Reddit ‘Mental Heath Truths’ part 1

I bumped into an interesting Reddit thread the other day about mental health, specifically “What’s a truth about mental health that sounds cruel but is still real?” It’s a bit of a loaded question, but naturally the people of reddit had a lot to say. This is an area where lots of people have an opinion, based on their own bad experiences, or, I suppose bluntly, from their own bad or outdated opinions.

I’ve grabbed a few of the top voted suggestions below.

1. "Your mental health problems are not an excuse to be a shitty person."

Oh boy! On the surface of this, sure. Our mental health should never be an excuse to treat anyone badly, whether that’s ourselves, loved ones, or perfect strangers.

But it is important to recognise there’s an element of privilege there. We can’t very well say it’s ok for someone to be mental ill, but then when they behave in a way that bothers us, when they display any actual symptoms of their illness, criticise them.

What this is specifically getting it is most probably is that small percentage of people who habitually treat people badly and blame mental illness (usually self-diagnosed) as the reason for anyone being upset with their behaviour. It’s an excuse that represents he lack of taking responsibility and ownership of how they’ve behaved.

2. "It’s not your fault but it’s your problem"

I don’t entirely mind this one, but with caveats! Someone’s mental health not being something to blame themselves for is good. I also like the sense of a mental health issue being a solvable problem and something you can do something about. Something that you should care about and choose to do something about too. It is true that you do need to, except in the most serious cases, need to make a conscious decision yourself to take action and do something about it.

What this misses though is that support is out there. From friends, from support organisations and from mental health professionals and people will help. No-one is entirely alone and supporting other people’s mental health is something for the whole of society to have a part in.

(More Reddit ‘Mental Health Truths’ in a future update!)

If you’d like to work with me on your mental health, you can get in touch with me via the website or drop me a message directly at mckellarcbt@gmail.com