Sunday 11 December 2011

My mind matters

This blog started with my intention to write something for World Mental Health Day. I never wrote that post. This year I did half a rubbish post while half asleep. What stops me? It's that I have too much to say; I don't know where to begin.

One day is not enough to talk about mental health. It affects everything, in every single one of us. That's one of the things I want to talk about, actually. Campaigns like Time to Change address the fact that we don't like to talk about 'mental health'. And I support these campaigns, and hope that they help to break the stigma. But what they're really addressing is talking about mental illness. Ironically, mental health is mostly a euphamism for mental illness. However, on World Mental Health Day, my Student's Union posted a link to MindApples which I think really talks about mental health. It asks the general public to name 5 things that they do to keep their minds healthy. I love it.

We are often told about the benefits of exercise* and healthy eating. We are told it will make us less fat, less likely to get diabetes and heart disease. How often are we told it can make us happier and calmer? It really does, and that's a fairly instant reward. After a few minutes of walking or cycling, I feel calmer. After a day of more fruit and vegetables, I feel less groggy. It's going to be far longer than that before I lose weight, and far far longer to really see the effects on my physical health. It's the mental stuff that motivates me. So why don't they talk about our minds?

Our minds are not in good health. In any given year, 30% of people will experience mental health distress. Insomnia is a growing problem, as is anger. Our rate of self-harm (1 in 25) is one of the highest in Europe. And yet there is a great stigma surrouding mental health problems. Again 'mental health problems' is a term often used as a euphamism for 'mental illness'. I use it to describe my own mental illness as it's become the standard term. But if you think about it, everyone has mental health problems, even if they never have a mental illness. People will have trouble sleeping, too much exam anxiety, or problems with comfort eating. And although they're really unwilling to disucss it, many people will have ocassional panic attacks, hallucinations from severe sleep debt, and thoughts of hurting themselves. And I really, really think it's riddiculous how something so widespread and important this can be stigmatised and/or ignored.

As for talking about my mental illness, people have joked that it somehow makes me a threat, or treated me markedly differently.Laughing at, and stigmatising anything that isn't perfect mental health has become part of our culture. The good thing is I believe anyone can do a little bit to change this, by just talking about their mental health. Talk about how you feel today. Talk about stuff that makes you feel better or worse. Talk about people with mental health problems with respect. Challenge it when someone jokes 'you need help', when someone uses the word 'psychotic' to mean 'violent, evil', when people mock others for talking about feeling mentally unhealthy. It's not always easy But we need to stop acting like our minds don't matter.


* I'm tagging this on at the end because I'm not clever enough to work it into the post. I was at a talk recently where the speaker was talking about how uncomfortable we are with our bodies, and how we are ashamed of them. He blamed advertising, and the culture of shame disguised as modesty. But he then said he appreciated his body more when he exercised, just for his body being able to do the physical work. He pointed out that historically we did far more manual work, and did not have such poor body image. Perhaps in these situations, we love our bodies for what they do and not what they look like? So that may be another advantage of exercise on mental health - helping you feel more comfortable in your own skin.