Dear Mental Health

Dear Mental Health,

I write to you today, on a day dedicated to you and raising awareness of how important you are. Today is the 10th of October, otherwise known as 'World Mental Health Day'. I don't appear to have written to you before, which I find extremely odd considering how much I care about you and your well-being. Before I started writing, I found myself doing some research to find our more about you:

What are you? According to the Mental Health Foundation, you're capable of change and improvement. When you're in good form, you enable us to cope with life, feeling, expressing and managing emotions, whether positive or negative. If things are well, you allow us to cope with change and uncertainty and bounce back from any struggles we may face. You're different for everyone with roughly 1/10 people affected by anxiety or depression in any given moment. Yet, considering how common such conditions are, talking about you continues to be tricky for a lot of people, pushing you into the shadows.

I am one of those 1/10 people, I think that's been made clear enough on more than one occasion. You don't feel at home in my brain and you act out. I am lucky though and can and will keep finding you the help you need to feel better. The theme for your special day this year, is 'mental health in an unequal world'. The focus is on how things can change to help those with mental health struggles who are already facing other socio-economic and personal challenges. How can potential stressors be eased to minimise their impact on mental health, especially in a post-pandemic world? The Mental Health Foundation website has some recommendations for how government can do this. I'd tell you to have a read...but I'm not sure how much you'd take on board.

I know how lucky I am to get the help I need. I appreciate that I have access to the finances needed to pay for a psychiatrist, therapist and daily medication. I am lucky to have family and friends who support my twisty-turny, hilly journey involved in looking after you, dear mental health. I am grateful for this as we all navigate a time during which research has shown increasing numbers of people suffering. People's lives have been, potentially, drastically changed - losing jobs, losing homes, missing, and sadly losing, friends and family, juggling work and home-school, reduced access to necessary services and treatments. A tonne of change with a dollop of loss is understandably causing havoc to people's lives and minds. Keeping you safe, stable and happy has not exactly been easy for anyone. 

But people do increasingly realise how important you are and want to do whatever they can to help so that people can feel happy and safe around you rather than sad, anxious, afraid and alone. 

You may not be as visible as more physical health needs: no sling, crutch or bandages in sight, but you are there, hidden away in everyone. One simple step we can all make to bring you to the forefront of people's minds is to discuss you more...So I will always talk about you to the world, mental health, because you matter: not just today, but everyday. 

Speak soon (and always),