Wankumbu in this blog raises awareness of the tragic effects of ignoring mental health, for this years suicide prevention month.
September is suicide prevention month – a month to raise awareness of the tragic effects of ignoring mental health and give a voice to those people who are struggling. There is a lot to talk about, but sometimes words are not enough. Action is the sharpest tool we can use to cut free our friends and families that are bound in the chains of their negative thoughts. Over the past few months I have spent on Our Moon’s Young Leaders Programme, I have discovered a passion for mental health that I hadn’t previously considered with any seriousness. It was after spending time writing my research essay that I realized that my interest in it went beyond having to produce a 4000-word research academic paper. From it stemmed the passion to be part of a mental health advocation that does not only speak, but alsoacts.
Suicide is caused by many things. Among those causes, being unable to share our problems, piling them up, and letting them bulge out of our jar is what causes life to seem not worth our existence. I have tried to wrap my head around why opening upis really the way it is and found my answer while failing to open up. The light bulb went on when I was about to tell a friend something, and later decided against it because I felt they wouldn’t understand. It came as a powerful realization because after that day, I discovered that society places yellow tapes around so many issues that it creates taboos and makes people uncomfortable to say what they are feeling. The fear of being embarrassed becomes duct tape to our lips; the fear of people not understanding becomes a cage. But what if we each take it upon ourselves to make each person we meet feel comfortable?What if we break out of society’s family and made our own – one where people would not be embarrassed to talk about themselves, but find themselves surrounded by people like them, people who understand and hold their hands though the dark.
This month, let us keep our families and friends at the back of our minds. We must make our interactions and attitude towards them a sign that they can trust us, making them comfortable enough to not have second thoughts about sharing their burdens with us. For this month and beyond, our actions should be influenced by my golden rule: to treat others the way we would want to be treated. We should try to make people feel the way we would like to feel if we were in their situation. Our Moon has been a perfect place for me to get a glimpse of how serious mental health is. Through my personal experiences with stress and anxiety, and my observations from my peer’s interactions with one another, I learnt that mental health issues can be caused by the smallest things. If the right habits are not practiced, thosecumulative small moments we overlook can become overwhelming and detrimental to our overall well-being.
As I become part of the large world of change, I hope to contribute to mental health awareness and suicide prevention in ways that will use grassroots efforts to promote good mental health habits. I believe that good mental health practices should be planted in children from a very young age. So that by the time they grow to experience the pressures and demands of adulthood and society, good and resilient habits will be deeply rooted in their personality.
An overdose of pills should not be the solution, or the bottom of a toxic bottle, nor the end of a rope. No, not even self-harm. Action should not only be taken when a life is lost, action should be taken to prevent a life from being lost. Mental health is real, and as real as it gets, we should hold hands to make our voices louder than the silent screams of suicide and mental health issues.