World Mental Health Day

Yep, this is literally just the status I've posted on Facebook. But oh well.

It's World Mental Health Day today. It's a really really important day, and this is a status I feel incredibly passionate about. However, it's also one that has taken me a large part of the day to write. There is just too much to say. There are too many reasons why this day is important, why mental health in general is important. After thinking, and writing, and pressing backspace more times than I care to think about, I've decided to start this status with a statistic:
In any given year, 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem.
That's a big number. That's between 6 and 7 pupils in an average class. That's around 107,025 people in Bristol alone.That's a quarter of the people you come into contact with every day. If there was a 1 in 4 chance of winning £1000, no strings attached, you'd probably go for it. 1 in 4 is a bloody big number.
And yet, recently, 1 in 4 is a statistic that's been bugging me a little. It's one of the most common statistics given whenever the subject of mental health comes up. It's really good at demonstrating the sheer number of people who are affected by mental health problems, and it's really good at showing that mental health isn't really something we can ignore. However, 1 in 4 is also just a number. There is far more to mental health than that number. 1 in 4 does not describe, for example, what anxiety feels like- that awful force that attempts to govern lives, every single day. It does nothing for conveying what it is like to genuinely feel as though the world would be better off without you, or for how it feels completely alone, to look for any escape- no matter how damaging- from the feelings trying to engulf you. There is no way 1 in 4 could ever sum up how hopeless mental health problems can feel. Though many, many people who experience mental health problems can and will get better, there are others who may not. From that number, you cannot tell how awful it feels when you love someone who is struggling, how you read into every single thing they say and do, how you try and try to be there for them, knowing at the same time that you are powerless against the tidal wave that is their own mind. 1 in 4 doesn't come close to describing how many desperate hugs I have given people when there are no words left. 1 in 4 says absolutely nothing about the quarter of the population for whom every day is a fight.
Mental health problems are terrifying. I say that not only because I've had first hand experience, but because I've had second hand experience too. I spent last year struggling, trying desperately to survive the world. I've spent far longer than that loving people who are engaged in their own battles- and it's for every single one of them, and not for myself, that I am writing this. It's for every single one of them that I vow, whole-heartedly, to speak out about mental health, wherever and whenever possible. Why speak out? Because mental health is something that, so often, we just aren't meant to talk about. It's the elephant in the corner. That genuinely sickens me- as I say over and over, mental health is just as important as physical health. If someone breaks their arm, we talk about it. We fund research finding cures to all sorts of physical problems. We hold huge fundraising events and barely a week goes by when there's not a news headline about physical ailments. Yesterday, there was a mental health headline. It was, sadly, an anomaly. Even worse is all the negativity surrounding mental health- accusations such as false, selfish, attention-seeking. Mental health problems are real problems, ones that need the appropriate care and respect. I cannot impress that upon you enough.
I want to see a world where World Mental Health Day is almost superfluous, because every day there are conversations about what is currently a hugely stigmatised and discriminated topic. I want to see a world where it is completely accepted that it's okay not to be okay- where mental health problems are seen in the same way as physical problems. I know that that world will not cure mental health problems, any more than talking about a broken leg stitches the bone back together again. What it will do, however, is send a clearer message to people that they are not alone. That they are loved. That the world is here for them. That struggling is part of the human condition. I want that world. Don't you?
I'm going to assume that you do. More than that- I'm going to assume that you are more than ready to make that world happen, and that you want to know how we're going to get there. That's simple. We're going to love, and we're going to talk. There will be no assumptions, no extending the myths of mental health. Don't shy away from the subject, don't make jokes or pretend you know how they feel. Tell people you're there for them, and that you love them. Speak up about mental health; have positive conversations about it. Please. For me, and for every single other person in the world. 1 in 4 people may experience a mental health problem in any given year, but we are all affected by mental health.
Lastly, I want to use this day to make an announcement. It's one that I'm pretty excited about. As most people know, last year, in 2013, I shaved off my hair for Mind- a mental health charity- and raised £608. I was really pleased with this, and really really grateful to everyone who supported me. Doing that empowered and inspired me- and I want to make 2015 a year to remember. In 2015, I want to raise £2015 for a mental health charity. It's a big task. Some might say impossible. Yet it's one I'm passionate about, and one I'm determined to accomplish. I feel I owe it to the world- to every single person who deserves so much better than their mental health has given them, and to every other person, because, as I said, mental health is something we all have. More details will come as and when I'm ready; I just felt that today was the right day to get the basic plan out there!
I want to finish this by telling you- yes, you, the person reading this- that I am here for you, and that I will never judge you. That I love you so much more than you could ever imagine. I promise.
Here's to World Mental Health Day, and to talking and loving. Here's to hugs and friends and sunshine on dark days. Here's to love and hugs. I'm giving them out by the dozen. I hope you will, too.