October 10th: A Day to Understand

Original Publication 14/10/20

10th October: A trivial day for those unaware. For many of us, however, it's recognised as World Mental Health Day. A day to raise awareness and develop an understanding of a still largely misunderstood matter. Because, that, at its core, is the real crux of the issue. An undefined lack of understanding.

As a species, we tend to distance ourselves from that which we do not understand, at times even coaxed by our subconscious, but for something as fragile and insecure as the subject matter discussed here, this creates a plethora of issues.

We tend to attach the label of a "mental health condition" onto anyone displaying behaviour outside the perceived realm of normality. Labels such as anxiety and depression are thrown around these days with little sensitivity when, in truth, in this day and age it could be even be considered somewhat abnormal to not be anxious about the future or sad in the present. The problem this creates is that those individuals in real need of help aren't treated with the urgency they're warranted to, often because of, again, a lack of awareness and a lack of understanding.

Perhaps, a rethinking is required. A restructuring of the way in which we define a mental health condition. I've personally always had reservations about the term because, for me, mental health is a shared condition of life, it's just that we all harbour diverse levels based on immeasurable variables. It merits being treated the same way you would treat any other recognised illness, and yet we tend to shy away from discussing it in this regard.

A close friend once told me that he believed people with mental health conditions to be some of the strongest willed people around because of what they have to go through on a daily basis. This statement moved me and stirred my musings because of how much it resonated with me. It gives me great pain to acknowledge I have known nearly a dozen people that have taken their own lives, and it has never even crossed my mind to consider them weak, quite the opposite in fact. They're only human after all, as we all are.

I've struggled with my own issues since adolescence, and while my case may be milder than some, it's something I've been forced to acknowledge, attempt to understand and handle on a recurrent basis. I'm proud of myself for it. I've had help, of course, and I'm beyond fortunate to have people in my life I can turn to, because I found the professional treatment options available to me to be rather limited, and the lack of funding is acknowledged by counsellors and doctors alike. Often it comes down to personal investment, a viable option for some more than others.

Again, it comes down to that aforementioned lack of understanding and a lack of awareness towards the urgency of the issue. There's an element of a dwindling sense of community in modern western society that may attribute to this (see A Sense of Community for more musings). It requires a deal of honesty on the part of those coming forward and those who choose to listen, and there's truth in that those with conditions can feel alienated, and unable to find their voice. If we were to treat this issue with more clarity as a shared condition of life, we may better acknowledge, and we may better yet begin to understand.

That's what this day is all about, isn't it?