October 10 is World Mental Health Day, so let’s talk about how we can end the stigma surrounding mental health 🌱
🗨 TALK🗨
Start a dialogue about your own experiences 💖 Mental Health is still stigmatized and that can make it difficult to talk about openly, but the more we talk, the more we help to normalize the discussion. But it’s not just about helping the world see Mental Health differently, but about your perception too; talking about your problems can help you work through them, and see them in a more realistic light, and it helps the people around you understand your needs.
Challenge incorrect information 💖 If you see someone spreading incorrect information about mental health, be brave and step in. Remind people that mental illnesses are disorders of the brain, and are usually due to chemical imbalances, in the same way that disorders of other organs might be due to a vitamin deficiency, or the body not being able to produce the right amount of hormones.
Ask others about their experiences 💖 Encourage others to talk about their own mental health issues, if they feel comfortable doing so.
💭 LISTEN💭
Provide a judgement-free environment 💖 Sometimes people just need to vent, rather than have a discussion, and as well-meaning as you might be you need to respect that. Ask if they’d like to discuss their issues or if they’d just like to vent and be given a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. Mental Illness can make us hyper sensitive to perceived criticism, and feel unable to open up. Create a judgement-free environment by giving them your full attention, and by allowing people to talk at their own pace, without interruption.
Ask what they need, don’t assume 💖 What we need and what someone else needs might be two different things, so ask and listen to what someone says when they talk about their needs. It might be tempting to think “they’re just being lazy” or “if I give them a push they’ll get there eventually”, but respecting their wishes is not just about whether or not they know best. Ask them if they need their boundaries pushed, or if today is a good day to try. There will be days where they are more open to pushing their boundaries. If you force them too early you may deter them from trying again, and it may hurt their trust in you.
💬 CHECK💬
Check in 💖 Now’s a good time to check up on the people around you. Don’t just say hello, ask how they are feeling; specifically how they feel mental-health wise. It becomes a habit to say “I’m fine”, even when you’re not, and mental illness makes it harder to be forthcoming with how we feel. Give them the option to say “well, now that you mention it…” instead of the usual small talk.
Check up 💖 Have you been ignoring your own mental health needs? Procrastinating on getting proper professional help? Now’s a good time to make an appointment with your GP for a check up!
Check yourself 💖 Even the most open-minded of us need to keep our own privilege and bias in-check. If you hear someone talk about an issue or symptom they face that you think might be exaggerated, made-up, or their own fault, consider that your own bias, privilege, or lack of understanding may be clouding your judgement. Everyone’s experiences are different, so try to remember not to compare. Have a judgement-free discussion, give advice or offer alternatives, but in the end: trust THEIR judgement of THEIR situation.
“If you see someone spreading incorrect information about mental health, be brave and step in. Remind people that mental illnesses are disorders of the brain, and are usually due to chemical imbalances, in the same way that disorders of other organs might be due to a vitamin deficiency, or the body not being able to produce the right amount of hormones.” 🤦🏻♀️
^ @cosmic-elementalist thank you. As a mental health professional and lived experience expert, this artwork is so fantastic but the uneducated misinformation parroted in the post on the old and thoroughly debunked pseudoscientific marketing myth of the ‘chemical imbalance’ is so harmful.
No biomarkers have been identified for discrete psychiatric illnesses, and no neurotransmitters have been evidenced as playing a causal role in experiences of distress and extreme states. This is why there is no blood test, brain scan or genetic screening to diagnose any mental disorders and prescribe a specific dose of neurotransmitter level-altering medication.
Rather, the only conclusive scientific evidence that has been proven as a causal factor are autonomic nervous system responses to stress and trauma and inflammatory, vagal, neurological and epigenetic damage linked to emotional and psychological traumatic injury. This is also why researchers are now coming to acknowledge that psychiatric diagnoses themselves are ‘scientifically meaningless’ abstractions of distress as disease, and why services are transitioning away from pathologising natural human responses to experiences of distress, crisis, abuse, trauma, and injustice.
Why is this so important? White western biomedical illness narratives of mental distress hinder recovery and have been recognised as the no. 1 factor fueling social and internalised stigma of people who experience adversity and mental unwellness. Research has shown this message perpetuates prejudice and discrimination by promoting a stereotype of deterministic biological inferiority in ‘disordered’ vs ‘normal’ people that views them as ‘fundamentally different, less human, physically distinct and almost as a different species’.
If you want to fight mental health stigma, start by stopping spreading the chemical imbalance myth.
If you want to participate in mental health awareness and advocacy, get some education in current mental health theory, and engage with lived experience expert communities.
I try to keep anything that could be considered “discourse” off this blog, but I just wanted to quickly address this, because @violetvapours and @cosmic-elementalist have done exactly as I asked in the post; be brave and call out misinformation - even (or perhaps especially?) when it’s ME spreading that misinformation. I absolutely want to be held accountable, learn, and be better!
I wrote this post in 2017, and have learned a lot since then. I didn’t think to rewrite any of the information when I reblogged/reposted for World Mental Health Day 2021. That’s 100% on me, and I appreciate being held accountable for that. One of the things I learned since ‘17 was that there’s a lot of controversy around the idea of a “chemical imbalance” being the cause of mental illness, first because there’s a lot more nuance to mental health than “just” chemical imbalances, and secondly because there’s no proof that’s the case.
The truth is, the world is still learning about the myriad of factors that cause mental illness. It was easy for me to believe in the chemical imbalance theory because SSRI’s made the biggest difference in MY personal journey - but even then, that’s NOT proof my mental health issues were CAUSED by a chemical imbalance, and it’s certainly not an indication of what will work for everyone. I never intended to generalize or be reductionist, and I am so sorry if I made anyone feel that way!
My original intention was to summarise that mental illness is real and treatable. That was true in 2017, and is still true now, regardless of the things I learned and unlearned in getting here.
Thank you so much for being on this journey with me 💖
Softness & Warmth,
Tahlia
