Mental health is indeed something very important, which had become impossible to understate today.
According to a recent OCDE study, people unable to work because of mental health issues cost the UK economy £70 billion each year with 40 per cent of all people claiming for disability benefits due to psychological issues.
But who is mental health so taboo? Perhaps it’s because that unlike cancer or somebody who have a physical handicap, we are unable to see mental health problems even if they are hurting many people. We tend to see them as something which »could go away » by thinking about something else, unlike physical handicaps. Sadly, this phenomenon is still visible among people The other big challenge is that psychiatry and psychology is a science which is involving very fast, and yet, there are many things still left unknown.
A sad, but common phenomenon is that people at the workplace, or among friends are not keen on talking about mental health because they don’t to be seen as weak, or not wanted to be seen not to be able with to do correctly their tasks at work because of their mental health condition. Some people are very open about mental health, but sadly, some people still have big misconceptions about this.
On a more personal level, I have suffered mentally since a young age even if I consider myself the lucky one. In 2003, at 14, I was sectioned by my own will at a psychiatric hospital for weeks. I must take medication since I have done a massive depression and a psychotic crisis when I was 13 in Spring 2002 while still having periodic depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) problems. I was lucky to have help, but sadly, there are too many people who don’t have help because they are too scared to get it.
In conclusion, if you have one thing to do today, perhaps that talking to someone to your entourage who seems not to feel good psychologically would be a very good initiative. Because for something like mental health, the best prevention and help should be good at a grassroots level within people you know firsthand.
When you are in a crisis, it’s easier to get help from people near you – and this considering how some are too shy or scared to be judged to talk about it.
Agora 