The Mental Health Stigma

Here in Manchester terms such as ‘you’re mental,’ ‘you’re off your head,’ ‘you’re mad you’ just roll off the tongue and are actually often taken as a compliment but when it comes to considering our mental health, these terms become something very different don’t they?

The stigma.

We are all aware that there is such a stigma around mental health that it prevents individuals from accessing the vital support that they need. I’ve recently spoken with a friend whose son is in great distress with anxiety and panic attacks that won’t even consider accessing support because he fears people will consider him to be ‘mad.’ I expect he feels this way about himself which will only inevitably make matters worse for him.

Historically, ignorance around the complexities of mental health (and physical health creating emotional disturbance) led to a belief that something had gone terribly wrong with an individual, that they needed locking away, that they were possessed by demonic spirits even. We’ve never truly recovered and it may take a great deal of effort to banish these outdated ideas in the same way people have, in the past, been banished from society because they’re experiencing depression. 

We’ve obviously come a long way in our understanding of mental health problems and the treatments that are available to maintain a certain level of wellness but it feels there is still such a long way to go before the stigma is dropped.

What needs to be done?

As human beings, there is a need to recognise that, in the same way that many things can go wrong in our physical bodies, many things can also go wrong in our minds. Life is sometimes hard and we are all trying to navigate our way through some tough times, dealing with the consequences, managing the emotions, never having experienced these things before, or dealing with them too often.

We need to put our mental health on par with our physical health. It is perfectly acceptable to be physically unwell so let us discuss mental health difficulties as being emotionally unwell.

We aren’t unstable, having mental problems or issues, we are unwell. If we view our emotional un-wellness as an organic part of our brains in the same way angina is an organic illness of the heart, we might begin to relate our emotional wellbeing as a more vital aspect of our bodies and pay it more attention. It may become more acceptable to seek professional help, whether this be from a GP or a therapist.

In an ideal world, I would love to see us addressing our emotional and mental health needs long before we hit crisis point. Just as we would visit the dentist with a toothache rather than wait until the tooth rots, and just as we would see an optician if we notice our eyesight deteriorating rather than wait until our sight fails us completely, we need to have the foresight to recognise when our minds are in need of attention before we crash and burn.

How fabulous would it be if, as a new-born, we were assigned to both a GP and a mental health professional? Our physical and emotional needs allocated a dedicated professional we could make an appointment with whenever we needed it? How normal would mental health care feel if we were to grow up knowing there is a specific practitioner we can refer to when things get tough? How ordinary would it feel to look after our emotional wellness? And how wonderful would it be to have these 2 professionals liaise with each other to discuss physical and emotional treatment as a whole for each individual person?

Parents would know exactly who to turn to when worried about their children’s emotional wellbeing and a visit to the therapist would become just as ordinary as a visit to the GP. 

Mental health checks at a variety of ages could be commonplace just as physical health checks are the norm today. 

The benefits of such a system would be profound, if we considered our emotional wellbeing a normal part of looking after ourselves and sought help without fear of judgement, we may not even need to see a therapist at all as we’d feel able to talk things through with our families and friends and feel free to open up about our difficulties rather than try to hold them in and power through. The phrase ‘keep calm and carry on’ pops into my head here, so very British yet not at all good for us in the grand scheme of things. 

Imagine the impact this system would have on our society, the rates of A&E admissions, suicide attempts, sectioning, prescriptions, waiting lists would all drop significantly. We’d have much happier and healthier communities, particularly when we also consider the impact of emotional un-wellness on our physical health. There are a great deal of physical health issues stemming directly from emotional difficulties such as heart disease and respiratory diseases. These often lead to death. You can read more about the impact on physical health here.

Investment

Additionally, the subject of mental health needs to be taught in schools, right from the very early stages, just as physical wellbeing is integral to the school curriculum, as too should emotional wellbeing be promoted. There has been a big push for healthy school meals in recent years and physical education has been a vital element to the school week for ever and a day. Children are encouraged to keep their weight healthy, their muscles strong, their teeth clean, their hygiene up to a good standard. They’re taught about the menstrual cycle and sexual health and how to keep themselves physically safe from fireworks on bonfire night. How is it that their emotional wellbeing has been so neglected for so long? Where are the lessons about emotions? Emotions are an integral part of the human self and yet we don’t talk about them unless they’re seen to be a problem in someone else’s behaviour – think ‘anger issues.’

Children need to be taught the importance of emotions and the part they play in our everyday lives, the messages they give us and the warning signs. In identifying these different emotions in themselves and others they will be well placed to manage these more appropriately and support others to do the same. What a wonderful thing to teach a young person, and I dare to believe this may impact positively on the topic of bullying too. Empathy for the person doing the bullying and for the person being bullied. Empathy is a big one. It helps us understand each other more deeply and therefore helps us behave and respond more appropriately. We could all do with a lesson in this from time to time.

Going forward.

The promotion of emotional wellbeing has the power to do so much good and impact the lives of everyone around us both living and yet to become a part of our world. We need to strive to create a safer space for ourselves and our future generations to talk about all things emotionally charged.

We need to stand up and fight against the stoic attitude we have adopted and live by. We can understand and manage our emotions without being emotional. Acceptance of our emotional needs does not mean we will all become ‘soft’ or ‘weak,’ it means we can deal with difficulties with more understanding and acceptance of our own vulnerabilities and get the support we need earlier and move on much faster. 

We have to find acceptance of our natural human emotions as an essential part of our living being because they are essential. We need them. They serve a purpose. We owe it to ourselves to pay them the attention they deserve.

If you’re in need of paying more attention to your own emotional wellness, you can visit this page for some helpful ideas to start you on your journey to being a more rounded, healthier human being and of course if you would like to begin talking your emotions through, we would be more than happy to listen. 

Feel free to contact us here.