Let’s talk about mental health… by Charlotte Hutton

Let’s talk about mental health…

To be perfectly honest, I’ve been at a loss at how to start this blog post for a while now. Mental health is something I’ve wanted to talk about, something I’ve struggled with, and something I know many people with whom I am close have faced but I didn’t really know where to begin, or if I was qualified to give my opinion on something that is so personal to so many.

When I was growing up, mental health was never something people talked about, not just in my family but in the media in general. There seemed to be this consensus that anyone suffering with bad mental health had to grin and bear it, and to do anything else was seeking attention or turning those feelings we all feel into something else. In fact, I don’t think I heard of the term ‘mental health’ until I was in my teens, and even then, it was said in the same way you would speak about jumping into fresh sewage. Without knowing it, I was accepting the stereotypes I was being fed, that people suffering with mental health conditions are criminals or ‘mental’ and that it is something inherently bad and denotive of your personality.

In my teens I performed in a play about mental health and its effects not only on the person suffering, but on those around them. The statistic at the time was that 1 in 4 people will suffer with periods of bad mental health in their lifetime and I remember being totally shocked by this. The main character seemed completely normal compared to what I thought when the topic was brought up, and I don’t think I completely understood what mental health was. I didn’t understand that ‘normal’ people could suffer but I did learn that it was more common than I thought, and that people I knew had probably suffered with bad mental health if the statistic was correct. I later learned that my favourite author, J.K. Rowling, had suffered with depression and I was completely shocked that someone as successful as her could ever have reason to be sad, but that was back when I didn’t really understand what depression was.

As I grew, and had my own experiences with mental health, I came to realise that everything I thought I knew about it was based on incorrect stereotypes that had been written into the media, and my life until that point. When I first started experiencing bad mental health, I tried to cover it up because I didn’t want to make a fuss, and I didn’t want people to think I was crazy. It was only when I opened up to my friends, however that I understood more people suffer with their mental health than I first thought. Everything I thought I knew was challenged and I’ll admit that I am still learning about it even now.

Now, more people are talking about mental health and I honestly think it’s great! If there had been this much discussion about it when I first started having symptoms, I probably would have spoken to my friends earlier and I may have not felt like I was so alone. Seeing so many celebrities and people I admire speaking out about their own experiences with mental health has helped me to understand that rich or poor, old or young, you can still struggle and that’s perfectly ok. We live in such a fast-paced world where social media creates the illusion that everyone’s life is perfect but that is never the case, and I love that as more people speak out it helps to destabilize the stigma surrounding mental illnesses. I know we have a long way to go until conversations about mental health are not met with distaste, but an open mind from everyone but I like the way things are going. Who knows, maybe one day mental health will be treated with the same respect and dignity that physical health is, but to do that we have to keep talking, writing and tweeting about it, otherwise things will never change, and many people will grow up, believing as I did, in the tired and incorrect stereotypes about mental health.

If you are struggling with your mental health, or know someone that is, there are many charities that can help including:

www.mentalhealth.org.uk

www.samaritans.org.uk or call 116 123

www.youngminds.org.uk

For more websites please visit:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mental-health-helplines/

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