Why I hope for a future when we won’t need World Mental Health Day
This mental health researcher hopes that eventually, the world will no longer need to mark World Mental Health Day, which falls on Oct 10.
As I watched the mental health sector buzzing with activity in the weeks before World Mental Health Day on Oct 10, I found myself silently reflecting on how Covid-19 has accelerated the growth of the field and our collective awareness of the importance of mental health.
It is heartwarming to see more and more ground-up initiatives since we entered the circuit breaker to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Yet we still have a long way to go.
Every year, my sole wish on World Mental Health Day is that eventually, we will no longer need to mark the occasion to remind us of the importance of mental health.
As ironic as that sounds coming from a mental health advocate, let me explain.
World Mental Health Day began in 1992 with the primary purpose of drawing attention to issues around mental health.
It is a day when the world focuses its attention on mental health conditions and their impact on societies.
It saddens me that something as significant as our mental health and well-being even requires such a day for us to acknowledge its importance.
I envisage a world where mental health and issues relating to it no longer require an occasion before we recognise them as vital to our well-being and health.
I hope we can one day talk about mental health issues as if they were any ordinary human experience.
These conversations should become so mundane that talking about the subject would be akin to discussing the weather.
But, perhaps more than anything else, I hope that these differences in our mental health experiences can be embraced and celebrated.
I dream that one day, World Mental Health Day can stand for something else.
A day when we celebrate psychological and emotional diversity, rather than bring attention to it.
A day when people can talk about their life experiences, and others will listen respectfully and empathetically.
A day when everyone remembers that beyond the label of a mental health condition is a human being.
With the attention Covid-19 has heaped on mental health issues, maybe we are not far off.
So have more conversations about mental health and do not be afraid to discuss it in a way with which you are comfortable.
There are no right or wrong words.
Any conversation about mental health can be a good one if we remain open to varying perspectives.
Embrace differences and seek to understand, rather than challenge and debunk.
Understand that our life experiences shape our views, and it is okay to hold different thoughts and ideas from others.
Take the first step and, together, we can create a more inclusive society.
Happy World Mental Health Day.
ABOUT THE WRITER:
Jonathan Kuek Han Loong is a doctoral candidate and mental health researcher at the University of Sydney. He specialises in recovery approaches to the management and understanding of mental health conditions. His research is based in Singapore. The views expressed are his own.
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