Mental Health Awareness Week Is Over; The Mental Health Epidemic Isn’t.

Hi lovelies!

Today I want to touch on the subject of mental health awareness week and raise some issues around it, as well as acknowledging some positives about the week too. Read on if you’re interested!

Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) is good, to an extent. It’s great to raise awareness around people with mental health issues and their daily struggles. It’s a week dedicated to acknowledging some of the most vulnerable members of society and checking if they’re being treated properly, for example through mental health funding.

My concerns come when the week ends.

What happens when the week ends? I’ll tell you what happens: the majority of people go back to their normal, every-day lives without a care in the world. The girl who was posting how much she cared about mental health on Facebook suddenly doesn’t acknowledge it anymore. The company that was all for raising awareness of mental health on Twitter suddenly has gone silent on the matter until the next MHAW comes along in a years time. However, some people can’t go back to this normal, every-day life. They can’t do this because they’re mentally ill.

Mental health issues exist for people 365 days out of the year. Mental health funding is at an all-time-low. One week is not enough for the mental health crisis to change, and that’s the harsh truth of it.

Someone’s mental illness is not something for your company to profit off by posting a MHAW post on Twitter. Someone’s mental illness is not something for you to gain popularity off because you shared a mental health awareness post on Facebook. Someone’s mental health is NOT for you to use for your own personal gain.

Please, please continue to fight for the rights of mentally ill individuals every day. Please don’t let this just be a 7 day thing out of 365 days a year. Mentally ill people need societies help to fight for better funding for better mental health services. One week is not enough.

Lots of love,

Soph. xx