4 Meaningful Ways YOU Can Increase Mental Health Awareness
Let's face it. We still have a long way to go when it comes to raising mental health awareness.
Mental health is a topic that is very much "in" right now if you are a movie star or a professional athlete, but that doesn't always trickle down to the rest of us.
For us commoners of mental illness, daily conversations about mental heath are a necessity. Mental Illness cannot get better without talking about it.
For most humans, physical health comes up in conversation pretty much every single day, so why not mental health?
The answer is stigma--that formless, dark cloud that hangs ever so ominously over our heads.
But it doesn't need to be this way.
Stigma goes away when we talk about it.
Stigma doesn't like the light of our words.
Stigma, when all is said and done, is a coward.
So let's talk about mental health. Here are 4 creative ways to raise mental health awareness.
1. You go first.
This option is, arguably, the scariest.
But it's the one I've found to be most rewarding. When I openly talk about my mental health, whether online, with friends, or at a public event, I give others the permission to do the same.
There is almost nothing as powerful as the simple act of going first.
When you go first, you model the behavior you expect to see from others. Also, you tether others in your web of safety; you demonstrate that you are opening up a judgment-free zone.
2. You build up your courage by starting small.
Start by talking with a trusted friend or family member. Choose your favorite one. Choose someone you know won't discredit you--or choose a person who, if they accidentally dismiss what you say, you know, deep down, treats you with the best of intentions.
These people are out there.
When I was first becoming a mental health advocate, I started small. In the process, I found my tribe, a community of mental health advocates who freely shared their experiences, all with a general willingness to be positive and helpful.
Find those people first--because once you've found your people, you'll have the winds of the community at your back. You'll have forward momentum.
Then, when you're ready to ride the winds to find a path of your own, you'll know that you can always go back to your community to recharge.
3. Or don't talk at all. Write something.
For some people, having conversations about anything--let alone mental health--is a daunting proposition. Whether you're an introvert or you have social anxiety, or you just generally don’t like most people, speaking in public about mental health is not going to be a natural and enjoyable experience.
So write something down instead. Write it for yourself at first. Write it on a plain old piece of paper.
What matters is that you write it.
Because writing changes how your mind works.
When you write something, you clarify your thinking. You also free up mental space by getting the words out of your head and onto the page. Like anything else in life, the more you write, the easier it will get.
It used to take me hours to write a single blog post. Now I can typically crank one out in about 30 minutes. I'm not going to get into the science here, but your brain is made up of unfathomably amazing things called neurons, and as you perform the same tasks over and over, the neurons in your brain shoot electrical impulses to each other.
The old saying is: Neurons that fire together, wire together.
You can build this habit. You can write about mental health enough that it literally becomes part of who you are.
And it's easier to talk about something when it becomes part of your identity.
4. When something is part of your identity, it is easier to talk about it.
Why do people love posting so much on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram? No, it's not because they are addicted by massive, super-evil corporations, although that could certainly be part of it.
It's because we are humans--and humans love to express themselves. It's part of who we are. We're wired to communicate our thoughts, emotions, values, and customs to those who pass into our view.
We form our identities on the stuff of communication.
So when mental health becomes part of your identity, it becomes much easier to consider sharing your mental health story online.
But, it's important to note that there is a risk to doing this. And it's why most people stick to posting "safe" things on social media, things that are guaranteed to get lots of "likes," "retweets," "hearts," or whatever other newfound status symbol the social media gods dream up next.
The risk of posting about your mental health identity is that there, inevitably, will be people who don't like that identity--people who want to bring you down.
But this is the risk you run, and in my estimation, it's healthy risk.
Any rewarding pursuit involves its own risks.
