“The experience I have had is that once you start talking about [experiencing a mental health struggle], you realize that actually your part of quite a big club.” — Prince Harry
Mental Health was once something taboo to speak about and many were labeled as “crazy”, but that was an awfully long time ago. Now we face an upward tick in conversations about declining mental health yet extraordinarily little talk about lack of support for those suffering from a mental health decline. I prefer to call it that because it comes in all forms, diagnosis, and situations. I have watched family suffer from it in many degrees, endure it myself, and unfortunately seen friends and their children who have lost their battle to mental health. Mental health decline does not have to be some extraordinary diagnosis such as schizophrenia or bipolar, sometimes it is anxiety, situational and seasonal. While one may seem greater than the other, but the fact is, that it affects each person differently and all the same.
The stigma of mental health decline is one where you hear “just get over it”, “breathe” or the worst for me “you’ll be fine its nothing.”. These are words of people who have not experienced it or weren’t ever subjected to dealing with it in a proper manner. Yet it is up to the ones who are declining to disregard those remarks and assume the person just has no idea, one more thing for us to plate I suppose. I wish more awareness were given on noticing the signs, how to approach them or when to intervene and help. That is the problem when mental health declines, there is no one true good fix. Yet somehow, I feel we could all take more responsibility in not just recognizing the signs but being more accepting of the illness itself.
The pandemic has proved trying to many who have faced mental health decline and as well for those who never have but are now experiencing it. I see more and more news stories of shootings, violence, and suicides. I know deep within myself that these “stories” will only grow in number as people are brought back to socialization and facing a new world of financial uncertainty. I have struggled with mental health decline during the pandemic. My history of mental health is not crystal clear as I was diagnosed with PTSD after an abusive relationship that caused me to not only have a mental breakdown but rebuild my mental state to a healthy one. During the pandemic, I was diagnosed with Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood. I had an extremely hard time coping from the lockdown to lost and lowered wages with work along with the fear of getting sick as I have an autoimmune disorder. My thoughts were dark, I isolated myself and even had suicidal ideation, which is thoughts of ending my life but no real plan to do it. I can guess quite a few others suffer from this type of temporary mental health decline and have no idea how to understand it or even cope with it.
I was not willing to talk to anyone in my life about what I was feeling, but I did seek out a therapist. After enduring that and realizing just how dark of a place one goes, I have thought about how to educate others on ways to cope, ways to help, ways to reach out. While all these seem like wonderful ideas, unless we collectively unite as a whole, we will see little to no change in how mental health decline is handled. I suppose my first step in educating others is to bring awareness of mental health and break the idea that it is taboo or forbidden. I ask that anyone who reads this, educate yourself on mental health and be aware of signs within your circle. Understand that it is an illness just like cancer and do not be so quick to shut the door on accepting that someone you know is going through it. Learn ways to talk so that you do not seem judgmental but allow an opportunity for open conversation. The more you learn the more others will follow in toe and maybe together we can save a life or two.