WE ASK PEOPLE STRUGGLING WITH MENTAL HEALTH TO ‘BE BRAVE’. BUT THEY ONLY NEED TO BE ‘BRAVE’ … BECAUSE OF OUR IGNORANCE!

We ask people who are already mentally ill to be ‘brave’ and overcome hurdles to seek help.?

When someone has recognised that they’re struggling, we say ‘reach out for help’ … and since that’s difficult, we add: ‘be brave’.?

Think about that, and what it implies.?

Why do we need them to be ‘brave’???

I can understand why (for example) well-meaning people may use that terminology to help boost the courage of a cancer patient, perhaps.?

But you need bravery to fight cancer because it may kill you, it can be agonising, and treatments can be tough … not because society has irrationally stigmatised it!?

There’s no logic to stigmatising mental health. The brain is an organ, and like other organs, it can need treatment from time to time.?

I also understand why, in some instances, mentally ill people may need courage to face their own demons (though I’m not sure it would be phrased that way by mental health professionals).???

But that’s not what is meant when an invocation to ‘bravery’ is given.?

It means ‘don’t worry about what people think’.?

If we didn’t stigmatise mental health, we could all reach out for help when we need it without having the additional burden of summoning-up ‘bravery’.?

If we did that, one of the biggest obstacles to the prevention of suicide would be removed.

In asking society not to stigmatise one form of illness randomly, I don’t think I’m asking too much.???It would put my new company, Cope , out of business, but I'd accept that willingly.

Let’s replace the bravery we require of mentally ill people with some basic intelligence on the part of society as a whole.?

We all have to be active campaigners in support of this – passive agreement isn’t enough.?

In principle, this is a simple and obvious idea – the reduction of suicide and mental health issues, and their effective treatment, will all go better if we don’t stigmatise mental health.?

But changing entrenched attitudes in society is never simple.?

It takes sustained energy, commitment, dedication, intellect, resources (usually including a lot of money) and consistency ... over decades.?

We’ve changed our attitudes towards drunk driving (that took multiples of ￡millions in public campaigning and many years).?

We’ve changed our attitudes towards the LGBTQi community, at least officially.?Yes, I know, there are still many dinosaurs who cling on to old bigotries, but the law has changed, and most reasonable, enlightened, educated, well-balanced people don’t care about your sexual orientation.?As we discussed in a previous article, getting to this stage took decades of active campaigning.

So let’s start tackling the bigotry surrounding mental health.?

Let’s challenge it when we hear inappropriate language.?

Let’s stand up and be counted when managers are fine about time off for most diseases or injuries but not fine when it involves mental health.?

And let’s be the generation that went to war on bigotry.