I started writing this as a continuation of my last post and felt like I hit a wall. I talked about sharing my personal mental health issues this month for Mental Health Awareness Month and when I started writing, it didnāt feel right to share just yet. So weāre changing the plan.
Thank you for your patience with me while I iron things out with this newsletter, friend.
Now on to the meat ā¤µļø
Hey friend! šš¾
Itās Mental Health Awareness Month and you might be seeing a lot of content on your social media about taking care of your mental health, talking to a mental health professional, or doing more self-care.
But likeā¦ what even is mental health anyway?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as the āstate of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their communityā.
In regular-people-speak, your mental health is about feeling good enough about yourself to be able to do good in your community. So folks who struggle with mental health concerns may struggle with feeling good about themselves.
You can think of your mental health as a spectrum, from really good on one end to really not-so-good on the other end. Where your mental health is on this spectrum can be affected by A LOT of things:
šµāš«Stressful situations like divorce, a loved oneās death or having a newborn
š„Changes in your physical health, like getting COVID, or diabetes
š£Traumatic experiences like poverty, abuse/assault and discrimination due to race, sexuality and/or gender
š§¬Genetics (as is the case with some psychiatric conditions like autism, ADHD, and schizophrenia)
Weāre living under āØcapitalismāØ so everyone has concerns about their mental health every now and then. But when your concerns get more chronic and start to cause more stress and affect your ability to function, thatās when itās a mental illness.
Mental illnesses are as varied (if not more) as mental health concerns ā from anxiety, depression, and the ever more familiar autism, ADHD, and burnout, to conditions like insomnia, Alzheimerās, anorexia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even sexual dysfunctions like female orgasmic disorder!
So if mental health is so vast and varied, why does mental health awareness on social media always boil down to upping your self-care, checking up on your strong friend and talking to a professional?
Now, I get that this type of advice is easy to share and is accessible to allies, but as a person who loves sharing practical advice, Iām not seeing enough of that for folks struggling with their mental health. Neither am I seeing advice that truly empowers allies to support their loved ones!
Saying ācheck on your strong friendā without sharing how is just empty. Saying ātake care of your mental healthā and only talking about self-care (wtf even is self-care?) and mindfulness is just lazy. Thereās so much more that can (and should!) be said to promote good mental health, especially for BIPOC and neurodivergent (ND) folks.
Mental health awareness shouldnāt only be talked about in May of every year. It should be a regular discussion since so many of us silently or unknowingly struggle (looking š at you BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and ND friends)
100% agree that we need more practical ways to support ourselves and friends/loved ones when it comes to mental health. It's only when you're actually in the situation that you realize how ill-equipped you are which makes the situation even more overwhelming and stressful. I think so many of us would benefit from the kind of practical approach that you talk about here.