As many of you probably already know, today, October 10th, is the World Mental Health Day. This year's theme is Dignity in Mental Health.
It is estimated that around 70% of the children and adolescents who suffer from mental ilnesses haven't had the help they needed at an early enough age. Why? Because most of them were afraid of seeking for help. Society in general doesn't have the best information on mental health and definitely doesn't have the best attitudes towards it, which makes it difficult for people that suffer mentaly to accept it and seek for the help they need.
This year's theme is about breaking the stigma that exists on mental illnesses by passing the right information about them, such as their causes and solutions, and facts about them that hopefully will help us 'break down the barriers' that keep us from seeking help and support.
You can help Mental Health Foundation on this by sharing some of the Fundamental Facts on social media with your family, friends or anyone you'd like to. (click here if you want to see them)
I keep seeing lots of people on social media romantizing mental illnesses, such as eating disorders, depression, OCD, social anxiety, self-harm, etc and it actually makes me really sad that people can't see how disturbed their minds are. Mental illnesses aren't something 'cute' or 'pretty', they're ILLNESSES that can lead you to very serious problems or even death if you don't get the help you need as soon as possible. I've struggled a lot with my mental health and I can say that it's probably one of the hardest things to 'get over' but it's possible and so worth it.
Society in general seems to think that mental ilnesses aren't something serious and that people suffering from it can just let it go anytime and keep living their lives as if nothing ever happened (not true! It takes a lot fucking more than that).
This image says a lot about how the present society (in general) thinks of and acts with mental illnesses. These kind of behaviours are what make people that are mentally suffering think that mental illnesses are less important than the physical ones and that maybe they don't need treatment and can keep going on their own.
Most people with mental illnesses, especially the younger part, are afraid of accepting their illness and try to get better because they don't want people to think they're 'attention-seekers'. For example, people that self-harm get called that a lot just because of their scars. That just pisses me off so much like, can you just stop?! Anyone who would self-harm is clearly not feeling okay with herself/himself. That applies to any other mental problem, people don't choose to have them.
But they can choose if they want to recover from it.
No one should ever be afraid of wanting to get better. Accept your illness and beat it, don't try to hide it and pretend like it's not there, it'll consume you. And don't let anyone judge you by it, remember: you are not your illness.
Break the stigma!
With love,
Mari xx
