It is not often that someone, especially a celebrity, allows themselves to be vulnerable to the world. Actor and singer Selena Gomez does exactly that in her recently released documentary, “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” opening up about her mental health and struggle dealing with bipolar disorder (1). Gomez brings up a topic that is often swept under the rug and not taken as seriously as it should be, mental health. We can only hope that Gomez will encourage others to do the same and open up about their mental struggles and acknowledge its importance, but the chances are unlikely.
There is a lack of urgency or care in treating someone when it comes to poor mental health. Mental illness does not have the same attention or awareness as physical health does. If there is no increase in accessibility and accountability toward mental awareness, depression and other mental illnesses will continue to go untreated and worsen those individuals' mental states, increasing the amount of self-harm.
If someone’s ankle is bothering them, people respond with various questions and maybe a trip to the doctor. When someone says they have been feeling down for a while, most of the time, the response is to change their mindset or give them very generic advice. People look at poor mental health as something that can be fixed easily and quickly on your own without the need for treatment. It does sit at the same level as taking care of your physical health.
Mental health is a new topic in today’s world. In the past, it was not something that was dealt with or talked about much. People did not see mental health as something that needed a platform or awareness in everyday life. Therefore, it is difficult for people to make the adjustment and normalize constant mental health awareness, feeling awkward addressing it in conversation and opening up about their mental state.
I used to look at care for mental health with a negative connotation, thinking that seeing a therapist wasn’t normal and there was something wrong with me. When someone claims they are talking to a therapist, people tend to associate it with trauma or treatment and tend not to see it in a casual or positive way. Talking to a therapist should be a normalized concept and does not need to have such a stigma around it. Prior to even talking to a therapist, talking about your mental health should be a normal and valid conversation to have.
It is essential for people to check up on themselves mentally in the way that they do physically, and that can come from conversations with a friend or professional. Just as people have yearly doctor checkups for their physical health, we should normalize checkups on our mental health. It should be an encouraged topic and not grazed upon as it can be in the school or workplace because people feel uncomfortable or do not know the proper way to discuss it.
There should be information on approaches to taking care and looking after yourself and others' mental health so that society knows how to adjust their way of life in a positive way regarding their mental health. There should be more availability for treatment and resources for people seeking help. Eighteen-year-old Jordan Jackson and Natasha Johnson recently shared their struggle to receive help living in an area in Missouri considered to be a shortage of mental health professionals zone (2). Countless areas around the world also have shortages of mental health professionals and a lack of resources, meaning the same tragic story is probably occurring to countless other individuals.
Continuing to play ignorant and ignore the topic will play no benefit and only worsen the issue because, just like Johnson and Jackson, people may be aware of the mental struggles they are dealing with but not have the proper resources to seek help. Lack of treatment can stop people from living fulfilled and happy lives and can easily escalate to self-harm or suicide when the problem continues to be left unsolved and avoided.
Opening up about mental health and bringing the conversation into our daily lives allows people to feel more comfortable around the topic and let themselves be more vulnerable to the world and people around them. We have seen the effects and harms that come from mental illness, yet there is still a lack of prioritizing it or changing the way we take care of our mental state. If people take awareness and allow themselves to have consistent mental checkups the negative effects can be taken care of before they become critical.
I totally agree that it's healthy to be open about mental health. However, I'm not so sure it should be "casual" necessarily. Mental health is a bit different than physical health in the sense that it shows a lot about your interior mental states. Generic advice and awkwardness can often come purely out of someone not being close enough to you to know which advice to give. In physical health issues, generic advice is totally normal (i.e. put ice on your bruise). Mental health advice and conversations requires a level of intimacy that we probably only have with a limited amount of people. I really enjoyed this post, and can't agree more that it's important to be consciously aware o…
This was a great post - I'm glad that people are starting to talk about this more. It has already helped mental health issues become less stigmatized. I think it's evident even in the name. It used to be called mental illness, which is obviously much more negative of a view. It's so good that people are starting to see that it is just as important as physical health when it comes to well being. We still have a long way to go though in the society to normalize making it a priority to take care of ourselves.