Not-so-mental health

Annabelle Tooby blames the labelling of a psychological issue as a weakness rather than an illness and a real serious problem.

There is an ever growing stigma that surrounds and is attached to mental health problems especially with regards to young people.

We are made to feel as though anxiety, stress and depression are just a ‘phase’ that you will eventually grow out of.

This ignorance and lack of compassion is a catalyst for the self-detrimental behaviours that have the potential to cause a dangerous downward spiral for vulnerable people.

It is all too common that people are misinformed about mental health problems.

I have been told to chose not to “let it get to me” on many occasions. But, I can tell you first hand, anxiety is not a choice.

Alarmingly, 1 in 6 people over the age of sixteen reported experiencing symptoms of mental health problems according to the 2018 mental health statistics for England.

Common mental disorders that include but are not exclusive to anxiety and depression impact people’s daily lives just as much as physical disabilities and demand the same level of support from health professionals.

Many people don’t even recognise that they may be suffering and worse still they are too afraid to ask for help.

It is this negative and naive approach that slams the door shut conversations about mental health and leads people to be too ashamed to talk out.

It is not surprising that us adolescents suffer in silence when we do finally gather the courage to seek help we are shoved on the bottom of long waiting lists or forgotten about completely.

I think the university could do far more in helping people who come to them for support when they are struggling to cope.

The intense pressures of exams, (un)employment, relationships, financial worries, peer-pressure – the list goes on – needs to be taken more seriously.

Simply changing the way we educate ourselves about psychological problems can stop mental disorders from consuming people’s lives.