Mental health: A taboo

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By Lucy

Why is mental health a taboo subject?

Why should we keep quiet about our illnesses? What do we have to be ashamed of? Why is mental health a taboo subject? Why are so few willing to help those in need, and those in need too scared to ask for help? Should we really have to make up excuses for not going out?

Why should we sit here not wanting to address this issue, because mental health is ‘personal’? No, it’s not. It’s anything but personal; a personal, secretive mental disorder is more dangerous. Why can’t we reach out for help without fear of judgement and mockery? Bullshit.

Why should we keep quiet?

And maybe it is embarrassing for those suffering; maybe it is humiliating to be seen with these weaknesses, to be seen as a target or to be seen as a ‘sorry case’, to be seen as someone who is not as strong, not as confident or not as stable as those who do not suffer, but why should we keep quiet? Why can’t we stand up and say:

Yes, I have scars. I don’t sleep, sometimes I forget to breathe and sometimes I don’t want to breathe. I may be unstable, but I am strong, strong enough to get through my days with only scars. Because scars are proof that I am fighting, scars are proof that I haven’t given up just yet; I am willing to continue.

So go on, look at the cuts on my legs and arms! Say I’m an ‘attention seeker’, call me pathetic and weak and weird and whatever other insult you can think of. Do it. I dare you. Because your words and your opinions are nothing compared to how I see myself, nothing.

And yes, maybe I am ‘attention seeking’, but think of it like this: What if I’m asking for help? What if I want people to see that I am not ok, that I am hurt and weak and that I can’t carry on like this anymore?

Would anyone help?

Would nothing be said? Then would I have to continue with my life, the life I feel I am unable to live, without help from people who had noticed my scars? Without help from those who felt they should help, but couldn’t be bothered to deal with the life of someone with anxiety, or PTSD, or Dissociative Identity disorder, or Bulimia, or Depression?