I always struggle a bit with Mental Health Awareness Week. It's not that I don't think it's important to bring awareness to a part of life that is often frowned upon, hidden away, or dismissed altogether. It's that it seems that for one week out of the year, people are really talking about the lack of awareness, lack of understanding, lack of services. But then it all ends.
I struggle because people who live everyday with some form of mental illness don't get to just living with it. We don't get to stop dealing with it or stop acknowledging it. There are so many examples of mental illness being used as a scapegoat for other issues in the media lately - watch John Oliver talk about this, more eloquently then I ever could here - if politicians are going to blame metal illness for causing social issues, then why not try to create avenues to help people who need those services.
I guess the reason that I don't jump up and down for Mental Health Awareness week, is that when it's all said and done, I still have to go through everyday with the stigma attached to having a mental illness. I still go through every day expending all of my energy keeping my anxiety and negative thoughts in check while going through everyday activities and staying upbeat. It is exhausting. And yet, I wouldn't trade it for anything because I know that it has made me the person that I am today, it has taught me to feel through my emotions, to follow my heart, to embrace positivity.
Mental health awareness deserves more than one week a year. People who live every day, both good and bad days, with mental illness deserve more than one week a year.
Okay, rant over.
Love always,
Laura
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