If you look at the course of human history, it’s pretty much indisputable that mental health is better understood now than it has ever been. There is, however, much could be done to improve the recognition and treatment of mental health issues.
Then and now
Back in the dark ages, mental health issues could see you branded as a witch and punished accordingly. Long after witchcraft ceased to be a mainstream belief, it could still see you branded as a criminal and punished accordingly.
These days, an identified mental health issue is more likely to be treated with understanding, possibly even sympathy by those in public roles (e.g. the police). It is also relatively likely to be treated by understanding and even sympathy by the public at large. There are, however, two major issues which still need to be addressed. The first is that even today, having conversations about mental health can be difficult and the second is that many mental health issues still go unidentified (and hence unaddressed).
The challenge of talking about mental health
If there was one point in time which can be identified as a tipping point in the presentation of mental health issues, it’s arguably 23rd September 2003. That’s when The Sun ran the now infamous headline “Bonkers Bruno Locked up”. It turned out that the paper had completely misread the mood of the public, so much so that later editions of the paper ran with “Sad Bruno in mental home”. A decade later, editor Rebekah Brooks later described the decision as “a terrible mistake”. Rather ironically, this was in the context of the infamous phone-hacking trial.
Even so, research undertaken Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and King’s College (as part of their Time to Change campaign) discovered that mental health was still regularly stigmatised by the media right up to 2016. This was the year that the majority of the articles on mental health were sympathetic to sufferers (and there were also more of them). These days, the mainstream press is unlikely to run articles stigmatising mental health, if only for fear of the regulators, but neither the internet nor everyday life are under regulation.
It’s common knowledge that the internet can be a place of great advice and horrendous abuse. Mental-health charities use it as a way to raise awareness and encourage people to get help. Internet trolls use it as a way to hurt people, especially the vulnerable. Similar comments apply to the real world. Some people may spend their lives in an environment where mental health issues are well-understood and well-supported. Others may spend their lives in an environment where talking about feelings and emotions is seen as a sign of weakness.
The challenge of identifying (and treating) mental health issues.
Mental-health issues can be long-term or short-term, severe or mild, with an identifiable trigger or without any easily-discernible pattern. They can have all kinds of symptoms, some of which may be more obvious than others and many of which can easily be seen as “just part and parcel of everyday life”.
For example “stress headaches” are both a symptom of a mental health issue and something most of us will probably experience at some point in our lives. While they are, by definition, not a good sign, they are not necessarily a huge issue, but if the root cause of the stress is not addressed, they can ultimately become one.
Sadly, people may not recognise this fact until symptoms are far advanced and even when they do they may struggle to access treatment, at least on the NHS where the provision of services is often driven by perceived demand. In other words, the more people “suffer in silence”, the less likely it is that health authorities will recognise the extent of a problem and allocate funding to treat it.
