible work). In the same way you would go to a doctor for help with a broken limb, I would encourage you to do the same with any mental health problems you may have. Therapy is an incredible tool that can help you deal with any mental health challenge you have. Should you require further assistance, a referral to a psychiatrist can be made, who will provide additional resources including treatment where necessary. These resources are available through both private and public healthcare. Your university or employer may also have these available.
Secondly, as friends, family, colleagues, we need to destigmatize mental illness and mental health challenges in the spaces we occupy. While we may not be qualified to offer professional help, we are able to provide help and guidance to resources to those who need it. We would do the same if the person close to us had a physical ailment such as cancer, diabetes or a broken limb. We need to treat mental health and illness in the same way. Something we all deal with and should all be freely able to seek help for without any judgement.
Mental health is only of the largest challenges facing humanity. It affects us all on an individual level, as well as those we care about. Through this series of blog posts, we hope that you’ve been able to learn how to take care of your mental health and what is the 411 about mental illness.
Comments