I came across a quote recently that spoke absolute volumes, and became the inspiration for this month's deed. The quote read: "That's the stigma, because, unfortunately, we live in a world where if you break your arm, everyone runs over to sign your cast, but if you tell people you're depressed, everyone runs the other way. That's the stigma. We are so, so, so accepting of any body part breaking down, other than our brains. And that's ignorance. That's pure ignorance. And that ignorance has created a world that doesn't understand depression, that doesn't understand mental health." To who created this 'genius-ly' put together paragraph, I have no idea, but one thing is for sure...it is so, so true. These few lines are written in such a way, and analyses mental health in such a way that makes it somehow make sense, even though mental health itself, doesn't. As silly as it sounds, this paragraph actually made me realise that my brain is a body part just as much as my heart is. 'What you think, you become.' I think it is so easy for us to go through life with a voice and being located in our heads, when in fact our bodies are a shell to all our body parts, including our brains. I realise now that someone having a mental illness simply means that their brain needs help, just as when you break your arm you need a cast to make it better. It is clear to me now that mental health has the stigma it has, simply because it is not understood. Just as so many things in the world, mental health needs awareness, exposure, and education, until it is understood for what it truly, so simply, is.
With this in mind, this month I have donated to 'Mind' a mental health charity, working towards supporting and giving respect to anyone experiencing a mental health illness. 'Mind' offers support, advice, and information to individuals experiencing a mental health illness, as well as running campaign in order to support sufferers of mental health, and raise awareness to the many mental health conditions that there are.
'Mind' has an amazing website which you can find here: http://www.mind.org.uk/ which is able to offer advice to family members and friends trying to help someone with a mental illness, define symptoms of mental illnesses, and shares stories of other individuals with mental illnesses and their experiences. There are a number of 'local Minds' located all over the UK, where individuals experiencing mental health difficulty can find help and support. 'Mind' is able to provide information about drugs, treatments, and emotional support which individuals experiencing mental health difficulty are able to consider in order to allow them to cope with their illness.
It is important to realise that although there will be periods where an individual with a mental illness is coping with their illness, as well as times when their illness is fairly mild, mental illness is something that is very much part of an individual and their life. Therefore, by donating to 'Mind' via their website, or simply educating ourselves about mental health, we are supporting the 1 in 4 of us that mental illness affects, as a way to challenge, and hopefully change the current stigma of mental health.
Although your donations to 'Mind' would be greatly appreciate, even if you were to simply take a look at the website and learn about mental health and charity for yourself, and maybe share this knowledge with another would be one more step to changing the face and negative stigma of mental health.
Thank you for your continued support of '12 Months of Giving', and I will see you later this month with a post explaining just what amazing work 'Mind' is able to do with our support.
Be Good!
Kizzy :)
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