We face many mental health challenges than ever before. Today is the last day of May or the last day of Fibromyalgia Awareness month and the exact cause of fibromyalgia is still unknown, yet many factors may trigger the disorder including infections, stress, physical injury, or psychological trauma. Due to the lack of tests and visible symptoms, fibromyalgia is sometimes referred to as an "invisible illness" and is often a diagnosis that is reached by a process of elimination, as other possible causes of pain must first be ruled out; it takes some years to receive a diagnosis.
I had, however briefly, wished I was dead instead of living with fibromyalgia. Battling physical pain is mentally exhausting. I think people who do not suffer from chronic pain don't understand this concept. One of the depressing things about fibromyalgia is that, with no definitive cause or treatment/cure, you realize that this is something that you are going to have to deal with for the rest of your life. That's depressing. My life changed. I'm in too much pain or too tired to join in.
My extreme fatigue is so great at one point and my pain level is so high that I would miss days from work. I believe they thought I was faking or just taking days off. When the pain is bad I could not play with my children or enjoy with them. You miss out on a lot, both socially and with family. I get so irritated with people who don't believe fibromyalgia is real. People need to be more compassionate. Chronic pain is no joke. And it's every day waking up not knowing how you're going to feel.
Considering how taboo the conversation can be with our parents, family, co-workers and friends, the leaps and bounds we've made on the topic are incredible.
The blooming transparency surrounding mental health has given me and countless others a more accepting space to share how mental health struggles have affected our lives. Popular media has started portraying mental illness.
We have an ethical obligation to help, but sometimes it merely feels like putting a band-aid on problems. Using hashtags won't cover up the fact that the current system isn't working.
Post on social media, spread hashtags, do what you feel is necessary to help advance the welfare of this cause. But understand that you have a responsibility to care for those around you, and use your power for good.
Social media feeds all over Canada and world will be filled with heartfelt messages about love, kindness, and our collective need to talk more about mental health. And then we shall never speak about it until next year. Dissect life with mental health issues, and the celebrity world is slowly becoming more honest about addiction and mental illness.
The next best thing to do is get informed.
What stresses out your loved ones? What circumstances heighten their anxiety, their depression, their trauma? There is an endless wealth of information online and in print regarding this topic, and taking advantage of your resources will help you better understand how you can be a positive influence in their lives.
Breaking stigma is vital, and I do think social media has been so important in doing so, but we need effective policy to be in place to ensure that once people do speak out, they then don't get lost in the system. We all fall prey to the same pressure to be at the forefront of every social cause. If we don't, we're perceived as moral failures.
But, instead of encouraging meaningful social awareness, we're instead encouraging self-obsession and the need to curate our image, to create our very own "branding." As part of building our own "personal brand," online or otherwise, we must ensure wearing an orange t-shirt, pink t-shirt, purple... infinity colors every time event resurfaces on social media feeds. In a world where we're constantly doom scrolling through disheartening news, meaningful engagement becomes more challenging every day.
We must understand that both our empathy and cognitive capabilities have limits. To meaningfully engage with any complex social issue, such as mental health, we need time and space.
This brings me to the last point. We have created a culture where we think that issues that are systematic and deeply political are rather individual responsibilities.
Conventional wisdom tells us that if everyone takes personal responsibility then collective problems will be solved by default. But collective problems need collective solutions.
Most importantly, we must refuse to let corporations take advantage of our empathy or our need to maintain a certain social perception. The mental health, fibromyalgia or any other problem system will not be fixed one hashtag at a time.
We need the voices of those in the mental health system to be heard by those in power, rather than containing them to only share their stories on social media.
We need to move mental health beyond hashtags if we want to make real change.
Create Your Own Website With Webador