AN UMBRELLA PHRASE
THAT COVERS EVERYTHING!
The second anyone mentions the words ‘mental health’, people raise their hackles almost immediately. By Ellie Dean, RNLI.
This is a phrase that covers everything from depression to schizophrenia, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), it is an every-expanding field fraught with difficult conversations and a surprising lack of definitive answers.
With conversation around mental health being such a minefield to walk through, it is understandable that many choose to avoid it altogether. But therein lies the issue.
From my experience as a mental health activist and as a campaigner for Student Minds, I have seen first-hand the effect that silence has on mental health.
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Stigma is arguably the biggest killer amongst those living with mental health, with the NHS stating that 87% of people with mental health difficulties have suffered stigma or discrimination. Stigma creates fear. It encourages people not to say how they feel out of a fear of being ostracised or having to conform to societal expectations in their sex or career. A fear of not being believed, of being viewed as ‘other’, of being considered dangerous. A fear of not belonging.
I realised that something wasn’t right with my mental health when I was seventeen.
My mother was going through extreme depression and anxiety and coming home every day became a guessing game of whether or not she had finally killed herself. She would lay in bed, pulling tufts of her hair out as she stared aimlessly at the wall. Other times she would run with no destination, smashing things and lashing out like a caged animal. Most of the time she cried.
During this time, I was also dumped by my first love, assaulted, and failing school. My decision to move to Paris the second I left sixth form was made on a whim, as I thought that by leaving my mother behind, I would also be leaving my problems.
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