When you break a bone you are sent to the hospital for
x-rays, you have a cast put on for a number of months and sometimes have to
have physiotherapy too. Can you imagine if during the incident in which you
broke your arm or leg bone your sports coach, teacher, family member or boss
told you to get over it or just carry on as normal, that you’d be fine and over
it in a week or so. I’m pretty sure you and anyone else in the vicinity would
be pretty shocked at that response.
The sad thing is, many of those phrases are things that
people who struggle with or suffer from mental health illnesses or disorders
hear on a regular basis. According to mental health charity Mind, 1 in 4 people
in the UK will struggle with a mental health problem (Source). According to the World Bank there is over 65 million
people in the UK, using the statistics from Mind, if my math is
correct, that means that over 16 million people in the UK will struggle with their
mental health at some point in their lives. And that, in my opinion, is a pretty huge amount of people!
If someone has broken a bone you can see them wearing a cast.
If someone has asthma you will regularly see them using an inhaler. If someone
has diabetes you will see them having insulin injections. However if someone is
struggling with a mental health illness a good portion of the time you might not be able to tell from
the outside. Mental health illnesses are internal and unseen, and because of
this they can unfortunately seem or be regarded as less of a problem or
priority than physical illnesses; even by some medical professionals.
In the city I was raised, Stoke on Trent, if someone is struggling with their mental health and wishes to seek treatment
through a form of counselling via the NHS it can take at least 4 months for them to get an
initial appointment, and this is sadly the same across many parts the UK. But if you break a bone you head over to A&E and
usually get seen in under 5 hours, with 4 hours being the target set by the government
for all A&E visits. Breaking a bone is not usually life threatening,
however mental health illnesses can be. According to Mind, 20 in 100 people
will struggle with suicidal thoughts, 6 out of 100 people will attempt suicide,
and 8 out of 100 people will live with a mix of anxiety and depression. In
their annual report the Samaritans have found that over 6,500 people committed
suicide in the UK and ROI in 2015 (Source). I wonder how many of those people
may still be alive if they’d had access to support, therapy or treatment faster
or more regularly, or if they’d been taken seriously when they asked for help
or opened up to people. Breaking a bone isn’t usually life threatening, however
the deterioration of someone’s mental health definitely can be.
In this 21st century, ultra-connected, social
media age people have become very good at showcasing the life and story they
want you to see and believe. Someone may look like they’re having the best
month ever, when in reality they’re really struggling or suffering. Just
because your family member had a smile on their face when they visited for
dinner last week doesn’t mean everything is ok.
The phrase, “Be kind, for
everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about” is one that I say and
think about regularly. And is one that is absolutely true! You can never truly
know what someone is walking with or dealing with on a daily basis, because
mental health illnesses are an internal struggle, an internal unseen problem. Telling someone they should just pull
themselves together, or stop being daft is the most unhelpful and inconsiderate
thing you can say. When talking about a friend, relative or colleague if you say
you just want to shake them or slap them, to make them snap out of their mental
health illness, I hate to break it to you but this is an extremely unloving and unkind thing. I only say that
last part as that is actually something I've heard family members of mine say when talking about
someone openly dealing with mental health problems, those were the exact
words they said, to say I was disgusted isn’t even close!
Battling your own brain or thoughts on a daily basis is
extremely difficult, and to anyone struggling from a mental health illness, you
are a badass, brave and an absolute boss and I tip my hat to you. To those with
friends, family or work mates who are struggling, love them and love them hard.
Please don’t call them names or tell them to just snap out of it! Drive them to
doctors’ appointments, ask them if they’d like to go out for cake, allow them
the time and space to open up in their own time. And to the government and those who allocate funding, you’re
letting far too many people down.
So yes, this is a 20 something fashion grad calling you out and
saying things need to change! You need to change and realise that you can't just shove problems under the rug and hope they'll go away, because I don't think this one is going anywhere, although I definitely wish it was.
Love
God Bless
