Mental health illnesses affect 1 in 4 people. Is it really right that 90% of those face stigma and discrimination because of it? Mental health illnesses are a lot more common than most people think and in this post I am going to go over why people don't talk about mental health, why you should raise awareness for mental health and ways you can.
I have my own blog called Depression For Teens where I talk about mental health illnesses such as depression and ways to raise awareness as well as various other things so be sure to take a look!
Why Don't People Talk About Mental Health?
Those who suffer from mental health rarely talk about it openly because they are scared of being judged and looked down upon. Society has made mental health illnesses seem like a bad thing which is why people hide having them. This is why you might be thinking "if mental health illnesses are so common then why don't I know anyone with any?", trust me, the odds are you do - you just don't know about it.
Here are some facts on mental health:
- One in four people will experience a mental health problem in any given year
- Up to 10% of England's population will suffer from depression at some point in their life
- 50 million people are affected by depression
- Over 800,000 people die due to suicide every year
- Suicide is the 2nd largest cause of death among 15-29 year olds.
- Suicide is the most common cause of death for men between 20-49 years in England and Wales
- Over 90% of people who die from suicide have a mental health illness at the time of their death
Why You Should Raise Mental Health Awareness
By talking about mental health you will be raising awareness. And by raising awareness, you will be helping give confidence to those suffering and helping them to talk about how they feel. Now that in itself is a huge help to all those who are suffering from mental health illnesses.
I'm going to tell you a short story about a friend of mine. Maybe a real life example will help show you that what I am saying is indeed true.
I always had this one friend who I would openly talk to about how I feel. I felt she understood and cared. Little did I know that the person who helped me the most was fighting her own battle with depression.
Eventually I put together some pieces and figured it out. Nobody, except me, actually knew about the battle she was facing. So I proceeded to ask her why she never told anyone and why she's fighting it all alone. Her answer was "People would judge and look down on me".
How You Can Raise Mental Health Awareness
You can help raise awareness for mental health by doing a lot of things. In this section I have mentioned 3 ways that I think are the best.
Talking About Mental Health
Just bringing up mental health illnesses in a conversation or over social media is a great way to get people talking about it. This is probably the most effective ways. You can either bring it up in a conversation by saying you read an article on it or you can make a post on social media like Twitter and Facebook. You can link to this post so that other people spread the word and it becomes an endless cycle of awareness raising!
Donating to Mental Health Charities
Donating to a mental health charity will help them raise awareness and do what they do best when it comes to supporting mental health illnesses.
Here are some mental health charities that you can donate to. These sites also have a lot of information related to mental health so be sure to check out what they have to offer!http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/donatehttp://www.together-uk.org/support-us/donate-now/http://mind.org.uk/get-involved/donate/https://my.rethink.org/my/Donate/DonateforMentalIllness.aspxhttps://www.nami.org/
Sharing Your Story
If you have experienced a mental health problem then sharing your story is a great way to raise awareness because it shows people that mental health illnesses are common and will also give hope to other sufferers.
Below are three popular places where people have shared their mental health stories.http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/personal-storieshttp://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/your-stories/http://ok2talk.org
There's nothing to be ashamed of when sharing your story. You also should not feel pressured into sharing stuff you don't want to - it's up to you. After sharing your story, you can even go a step further and share it on your social media!
Thanks for having a read and together we can raise enough awareness to stop the stigma that surrounds mental health!