MENTAL HEALTH LET’S TALK
Computer screen self-portraiture.
Today a megacommunications megaconglomerate is sponsoring a campaign where you tweet about your deeply personal mental health issues using their corporate hashtag and they will give some mental health advocacy groups of their choosing five whole cents of their money.
I feel great.
I am pissed when I see the Prime Minister using his own twitter page to promote this campaign to the general public. Because I really think that funding for these programs should be guaranteed by the government to begin with. The environment of scarcity and underfunding that surrounds mental health services is perpetuated by his government. The criminalization of mental health is ongoing under his government.
There should not be a need for individuals who struggle with mental health to advocate for the resources they need to make life bearable, fighting stigma and a lack of access all the while. Watching the leader of this country advocate privatized, corporatized, charity-based solutions to systemic social problems makes me so mad I want to throw down.
Warm winter thoughts & socks & my family surrounded by big trees.
Even so, a bunch of the people I am friends with, on twitter and in person, have stepped the fuck up. They are sharing their very personal stories, at risk of stigmatization, harassment, and deep trauma, for the sake of creating a genuine dialogue. I am humbled by what people attempt just to live their lives authentically, safely, happily. These people I know are brave as fuck. Tough as fuck. Vulnerable and hard and caring and capable as all get out. I hate that it takes a big corporation for them to have the platform they need to speak these truths.
SAD-vival methods: lamp, meds, coffee, yarn, internet buds.
When we think about mental health, I want us to think about the people in our lives that make it bearable, wonderful, possible -
not some cell phone company, I mean shit. I like that this money is going to go to brain research and to lots of little mental health organizations across the country. These things need funding! That funding should never be in question or in jeopardy.
Props are in order:
- To my parents and my friends, who let me tell them my truths without fear.
- To my nurse practitioner who gives me free samples of my meds so that I don’t have to go broke to feel better.
- To my very first counselor, who never questioned the validity of my depression even though I was so worried that I was “not sick enough” to need assistance, treatment, and resources.
- To the co-worker who asked me if there was anything I’d need to get through the winter this year.
- To my co-bloggers at Care of The Self, who add great resources to our mental health tumblr.
- To bloggers like Julia, Claire, Claire again!, Kate, Katie, Arabelle, Natalie, s.e. smith, Kristen, Maranda and Amber, Jessica Luxery and Fleetwood Legay, and many many many more people who write about mental health all the time, not when some damn corporation tells them to do it.
& yeah, I bedazzled my full-spectrum light
because why the fuck not? My manicure matches my full-spectrum light because why the fuck not? This thing makes such a difference in my life that sometimes I call it “my boyfriend” and I am only kind of kidding.
SAD Lamp manicure
Adding everyone else on that list to my various feeds~
Your full-spectrum light is kinda gorgeous, even without the bedazzles. But with them it’s magical!
It’s not a thing I want to tweet about but I will say here: I am currently so proud of my mum (who accidentally provided me with templates for a lot of ways not to cope with mind troubles throughout early life) because she’s come so FAR recently! Coming to terms, never giving up, etc. Love love love.
The second time I read this, the more I realize I think quite similarly in regards to my feelings about awareness “days” or weeks, but especially ones rebranded around corporations. I’m all for more conversations about mental health issues, feminism, racism, etc. but delegating them to one day media blitzes linked to major corporations seems so inefficient to me. (In short: because capitalism)
Just contrasting the tone in the stories I’ve heard today with the stories about the lone gunman on the run in the US, and the discussions around criminalizing people who have been diagnosed with mental illness rubs me the wrong way…
I’ve been hearing a lot of interesting and very good conversations around this elsewhere that I’d like to share. Julia Horel said this: “Let’s talk about mental health all the time, but let’s not pretend that Bell actually cares or that the money they’re donating represents anything but a drop in the bucket to them.” The universal applauding of one corporation for one single day of ads. I used to have the same argument with friends about McDonald’s and TIm Hortons, about how they have a vested interest in public relations, and while it may be “better than nothing” that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be criticizing them and pointing to other, better ways of talking about these issues.
If people are interested in earlier/more research on the topic, here are some good articles I’ve come across:
Why today is about Bell Canada, not about mental health
Let’s Talk about Self-Serving Abuses of Power
Is selling out okay for a good cause?
Bell Let’s Talk Day: “This is why we do it”
Actually could you tell us more abut your SAD lamp? I agree with all that you’ve said, but I am struggling with depression, and the thought of help via some bright light feels like a soothing balm over my dark thoughts.
Thank you for this. I was, I thought, inexplicably angry but at the same time somewhat moved at Bell’s campaign. The TV spot of the woman calling in sick was right on the mark.
You’ve articulated the reason for my anger. Well done.