Mental Health Awareness Week: what should we do?

Mental health: we don’t talk about it. At least, we don’t talk about it enough.

From my own experience, throughout my 10 years in the workplace, it seemed that mental health trouble was never something that constituted a good enough reason to be signed off work, at least not openly. It is not something that my colleagues would share or talk about.
I have seen several colleagues and friends over the years who struggled to cope with the awful things that life threw their way: from low self-esteem, to pressure at work, to tragedies in their personal lives. They tried to battle on and eventually their body physically forced them to stop and reconsider. And yet, they were never able to admit that they were struggling. It was almost as though there would be shame in opening up and stating how they were feeling.

A quick search on the Mental Health Foundation website shows that the numbers of people affected by mental health problems are higher than I expected. What is even more concerning, staggering in fact, is the gap between the number of people affected by mental health issues and the number of people receiving help for their issues. Around three quarters of “people with mental health problems in England may not get access to the treatment they need.” (Mental Health Foundation).

This week is Mental Health Awareness week and the focus is stress and its impact on mental health issues such as depression, anxiety. According to the Mental Health Foundation, a shocking “two thirds of us experience a mental health problem in our lifetimes, and stress is a key factor in this.” (Mental Health Foundation). I know what you’re thinking: who hasn’t gone through periods of stress in their professional or personal life?

Life is tough: the pressure to succeed professionally and personally is ever increasing. Nobody is immune to mental health challenges. Nobody should have to suffer alone or in silence. If you do one thing this Mental Health Awareness week, ask a friend, colleague or relative how they are doing. Listen to them and talk about mental health.

And if each of us does that every week from now on, perhaps we can break the silence on mental health and get people the help they need.