Prior to my own diagnosis with mental illness, I was also active on social media when days like Bell Let’s Talk came about. But as I started to fall ill, these days increasingly started to bother me, even prior to my diagnosis.
Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. Last year, I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). As someone who suffers from mental illness, days where social media is over-saturated with discussion surrounding mental health are incredibly difficult.
One could even say it does the opposite of what it should be doing. But what are these days really for? Is #BellLetsTalk supposed to raise awareness of mental health issues, which we all have, or to discuss mental illness, or to combat stigma?
Whatever the main message is, it has been largely lost on social media. This is important because if it is for people with mental illness, it is largely doing the opposite of what it is designed to do.
When I log onto social media and see it’s a “mental health awareness day,” I quickly log off. The advertisements, carefully-crafted graphics and tweets claiming that “you’ll get through this” don’t help many of us.
In fact, many people don’t actually fully recover from mental illness. In my case, OCD has a psychological and biological aspect, meaning it can be passed down and is treatable but not always “curable.”
Within the OCD community, the language is very different. This is why I want to stress that mental health and mental illness advocacy on social media is not always bad, and can provide comfort and community for many of us.
But, as it is already hard for many people with mental health issues to be a part of the world, having the discussion of mental illness thrown into your face by strangers on social media makes it even harder to make it through the day.
Concerning mental health, these awareness campaigns tend to understand that life in itself is messy and hard, which is why we need to care for our mental health. But, they tend to ignore that those struggling with mental illness are simply trying to make it through the day, do what we need to do and get to the places we need to be.
Throwing our mental illnesses in our face and “convincing us” that it’s okay often triggers some people with mental health issues and makes that day even more difficult. A company overflowing with money such as Bell should focus on access to services, the higher prices of medication and the lack of access to psychiatry services.
Though some of us are physically acceptable to society, we need to care for those who are alienated and in the street who are incredibly stigmatized because they are living through illnesses that are a lot less socially acceptable.
The use of social media for discussing mental illness and mental health is important, and has helped me understand much of what is going on in my brain. But, we need to be conscious of our words and the way we do things as they can be incredibly triggering to those suffering the most.
There are many focusing on ending stigma, but we need to focus on physical, actual ways we can help those suffering the most.
Feature image by Tim Austen.
