Mental health Campaigning

It seems odd to me that whilst the anti stigma campaigns grinds on about bringing people together and not letting them feel alone because of mental illness I now feel more alone than I did before it.

 I feel I have less in common with the people whom for years I had felt were my peers.

The out pouring of many about what they think and what should be done has highlighted to me that I don’t feel exactly like they do. My opinions are not those of the general masses of people speaking up about their mental health issues and more akin to the comments of therapists and those who feel well, and it has made me uncomfortable with some of the things people are doing and uncomfortable with how I am perceived by others.
I feel that to many mental health activists or bloggers speak as if everyone with a mental health issue sees things in the same way and want the same things. There appears to be no room for people to have even slightly different opinions from them and it infuriates me to feel that the people I once felt close to, because I felt we shared the same goals, I now do not.

 

 I worry I am perceived by those who see themselves as mental health advocates as uncaring, disinterested, and ignorant of the problems when nothing could be farther from the truth.

I am not uncaring or disinterested in improving the standards of care, parity of esteem, and reducing the prejudice and stigma of those with differences or difficulties I just don’t necessarily agree with everything that every blogger, charity or person says about what needs to be done.
I find it irritating when people start talking about the power of the people and feel that sometimes they are focussing on things that are less important than others. It is not that every small victory is not important they are but more that I not want to back all of them and I don’t wish to be called ignorant for not doing. It would be wonderful if people could be more accepting of the differences particularly as I am finding that people who are talking about the lack understanding in others are missing how inflexible their own thinking is and no I’m not perfect in this either.

To this end I am more inclined to feel that although the anti stigma campaigns have got people talking about mental health and reducing stigmatising images on screen and in the press but have missed other goals that might be just as important and maybe it’s time to put some focus on them.

I dare say many would say that they have done so with the push for parity of esteem and fighting for more funding but as can be seen from the recent downturn in funding and the probable risk to life there is still much to do, yet I wonder if in adding a new focus this may also be affected in a positive way. What I am talking about is a move to put the feelings of all and in how they relate to others more into the spotlight.

I am talking about consideration for the feelings of all.

A simple premise but one I feel as a nation we have lost. We don’t see people applauding because someone spoke up about rudeness or stress in the workplace, all we seem to see championed is the ill talking about how great they are doing in recovery and yes it is great but really wouldn’t it be even better if they never got ill or needed to take time out for stress in the first place.

 Wouldn’t it be great if people could talk openly about how they feel?

You might feel that we already have that but I beg to differ. How much do feelings get ignored when you talk/answer your phone whilst ordering coffee or paying for groceries, how often do you not think about the speaker when your phone rings during their presentation, or how often do you tell someone, ‘there just like that’ and shrug when someone says something has hurt them. There is a huge pressure to not talk about how it feels and even more to not do anything about it. To take the power away from people being considerate of others we are losing the battle in maintaining our good mental health and if we are all defeated and believe that nothing can change how we feel or the distress then it is no wonder funding is being cut to services that are trying to do this.

 If you do not believe that things can improve why should you spend billions on systems or care that is trying to do it.

For me we need people to talk about their illness but we also need them to talk about their feelings and think about their mental health; because wouldn't it be great if when people heard ‘Mental health’ they didn’t just think about people who are ill they thought about their feelings, the feelings of others, about how distressing things were and what can be done to change or lesson them.