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Jun 24, 20173 min read

Mental Health Awareness Month, a retrospective

Hiya Cupcakers!

Last month was a very special month to me, as it was Mental Health Awareness month! As someone who has had depression and anxiety for many years, it’s important to spread awareness.

Many teens struggle with mental health issues, mostly to do with identity, gender, or their physical appearance. So many youngsters have such low self esteem as it is, even without social media accounts such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

This time of year, when the weather gets better, I feel my mood begin to lift. It’s sunny, it’s warm, I can get some vitamin D and hopefully some colour. Winter is usually the time of year that encourages ‘the blues’. But for those with mental health issues, being sad or anxious is an all-year-round situation.

Something that I have embarked upon to help lower my anxiety and depression is something called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT for short. It is a type of therapy that encourages alternative ways of thinking and behaving, which will in turn improve your mood and eliminate those ‘negative feelings’ that occur in everyday life.

Although I’ve only had 3 sessions so far, it has already impacted on my life in a positive and productive way. I  have started to identify my ‘rules for living’- which basically means the thought processes that my brain has put in place because of past experiences, which dictates me thinking negatively in certain scenarios. I have also started to establish what triggers my low mood and unhelpful behaviours, and how to tackle them and weight them up in an objective way. A great CBT tool that I’ve started using is a 5 aspects model (or a ‘Hot Cross Bun’ as one of my CBT therapists calls it) It is a simple diagram that helps me to highlight when I feel anxious or sad in a certain situation. I write down what my negative predictions are, what physically happens to my body, and what behaviours I exhibit in that moment.

It seems to be helping me at the moment; I am looking forward to going to more sessions in the next 5/6 weeks.

Going into more detail on what I referred to earlier, being on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook enables young people especially to look at the whole world without having to leave their front door. Back before Smart Phones existed, you normally had to venture outside, and look at bus stops and posters, buy magazines and newspapers to see adverts or PR pieces. Whereas now the world is so over saturated because of the Internet, you can’t look anywhere without seeing any form of advertising. Pictures of muscly men and skinny, tanned, airbrushed women dominate everyone’s screens, and image is so important, now more than ever.

The worst thing about it, is that all of these ‘looks’ are so unachievable, and they encourage narcissism in kids as young as primary school age. It’s all about ‘the next thing’ be it ‘contouring’ in make-up, or juicing and ‘teatox’ diets. It’s not surprising that depression, anxiety and suicide rates have gone through the roof in recent years. Adolescents are under so much pressure to look a certain way, that anything other than perfection is just not good enough.

Celebrating having imperfections and being different is such a foreign concept to the younger generations, which encourages bullying and self hatred in far too many youths. I feel lucky that I was actually able to have a childhood, and miss the introduction of such an addictive digital age.

We’ll see if CBT is able to help me, and in turn I might be able to impart what I’ve learned through this blog, to hopefully educate and inspire others.

We’ll see ❤

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