I’m messing up my posting schedule this week (the first article of the week usually goes out on Mondays, not Tuesdays) but I assure you it’s for a good reason, and a good cause. You see, today is Bell Let’s Talk Day in Canada (which is where I happen to live). Let’s Talk Day is an initiative started by the Bell Canada corporation about 4 years ago as a way to raise awareness and funds for mental health initiatives across the country. For every text message or phone call made by those using Bell mobile systems, for every tweet sent using hashtag #BellLetsTalk, for every share of their Let’s Talk Day image via their Facebook page on their annual Let’s Talk Day, Bell donates an additional 5 cents towards mental health projects across the country.
I’m a big supporter of this initiative. So if you’re following my Twitter feed, you’re going to get a whole more stuff than usual on Let’s Talk Day. And I’ll be sharing Bell’s images on my Facebook page. And I encourage each and every one of you to get involved and do the same, because it really is high time we all started a real conversation about mental health.
Mental Health is Everyone’s Business
Here’s the thing: every single one of us is affected by mental illness. You know someone with a mental illness; someone you care about is suffering from one, right at this very moment. In fact, statistically, there’s more than one someone in your life who is affected. Because 20% of us, that’s 1 in 5 people, will personally suffer from a mental illness at some point in our lives. And it’s not something that discriminates; mental illness affects people of every age, cultural background, educational and income level. The really sad thing is that 75% of those suffering will suffer in silence and never seek the help they need because of the very real fear of stigma.
What Does Stigma Do?
Stigma just refers to the negative stereotypes about mental illness that are so prevalent out there. It’s such a little word, but stigma is a huge, huge issue within mental health communities because it spreads fear and perpetuates prejudice against those living with mental illnesses. Common examples of stigma include:
- People being ostracized or shunned: In a study done by the Canadian Medical Association, 51% of Canadians said they would not socialize with a friend who has a serious mental illness.
- Unjustified fear: In that same study 27% said they were afraid to be around people with serious mental illnesses.
- View that “it’s not real”: A separate study by the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health found that 46% think mental illness is just used an excuse for bad behaviour.
- Discrimination: In a 2006 study published in Current Opinions in Psychiatry, the unemployment rate of people with mental health issues was found to be 60%, compared to 20% in the general population.
- Victimization: People with mental health issues are mistakenly viewed as dangerous, but according to the Canadian Medical Association, the reality is that people with mental illness are two and a half to four times more likely to be the victims of violence than any other group in our society.
All of these factors make people who are suffering from mental health issues afraid to get the help they need, when they need it most. And that’s why initiatives like Bell Let’s Talk Day, like the You Know Who I Am campaign, and like Bring Change 2 Mind are so important – because they are the voices of truth that shine a light into the darkness, dispelling the myths about mental illness and letting us all know that there is hope out there. Letting us know that there are people who care.
Why I Care About Mental Health
So why do I, personally, care so much about all of this? I care because I have friends who suffer from mental illness. I care because I’ve lost family members to suicide. I care because I’ve struggled with multiple forms of clinical depression since childhood, and because I’ve been in the dark place where the only way that you can see of ending the pain is death. I have been there. I know what it’s like. And if you are in that dark place, please believe that there is hope.
I want you to know that, no matter how dark it seems, your light is still there inside of you even though you cannot see it right now. And if you are struggling to find the tiniest spark to keep going, then look for ours – the lights from the millions of souls who have been where you are and come out the other side, stronger than we were. We are holding the candle for you today, and every day. Look for our light. We are here, we believe in you and we love you. You are not alone.
photo credit: pixabay.com cc
Yes, keep on going and moving, no matter how dark it gets,even if you have to feel your way forward. That is what I did and I got out of it and am still standing. No matter what, keep on moving.
I was actually wondering about mental illness and the answers it holds. People manifest it, perhaps as a response the the well-oiled machine that society today has become, at least that is what I think. Were mental illnesses so rampant in the past? It is surely an indicator of something. It would be great to explore that more.
The self-realized do not suffer from such ailments and, even when they induce an ailment of any kind, they manifest a cure for themselves. It is all a matter of vibration.
Yes. Me too — never, ever give up.
It is really hard to answer the question about the prevalence of mental illness. I’m not sure we can make any real comparison between what’s happening now and what happened in the past because back then such things were stigmatized even more than they were now. I suspect a lot of it was hidden back then. Also, if we’re seeing more of it now, is it because there’s more of it or is it because we’ve just gotten better at diagnosing it?
I personally do think that we are currently dealing with an increase in mental health issues (according to the WHO, there’s been a 60% increase in suicide rates around the world over the last 45 years), and I think that there are a lot of factors influencing that. It would take an entire article to talk about all of that, though.
I do think that the more we understand about how energy and mindset work, the less likely we are to be significantly affected by these types of things. The problem is that most people do not understand how these things work. So we get situations where people just tell people who are suffering from these illnesses to “just snap out of it” or “choose to be happy”, but that does not work when you’re already sucked into the illness — it’s just too big of a vibrational jump. The key is prevention. Or, more accurately, focusing on maintaining and improving mental health while you have it, rather than trying to fix mental illness after it’s hit you.