The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on the tenth of October every year – that’s this coming Sunday. It’s a day where people all over the world come together to think about the way we see mental health in society, and work towards ending the societal stigma that surrounds it by raising awareness of mental health issues and mobilising efforts of support and acceptance.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on people’s mental health all over the world. We’ve stayed apart to keep each other safe, postpone our events, lose touch with people we thought we’d never find ourselves feeling distanced from – and that’s all in addition to the stress of living through a global health crisis with a higher mortality rate than we’ve seen for over a century. Frontline workers such as healthcare professionals, education staff, food suppliers and crisis services have been working in dangerous environments; students of all ages have had to deal with the advent of remote learning, and over eighteen months into the pandemic, many of us aren’t feeling our best mentally.
And that’s okay – mental health fluctuates all the time during our lives, and it’s never been easier to find support and acceptance. So much has changed over the past fifty years, and we’re still working towards a world where mental health is considered just as important as physical health.
But sometimes the idea of mental health is still plagued with many myths and misconceptions that can make people who are struggling feel isolated or unworthy. This can be especially true of neurodiverse people in society, too. That’s why we’re taking a peek at some of the most common myths that surround mental health and disputing them on World Mental Health Day – because it’s time to overcome the stigma, and come together for change.
MYTH: Having ‘mental health’ problems is just another way of saying that somebody is suffering from depression.
FACT:The phrase ‘mental health’ can actually refer to a lot of things – there are actually lots of definitions, and there’s a fair bit of debate about them as to which ones are the most appropriate. One thing that’s certain is that poor ‘mental health’ isn’t directly relevant to depression at all – it can mean anything from depression to anxiety and stress, eating disorders, PTSD, body dysmorphia, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder to issues such as hypomania, hoarding, PMDD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, paranoia and self-esteem problems. There’s a pretty exhaustive list available at MIND.
MYTH: Mental health problems aren’t even that common.
FACT: This one’s a huge misconception – even before the advent of the pandemic, people’s mental health across the board is a much bigger concern than perhaps we’d think. In 2001, the World Health Organisation estimated that 25% of people in the world will be affected by mental health or neurological disorders in their lifetime. And those numbers are likely to have gone up, with the advent of greater societal acceptance of being open about mental health, better testing and medical provision, and the effects of the last 20 years all over the world (because let’s face it, it’s not actually been great for a lot of people).
MYTH: Social media is bad for your mental health.
FACT: It can be. With it being a relatively new phenomenon, we’ve not really got that much long-term data on the effects it could have in a prolonged way, and we don’t know if it’s likely to create ongoing issues with mental health. On a short-term basis, however, studies have revealed that social media seems to make people- especially young people- experience symptoms of low self-esteem and body image issues through a comparison with lifestyles, achievements and body types promoted as ‘the ideal’. It’s not true across the board through – social media has also been found to be a vital form of interpersonal communication for people, and vital in maintaining personal and professional relationships during the era of social distancing. It’s a double-edged sword – communication with peers often provides a large mental health boost, but constant comparison and exposure to media that makes us question our self-worth often provides the opposite.
MYTH: Mental health problems are permanent.
FACT: A diagnosis isn’t a life sentence at all – people recover, sometimes completely, sometimes to a lesser extent. But the metaphor of a ‘life sentence’ isn’t exact here - it’s also good to remember that having problems with your mental health isn’t like being imprisoned. Many people with mental health struggles have full, happy and successful lives outside of their condition, and learn to manage it either via lifestyle changes, therapy, medication, or a combination of all three. Sometimes they’re permanent, sometimes they’re debilitating, sometimes they might wax and wane, sometimes they’re relatively minor, and sometimes people recover – no two experiences are the same, and they can’t really be treated the same or generalised.
MYTH: Eating disorders aren’t mental illnesses, they’re lifestyle choices.
FACT: This one’s harmful, and has cost people their lives. Eating disorders are some of the most common mental illnesses, and unfortunately they’re treated by some people as a lifestyle choice on the subject of food. The thing is about disordered eating, though, is that many people who suffer from it feel like choice is the last thing they have when it comes to thinking about what foods to put in their body. And it’s time to shatter the stigma that an eating disorder means restricting food intake, too – it can refer to a number of conditions, from well-known conditions such as anorexia and bulimia to less well-known food-related mental health problems, from orthorexia (obsessive healthy eating) to binge-eating (periods of overeating) disorder.
MYTH: Neurodiversity and mental health problems go hand in hand.
FACT: Not always – but it remains true that the experience of being neurodiverse is often isolating or stressful and can hinder somebody’s life plans more than a little, so we do see many neurodiverse people who struggle with their mental health. It certainly doesn’t mean that you will experience mental health problems though – if you’ve got ADHD it doesn’t mean that one day you’ll be sitting in front of a doctor with anxiety problems, and if you’ve got dyslexia, it certainly doesn’t mean that you’ll spend your life struggling with depression. There’s a link between the two, and neurodiverse people can experience co-occuring mental health conditions both relevant to and external to their neurodiversity – but they’re not a given, and with help and support, they can be managed and overcome in pretty much the same way as in neurotypical people.
If you’d like to find out more about World Mental Health Day, you can check out the history and the resources associated with this year’s event at The World Health Organisation.
If you’re worried about your own mental health or the mental health of somebody you care about, there are help and resources available at MIND in the UK and Mental Health America over in the US.