last night the importance of mental health was outed, on National television, Prime Time viewing , by a popular television show Britain’s Got Talent.
Myself and my son love the show, particularly the presenters, as they come from the same part of the UK as we do, and we are proud Geordies.
As a region we are a very supportive lot, Ant and Dec have never forgotten their roots, and recently Ant himself has been in the clutches of poor mental health, and has had bad publicity about the whole openness of his illness.
Unless you have ever suffered from mental illness, you will never quite understand the impact that it has on a sufferers life. you may be able to sympathise, and to understand, but you will never quite understand the devastation that mental health issues can cause to a person’s sense of worth, their confidence, self esteem and their minds.
Mental health problems can make you convinced that you are going crazy, which in turn causes more anxiety in the individual.
Then they have the added stigma of depression or anxiety, it is not easy to go for help if you are feeling this way. your GP will offer you medication, and more recently talking therapies have emerged.
But medication does not always help, what then ?
Visions of men in white coats, and straight jackets come to mind, and you can imagine yourself in that padded cell.
This is how I have been all of my life. Frightened to divulge the mental health problems that I have because of the shame I felt. I don’t even know why I felt this shame, probably because society has just expected me to fit in, and never gave a thought about mental health problems, in turn making me feel like it was my fault and I just had to deal with life, everybody else seemed to cope ok, why couldn’t I ?
Over the last 50 years I have seen very little progress in addressing mental health and have watched as a significant epidemic of mental health problems have taken hold of the country.
Depression and other mental health problems need addressing, immediately. We have lived too long in a society that buries its head in the sands of mental health.
Mental health is no different to physical health. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
I myself have some of the worst mental health problems you can have, but I am not afraid to talk about it now, I have realised that it is society who should be afraid of ‘not’ talking about it.
In the last 15 years there has been a staggering 48% rise in Anxiety and Depression, amongst British children.
This means that nearly half of the population of our future generation will suffer from these conditions if left untreated.
Imagine the drain on resources that this would be ? how would society cope with half of the population out of work because they have mental health conditions ?
It has already begun, the beginning of the end..
There are thousands of children who are too anxious to even attend school.
Thousands of parents trying to help their children alone, in a society that pushes children to conform, and punishing them when they cant, and then also punishing their parents, when they aren’t able to ‘make’ the children conform.
Ant and Dec and all involved in the mental health awareness campaign did a fantastic job in getting the message out last night.
It is good to talk, but we need to talk more about the importance of mental health before our country disintegrates before our eyes into a dark cloud of depression…
You think Brexit is a problem ?
Brexit is the least of Great Britain’s problems …
Support Mental Wellness…. you may need it one day
love Betty x
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