Mental Health Awareness Month

It is neither an ineffective stage show that wastes people and money, nor is it a panacea that can cure all emotional problems. In essence, it gives all ordinary people hidden in the emotional folds a door key that can be touched without effort. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to open the door at the moment. At least you know that the door is there, and you can knock on it whenever you want.

Don't tell me, I actually saw the weight of this key with my own eyes when I was a resident consultant at a university in the south last year. At that time, the promotional month booth was located at the entrance of the cafeteria. There was no stereotyped expert display board or dry promotional brochure. Instead, there was a half-person-high graffiti board with the words "If you don't want to pretend to be happy today, just write your complaints here." There was a basket full of markers next to it.

I stood there for two hours and saw a girl with a high ponytail writing "I failed to pass the postgraduate entrance examination and hid in the quilt for three days and cried, and even smiled and gave gifts to my roommates who passed the exam." A boy wearing black-rimmed glasses squatted in the corner and wrote "The tutor gave me a short paper. Up to now, I have been dreaming about myself for half a month. Even the president of the student union, who usually sings and dances well at the freshman party and is praised by everyone for his cheerfulness, secretly wrote a line when no one was around: "I have to smile in front of different people for eight hours every day, and I have almost forgotten what it feels like to be truly happy."

That board was covered with writing on three sides that day. When the staff finally collected it, they dumped more than 300 notes filled with their thoughts into the "emotional recycling bin" next to it. More than 40 of them had contact information on the back, asking how to make an appointment for the school's free psychological consultation.

What’s interesting is that I have talked with psychological practitioners in different fields about the significance of Mental Health Awareness Month, and everyone’s differences are actually much greater than ordinary people imagine.

Friends who do public health psychological intervention believe that the core of this kind of activity is to do "denominator work". There is no need to ask everyone to solve the problem immediately. As long as the concept that "psychological discomfort is not hypocritical and you can seek help from professionals" can be spread, even if only one person out of a hundred people is willing to try the first consultation, the value of this activity has been achieved. After all, the coverage rate of mental health services in our country is still very low. Many people live into their thirties and forties without knowing that there are free psychological counseling resources in their communities and units.

However, colleagues who work in clinical consultation have different concerns: the publicity months organized by many places have indeed gone astray. They are either full of chicken soup of "be optimistic, positive and learn to manage emotions", or they exaggerate mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders into scourges. Instead, they add extra pressure to people who are already suffering from emotional distress. They originally felt that they were "not strong enough" to get sick. After reading the publicity, they felt that it was their own problem, and they did not dare to seek help. I had a visitor before who said that after the unit held a mental health awareness month, the leader specially talked to her and said, "You should read less negative things, hang out with everyone more, and don't be so depressed all the time." She was originally only mildly depressed, but she suddenly became moderately depressed.

In fact, many places have slowly changed in the past two years. I went to the community for research last month and saw that they had changed the originally arranged "mental health expert lecture" into a mindfulness baking experience class. Without mentioning "mental illness" or "psychological counseling", they invited teachers to lead everyone in kneading bread and baking cookies. While kneading the dough, many aunts got red-eyed while chatting. They said that after their husbands left, there was no one to talk to at home, and their son worked out of town, and they never dared to say that they had been suffering from insomnia for more than half a year out of fear.

The social worker next to me didn't say, "You are depressed and needs treatment as soon as possible." He quietly handed over an appointment card for the community psychological service station and said, "We have people on duty every day. If you have nothing to do, just go and sit there and drink tea and chat together. It's better than you being bored at home alone." Later, I asked the social worker how many people had gone to the service station after that event. She laughed and said there were seventeen or eight, many of whom were elderly people living alone who had refused to come even after shouting.

Of course, not all publicity month activities are useful. I have also seen many units just put up a banner and take two group photos, and then all employees write a thousand-word "mental health learning experience". Everyone is already tired enough at work, but there is an extra KPI for no reason, and even if they are not sick, they will have some emotional problems.

I often tell people around me that Mental Health Awareness Month is actually similar to the fire drill held every year in the community. You may usually find it troublesome, occupying the open space downstairs, and delaying your time to buy groceries after get off work. But if there is smoke in your house one day, you know where the fire exits are and how to use the fire extinguisher. It is better than panicking and not knowing what to do.

I had a visitor before who was already severely anxious when he came to see me for the first time. As we chatted, I found out that he visited the school’s Mental Health Awareness Month booth half a year ago and picked up a small bookmark with the consultation appointment phone number. He put it in a professional book and flipped through it countless times. He hesitated for almost half a year before he dared to make that call. He said that if it hadn't been for the bookmark he got by chance, he might not have been able to survive the day he went to seek help.

In fact, no activity is 100% perfect. In the final analysis, the essence of Mental Health Awareness Month is to give ordinary people one more choice. If you catch up and find the event interesting, there's no harm in joining in the fun. ； If you don't like the noise, it's totally fine to walk around.

It does not require you to immediately show your thoughts to others, nor does it require you to immediately become a positive and optimistic "emotional model". As long as you can remember: If one day you feel that you really can't hold on any longer, you don't have to carry it on. There is a place to go and someone to look for. That's enough.