Thoughts on World Mental Health Day ‘22
It’s World Mental Health Day, and I’ve been considering what that means as someone who spends so much of her time thinking and talking about mental health. A day like this has allowed me to reflect on my own mental health journey, as well of that of my clients and the world’s response at large to a still mostly taboo topic.
Here are the five things I wish were globally acknowledged truths on World Mental Health Day.
Mental health is health. And mental health care is health care. Your psychological state is just as impactful on your well being as your physiological state…and, I might argue, not all that separate. Going to a therapist when you need it should be just as normal as going to a doctor when you need to (and our healthcare and insurance systems should reflect that!)
It’s okay if your mental health fluctuates. There might be some phases of your life that look and feel very different than others. Honestly–there might be minutes that look and feel different from the next! With every chapter and every life stage come new joys and new challenges, and not always in equal parts.
Perspective is helpful. Comparison is not. It is important to have enough perspective to know that your fight with your partner about where to go to dinner or that crushing, makes-you-feel-you’ve-never-done-anything-good-ever email from your boss is not on the same level as other crises we can imagine. But pain is pain, and comparison as a way of invalidating your emotions is just going to make you feel worse and won’t help you move through.
We cannot separate our mental health from our context. Sometimes what we classify as “disorders” are very real, very normal responses to the terrible things we inevitably encounter. We group symptoms in order to make sense of them, but it’s an individualistic system that leaves out so much nuance.
Whatever state your mental health is in, you are deserving of support and you are deserving of compassion. From yourself, from your people, and sometimes, from professionals.
