spotlighting myriad issues in mental health is a unifying call-to-arms
In a classic episode of that great television comedy ‘Frasier’, Dr Crane is about to receive a lifetime achievement award but en-route to the ceremony decides to visit his former professor, Dr Tewkesbury: who’d sent a note of congratulations. As he wrestles with an existential crisis growing exponentially, he’s forced to face the fact that his status as a radio psychiatrist has come at a cost, to himself personally. The episode ‘Frasier’s Edge’, reminds us of the delicate trajectory that life can take and so whether you live in the north or southern hemisphere or the right or wrong side of the tracks: mental-health awareness applies to most if not all.
‘Those who believe that health is a commodity, on [a] par with cars or computers, fail to grasp the basic economic lesson that health is very vulnerable to exposure to the markets, not least due to the profound asymmetries in power between the providers and consumers.’
Vikram Patel, Chair of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
It’s a penetrating quote, highlighting something we often overlook as we go about our business and where an acute awareness of our exposure to financial pressures, by-passes the same application to our mental health. That, in turn, explains the real need to spread awareness with information campaigns spanning twenty-four hours like the ‘Time to Talk Day’ in the UK, or ‘World Bipolar Day’, ‘World Suicide Prevention Day’ and ‘World Mental Health Day’.
Or it may be seven days through which renewed focus on the human condition passes through ‘OCD Awareness Week’, ‘National Women’s Health Week’ in the US and ‘International Men’s Health Awareness Week’. Thirty days then takes us into ‘Bullying Prevention Month’ and ‘Blood Cancer Awareness Month’, too, leaving the calendar full and thankfully so.
In the UK and across Europe and the rest of the world, the 13th to the 19th May sees ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’ in full swing as various organisations and charities express messages of support, knowledge and hope to millions of people. In the United States, there’s a ‘Mental Wellness Month’ in January and a ‘Brain Awareness Week’ in February whilst the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander mental health day, falls on the 10th May. In Southeast Asia, a prevalence of mental-health concern was conveyed by a World Health Organisation regional advisor in 2023, just as Jornal Do Brasil reported that 1.6% of the populace experienced PTSD, in 2022.
Clearly, mental health is a global issue but what does it mean exactly from one corner to the next? What of differences that are equally valid, when it comes to suffering under disparate skies. In briefly looking at the other side of the client-therapist relationship: the autumn of 2017 saw research interviews carried out on forcibly displaced Syrian mental-health professionals and the results were published, in the British Medical Journal, BMJ.
‘At the beginning of my experience, I was by myself with a lot of trauma cases [and] I felt that I was burnt out…and that I was trapped. I was not happy. I started having nightmares because I was exposed to very big issues such as incest, physical and sexual assaults, losing body parts and suicide.’ (P1)
‘The other day, I was working at the orphanage and I saw 11 people in one day…this is a big number and causes pressure, mental exhaustion and burnout. Sometimes, you’re tired and you need to take a day off…your capacity becomes less…and this is…we all…this is burnout.’ (P3)
To be honest, sometimes at the end of the day, I feel that I am unable to speak anymore, around 5.30 when we finish our work.’ (P4)
So, mental health is a scale of pain claiming just as easily in a Surrey kitchen as it does in the midst of smoke and rubble, and as things stand: it’s estimated that approximately two to six percent of people worldwide weathered depression, over the course of 2021. In a 2022 report, jointly produced by the Mental Health Foundation, the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre and the London School of Economics and Political science – the estimated annual loss of output to the UK economy due to poor mental health in 2019, came in at just under £120 billion. ‘The Economic Case For Investing in the Prevention of Mental Health Conditions in the UK’ added that the figure increased by six billion, with the addition of suicide and self-injury. In global terms, the United Nations released a report by the World Health Organisation in 2022, as well, revealing that some one-billion people now carry a mental-health disorder.
Many of these people have shared stories of lives lived through a struggle which helps to ease feelings of isolation and loneliness often accompanied, by a sense of shame. That humiliation can be devastating, too, as it haunts you with its own ball and chain, but in the end where you live can make a difference between validation and recovery or circling the social drain. One such story can be found on the website of the charity, Anxiety UK, where the inspiring account of brave decisions made internally and beyond, changed a life for the better. In one part, David Evans writes:
‘Signing myself off work for the remainder of the week, I naturally felt an element of guilt for taking time off for my mental – as opposed to physical – wellbeing and shame for both laying bare my struggles with anxiety to my bosses and it having impacted my working life.’
It’s no mean feat and his story reminds us of the importance of priorities and the way in which, we process our timelines.
In 2024, the UK’s Mental Health Foundation has set the idea of movement as a theme for this year’s national drive and in doing so, it reinforces the benefits of motion during activity or some sort of venture. In addition to this, numerous studies have confirmed over time the wellness advantages of keeping fit and healthy in mind, body and soul. One, in particular, outlines the physiological gains:
‘Physical activity has its origins in ancient history. It is thought that the indus Valley civilisation created the foundation of modern yoga in approximately 3000 B.C. during the early Bronze Age. The beneficial role of physical activity in healthy living and preventing and managing health disorders is well documented in the literature. Physical activity provides various significant health benefits. Mechanical stress and repeated exposure to gravitational forces created by frequent physical exercise increase a variety of characteristics, including physical strength, endurance, bone mineral density and neuromusculoskeletal fitness, all of which contribute to a functional and independent existence.’
‘Role of Physical Activity on Mental Health and Well-Being: A Review.’ 2023
So, without this impulse and ability to move around we’d be classified as ‘sessile’ creatures, instead. Well, perhaps sessility can be applied to the mind when beset by crippling mental-health disorders. Then, as we struggle to move forward with healthier frames-of-reference and our thinking feels attached to some unyielding structure: gradual motion can help disrupt the confusion, as energy frees the suffering.
Copyright © 2024 | recoveryourwellbeing.com | All Rights Reserved
Images:
Raindrops to Sunshine, by Dario Rawart, Pixabay – Main Image
Catatonic, by Pixabay
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