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Ah so it's #SuicidePreventionDay again, nestled in between National Wellbeing Week and Mental Health Awareness Day, adjacent to World Misery Fortnight and the Great British Sadness Jiffy (brought to you by Amazon)
Can we talk about all this for a sec?
1/?
Can we talk about all this for a sec?
1/?
(Disclaimer: In no way are the following tweets meant to disparage individual efforts in MH activism and advocacy, nor am I offering solutions, which is a million times harder than just pointing at something and saying it's broken)
The ol' MH awareness calendar is pretty full these days. There's a new hashtag to tweet, a pithy slogan to include and sometimes even a Snapchat filter.
And yet, people are still dying to MH issues in record numbers. So, what gives?
3/?
And yet, people are still dying to MH issues in record numbers. So, what gives?
3/?
I'm not saying awareness is a bad thing. But maybe awareness and understanding aren't as similar as we might like to think?
I'm aware of string theory and Cardi B's WAP but I sure as hell don't understand either of them.
4/
I'm aware of string theory and Cardi B's WAP but I sure as hell don't understand either of them.
4/
The risk that we run with the saturation of our consciousnesses with MH awareness is we come to assume that we "know it"- what it looks like, what it sounds like, how best to "fix" it (as a species were suckers for fixing things, right?)
5/
5/
Self Care, Being Kind, Okay to Not Be Okay, all just become sort of...lost in the noise of life.
For some1 struggling with their MH, perhaps for a long time, these little phrases can be torturous: "why don't they work for me? Am I beyond help? I mustn't be trying hard enough"
For some1 struggling with their MH, perhaps for a long time, these little phrases can be torturous: "why don't they work for me? Am I beyond help? I mustn't be trying hard enough"
And that's without going into the MH conditions that simply don't abide by these rules. Telling someone with OCD to "just talk about it" is not a great idea when they are in the middle of a crisis, you know?
7/
7/
MH is a bit like Climate Change in that if we don't do something drastic about it soon, it's going to kill a hell of a lot of us.
But they're also similar because the responsibility to "fix" them has been shifted onto individuals by systems that would rather maintain status quo
But they're also similar because the responsibility to "fix" them has been shifted onto individuals by systems that would rather maintain status quo
These are the same structures that often support or create the various MH awareness dates
No funding for MH care or reevaluation of how we assign value to those in society but here's a podcast about nature & a poster for the office
You can see how harmful this is to those in pain
No funding for MH care or reevaluation of how we assign value to those in society but here's a podcast about nature & a poster for the office
You can see how harmful this is to those in pain
A sort of Disney-fication of your pain and suffering that everyone can wear and feel good about.
Except you. Because it's okay to not be okay!
Except you. Because it's okay to not be okay!
I don't want to make MH sound like some unslayable beast that is beyond all help. But I do think the half-hearted and cynical attempts to bring it into our day to day discourse dilute and ultimately disarm us for when it does come calling.
So yeah. I suppose be aware of the fact that being aware probably isn't enough. Change is needed. Structural change.
Because heck, the reason all this stuff is on the rise isnt a coincidence- its a product of our current economic and social reality as it literally falls apart.
Because heck, the reason all this stuff is on the rise isnt a coincidence- its a product of our current economic and social reality as it literally falls apart.
The structural violence perpetrated against BIPoC, LGBTQ folks, refugees, the working class and the disabled all stem from the same place:
That you and your body don't fit in this system, you don't produce enough and you need to be corrected.
This is some goddamn horseshit.
That you and your body don't fit in this system, you don't produce enough and you need to be corrected.
This is some goddamn horseshit.
Check in with loved ones. But don't fill them with shitty corporate platitudes. Listen to them. Listen to the voices of others, esp marginalised ones. Accept it's okay that you can't fix it all yourself but you can demand actual real structural change that will benefit millions
So get angry and get maybe get sad but then get angry again. Bcos hashtags never changed to world but the voices of people demanding something better do.
We owe it to those weve lost to all this before & we owe it to the one's we'll keep losing if we just accept things.
We owe it to those weve lost to all this before & we owe it to the one's we'll keep losing if we just accept things.
