May is Mental Health Awareness Month
It’s the perfect time to check in with ourselves. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we pushed ourselves to the limit, running on pure adrenaline to get through those tough times. While adrenaline can help us achieve amazing things under pressure, it comes with a cost. Now, as we return to pre-pandemic life, many of us who burned the candle at both ends are feeling the exhaustion.
Yet, the same drive that made us work overtime won’t let us take a break. We’re afraid of falling behind, driven by productivity metrics and a society that glorifies overachievement. Our brains, wired to push through, often ignore the need to rest and recharge, leading to burnout. When we’re burnt out, we make more mistakes, which affects everyone around us. (Menon et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(12):e2028780. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.28780)
It’s unfortunate that society doesn’t prioritize mental health to prevent breakdowns but rather tries to fix things after we’ve already hit our breaking point. But we can change this narrative. By acknowledging the importance of mental health and taking proactive steps to care for ourselves, we can foster a healthier, more balanced life. Let’s use this month as a reminder to slow down, recharge, and prioritize our well-being.
It’s Okay not to Feel Okay
Social media often paints a picture-perfect image, glossing over struggles and embellishing achievements. This toxic positivity creates the illusion that everyone is constantly happy and effortlessly successful. But real life is messy—a rollercoaster with exhilarating peaks and terrifying drops. Being jealous of others' happiness isn’t helpful because everyone’s life is at a different part of their ride. Just like it’s OK for a rollercoaster to plunge into valleys, it’s OK to not be OK. That’s life. And life happens to everyone.
The only thing that’s not OK is to suffer in silence.
Clinical depression is predicted to be the highest cause of disease burden in high-income countries by 2030. Yet, mental health problems still carry the unfair stigma of weakness. Many avoid seeking help out of fear that others will doubt their abilities or think less of them. In one study, 53% of respondents said they wouldn’t seek help, and only 11% did.
Mental health issues are just like any other illness. If someone develops cancer, we don’t call them weak. They receive time off work to heal without judgment. So why do we treat mental health issues differently?
We need to talk about prevention and early detection in mental health. Could we prevent problems by respecting work/life balance? If vacations didn’t mean working twice as hard upon return, or worse, working while on vacation? If work ended at the end of the day without the expectation to take it home?
What if we valued everyone for being unique without using “qualifying” terms for race, gender, sexual orientation, weight, or wealth? If people felt comfortable being themselves without fear of judgment? What if we learned from each other’s experiences rather than reacting negatively to differences? If we found common ground during discussions and worked towards compromises that helped everyone?
Imagine a world where talking about how you’re hurting is seen as healthy, not weak. Where we celebrate people for making others happy, not just for making money. And if we all changed our attitudes towards mental health, we could eliminate the stigma. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, ‘this is the way the negative stigma of mental disease ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.’ There won’t be a royal decree to end the stigma, but if each one of us refuses to brand mental health as a weakness, if we all take better care of our mental health and look out for others, then the stigma ends.
Lets use Mental Health Awareness Month to start making a change. Prioritize your well being, support others, and remember, its OK to not be OK.
N.B. special thanks to my dear friend Tiffany Lee for assisting on this post! Tiffany is a remarkably skilled communication coach helping people regain their confidence. She’s also an amazing person who I am lucky to know.