This week is Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK. And for the past few days I’ve been trying to put my scattered thoughts into words, as I felt like I should have something to say about it, and actually I do.
I understand Mental Health Awareness Week is about breaking down taboos, about starting conversations and step by step change. But how does changing the colour of a building help? With more and more cuts to mental health services, and waiting times for support stretching months and months into the future. Suicide, depression, eating disorders, self-harm & anxiety are all on the raise. Mentioning mental illness or an apparent weakness in the work place can feel like a one way ticket to the firing squad. It goes on, and on.
And yet, so many like myself, are struggling. Are battling every day. Finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. You never truly know what is going on behind the laughter, the positive vibes quote, the cute Insta picture. Many of those who seem to be the happiest or strongest or brightest can be the ones who are fighting the hardest. You never know what’s going on behind closed doors, whose wrists contain scars. You may never realise which co-worker had a panic attack in the toilet, or that a person’s number one aim is to get to the end of the day, alive.
I’m so disappointed in the state of Mental Health Services and the way people with mental health illnesses are treated. Telling someone they should just get over it or they need to snap out of it or stop being daft, is still a daily occurrence for too many. I am also so proud of all of those who are battling on. Who despite the odds and often the war going on within their own brain, are continuing on. You are so much more than your illness or struggle, so much more than your doubts or anxiety, so much more than your scars or pain, so much more than your confusion or despair.
For a lot of us struggling with mental ill-health there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, a break in the clouds. Many stories are not ones of a crashing triumphant, victory, of huge change and positivity. But tales of tiny steps, of combing hair or brushing teeth, of saying yes or stepping outside the front door.
Mental health awareness shouldn’t just be a week, but a way of life. It is something that is not invested in enough, but is costing so many so much.
And so I guess there isn’t really a point to this piece. Except to say that, for me, an awareness week and green building aren’t really enough. We need education and social change and money and investment in services and love; but an awareness week and green building are a start, a foot in the door. So I cross my fingers and hope that more change will come, that for people like me the stigma and taboo will end, that getting help will not be so difficult or take so long. That the world will no longer only accept that which is totally perfect and pristine, but also those who are messy or broken, scarred or bruised, anxious or depressed.
Holly x
I understand Mental Health Awareness Week is about breaking down taboos, about starting conversations and step by step change. But how does changing the colour of a building help? With more and more cuts to mental health services, and waiting times for support stretching months and months into the future. Suicide, depression, eating disorders, self-harm & anxiety are all on the raise. Mentioning mental illness or an apparent weakness in the work place can feel like a one way ticket to the firing squad. It goes on, and on.
And yet, so many like myself, are struggling. Are battling every day. Finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. You never truly know what is going on behind the laughter, the positive vibes quote, the cute Insta picture. Many of those who seem to be the happiest or strongest or brightest can be the ones who are fighting the hardest. You never know what’s going on behind closed doors, whose wrists contain scars. You may never realise which co-worker had a panic attack in the toilet, or that a person’s number one aim is to get to the end of the day, alive.
I’m so disappointed in the state of Mental Health Services and the way people with mental health illnesses are treated. Telling someone they should just get over it or they need to snap out of it or stop being daft, is still a daily occurrence for too many. I am also so proud of all of those who are battling on. Who despite the odds and often the war going on within their own brain, are continuing on. You are so much more than your illness or struggle, so much more than your doubts or anxiety, so much more than your scars or pain, so much more than your confusion or despair.
For a lot of us struggling with mental ill-health there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, a break in the clouds. Many stories are not ones of a crashing triumphant, victory, of huge change and positivity. But tales of tiny steps, of combing hair or brushing teeth, of saying yes or stepping outside the front door.
Mental health awareness shouldn’t just be a week, but a way of life. It is something that is not invested in enough, but is costing so many so much.
And so I guess there isn’t really a point to this piece. Except to say that, for me, an awareness week and green building aren’t really enough. We need education and social change and money and investment in services and love; but an awareness week and green building are a start, a foot in the door. So I cross my fingers and hope that more change will come, that for people like me the stigma and taboo will end, that getting help will not be so difficult or take so long. That the world will no longer only accept that which is totally perfect and pristine, but also those who are messy or broken, scarred or bruised, anxious or depressed.
Holly x
