Raising awareness for different causes has been an ongoing fight for years. From wearing green ribbons as a statement to destigmatize mental illness, to attending local and national marches to protest the mass culture diminishing of mental health, there are multiple ways to demand recognition for a cause.
However, raising awareness for many important causes is losing its significance. Society has shaped this generation to only care about the modern content that directly affects them—and they only care about these causes when people are watching.
With people’s focus being solely on fake hype, stereotypes, and “woke” culture, the reasons behind bringing awareness to mental health are much more cynical. It’s easy for individuals to tweet about how mental health is real and no one should be ashamed of it, yet these same people are quick to criticize those who attempt to open up about it.
Awareness is more than just addressing the cause. It’s understanding the effects, the number of people that are affected by it, and how to help them.
Mental health cannot be ‘cured’ by wearing a lime green ribbon. Individuals fail to realize that mental health is not limited to depression and feeling sad does not make them a relatable mentally unstable person— it goes beyond the trending topics on social media.
Teenagers and young adults can make a huge impact on what their peers find trendy for today’s culture. The better that people understand that mental health is not a trend to follow to live up to said culture, the better stigma-busting attitudes that can be encouraged.
Based on studies from organizations such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Central for Disease Control, suicide is the second leading cause of death. From 2018, the percentage of U.S adults who have experienced mental illness is almost 20%.
But social media is not the only thing impacting these horrifying numbers. It’s the lack of resources to help individuals cope, and even with what’s out there, it’s limited to those who have the financial stability to access these resources.
Although treatment is given through medication and psychological development, many individuals at risk of diagnosis do not take counseling due to the high prices. Mental health providers usually charge between $50-$150 per session, money that many simply cannot afford.
Online web therapy sources and many therapists from the therapy directory have claimed that counseling is charged based on location and time rates. A session as little as 45 minutes can be charged $75 minimum.
Along with overpriced counseling, many workplaces and educational buildings lack counseling services. With the stress from school that many students have, counseling for all areas of an individual’s life should be available for students.
Although some colleges offer one-on-one therapy sessions for students, many of the counselors available are not certified psychologists who can properly diagnose people. To add onto the limitations of mental health resources, counseling sessions in schools do not advise in therapy beyond educational purposes.
Suicide is a major problem in the U.S, with suicidal thoughts being relatively common across various demographics. Suicide is often even glorified with the logic that if you take your life away, people will care about you.
“Kids only have mental health issues now because [many] shows helped popularized [it]. It takes away from people who actually suffer and it should not be posted on people’s pages,” commented a user (@_jidgy_) on The Harbinger’s Instagram about the topic of mental health.
Popular shows such as ‘13 Reasons Why’ bring controversial discussions over mental health and how to spread awareness.
Although the show does mention suicide, harassment, sexual assault, rape, and more topics, the show strays far from opening conversations to discuss the reality of said situations.
Many health counselors suggested to the directors to be caution over having a graphic scene of Hannah’s death. Suicide is not only a sensitive topic, but can rub off the wrong way to young viewers.
It wasn’t until suicide rates had gone up after the show released their second season that the graphic scene was removed. Even then, the removal of one scene was insignificant after being viewed by thousands of watchers and keeping other graphic scenes of sexual assault and rape.
Many individuals have expressed their opposing opinions over the show and its third season on social media. Most find that the show does not convey a smart or proper message and only included many of the graphic scenes for shock value.
“It’s not the fact that it’s tough to watch, it’s the fact that it’s gratuitous for gratuitous sake…” mentions (@caloom_shoeif) under a post on Instagram. “In reality they’re just trying to start controversy as that results in people watching.”
[‘13 Reasons Why’] dramatizes [mental health] issues and doesn’t really explore what causes them or is educational to the viewers in any way,” responds another instagrammer to a comment that questioned why people found the show to be an “absolute garbage excuse”.
Many shows, posts, commercials, and other context viewed by young adults are entertaining teen dramas but do not represent mental health awareness. Without proper knowledge and real change, anything related to these issues become a mockery.
People can do more than snap a photo of them wearing a colored shirt in support of mental health awareness month and post it on social media. Opening discussions about anxiety, personality disorders, depression, severe trauma and more leads us to a better understanding of the roots of mental health issues.
Individuals can also donate to organizations who support mental health and it’s factors. When people get together to demand for more available resources to treat individuals with mental health, encouragement is possible.
We may not have all resources to directly help those in need, but we can use the resources that are available to use to actually tell people— loud and clear— how we should handle mental health for the better.
