Mental Health needs more sunlight, more candour and more unashamed conversation!!
World Mental Health Day takes place on October 10th, with this year’s theme being “mental health in an unequal world“.
2020 has been a year like no other, and one hopefully not repeated! It has been a landmark year in terms of wellbeing. Most of us have found new ways to cope, but we’ve also seen the pandemic emphasise what we already knew……that unequal life chances drives poor mental health.
We have found that people facing uncertainty, disadvantage, discrimination, and unemployment are experiencing the most impact on their mental health. Those with pre-existing mental and physical health conditions, young people, people from diverse racial communities, and those who have experienced loss and isolation have been some of the worst affected.
Whilst social mobility and mental health are interlinked, we must change how we see mental health, challenging the idea that only the ‘weak’ struggle with their mental health, and that our mental health is something fixed and unchanging, like our eye colour.
We can ALL play a role in prevention. We ALL have a role to play, taking small or big steps, we can support our mental health, reaching out with kindness to ourselves and in our communities.
So how can we start to help ourselves, start to help each other?
It is an uncomfortable truth that the access to mental health services remains unequal. Whilst this is unfair to say the least, we all DO have control over what we can do.
Research also shows that a large percentage of our happiness is derived from the attitudes we adopt, what we choose to focus on and the habits we develop in our daily lives. There will always be factors that we can’t control in our lives….
The Weather – Have you noticed how many people complain about the weather because it is not to their liking? Let’s face it, we have no control over mother nature so we might as well accept it! If it rains on your day off from work or on your birthday, make the best of it.
What Other People Think – Contrary to what many people believe, we cannot change what other people think, including about ourselves. Yet countless, and I mean countless numbers of people try in vain to change the opinions and thoughts of others.
The Past – This is a big one. The past is forever lost and there is no way we can recover it. All of us have made mistakes and the wisest thing we can do is to learn from them. We cannot undo what is done. Reminiscing on the past is one of the main causes of regret that many people feel. Yesterday has gone and with it all the things that could make it better. We only have the present moment. We need to accept the past and then move on. We will never get the past back.
The Traffic – Two words. Rush hour! And there is no need to expand here!
Here’s the good news….there ARE factors over which we do have a degree of personal control though, there are parts of our lives we can change. Change, after all, is an inevitable part of life and realising that nothing lasts forever is one of the keys to lasting happiness and peace.
We may not be able to alter our circumstances and situations, but we can practice changing the focus of our attention, developing routines, and engaging in activities that support positive mental health. These coping strategies can provide a degree of relief until that support is available or not needed.