WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH

Depression, anxiety, and panic attacks are NOT signs of weakness, they are signs of trying to remain strong for far too long.

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of. Neither is talking about it. And we, as a society, need to talk about it more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YbWRqsnHdo

I will watch the full video later.
I agree that if mental health (when it goes awry) is brought more into the open, discussed and learnt about, there would not be such a reluctance to talk about it when it happens to you or yours.

If you break your leg you get treatment, if your mind goes a bit awry you should do the same...face it and get help.

Of course with our NHS the way it is its not always possible to get a diagnosis and treatment.....that's the next big hurdle people have to face.

I've always thought mentally ill should get more help and understanding.

Hundreds are depressed through no fault of their own. Pull yourself together doesn't even crack it., its a stupid remark.

They need help, able to speak to someone if they want to and not bottle it up.

The really bad mentally ill with Alzheimer's, and illnesses that affect their brain, need more resources to help them and their families.

The analogy that cleansing your mind is like brushing your teeth is scary.  With the mind, the choice is not binary like the clean/not-clean of brushing your teeth.  What is a “proper” thought?  Is it the flat-earth theory?  Is it the Ptolemaic universe?  Is it authoritarianism, as Putin urges, or is it democracy as we have in the west?

I like (and share) the advice about meditation and introspection, but the remarks about a binary mental health are somewhat chilling.  “A healthy, happy brain” is mindful of the pod people of the film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Remember that great minds like Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Kurt Vonnegut and Isaac Newton, during their lifetime, were considered mentally ill.  Read, also: Kay Redfield Jamison, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.  

http://www.nursingschools.net/blog/2010/10/50-famous-artists-thinkers-who-have-struggled-with-depression/

It seems to me that everyone talks about mental health anyway. People don't mind saying they have mental health problems these days - a lot of them are quite open about it.

Rumination is either a cause or effect of depression and anxiety, but people can take steps to halt it before it becomes a serious problem. If it becomes uncontrollable, just go and get some drugs from the doc.

Raggamuffin wrote:It seems to me that everyone talks about mental health anyway. People don't mind saying they have mental health problems these days - a lot of them are quite open about it.

Rumination is either a cause or effect of depression and anxiety, but people can take steps to halt it before it becomes a serious problem. If it becomes uncontrollable, just go and get some drugs from the doc.

I was just about to say exactly what you said in your first paragraph. I think mental health is duscussed very openly nowadays, isn’t it?
Perhaps the people who suffer don’t think so, though.

Watch what happens when they declare someone incompetent and place him or her in a conservatorship.