[TishaBuv]

This month is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Someone on facebook posted about this and said, “Let’s talk about it.” I gave it a like, but no one is actually talking about it. The only place I really talk about it is on here, where we are all anonymous.

I found this funny. I would love to really be able to be open, honest and talk about it. I think many others may feel the same. We can’t really talk about it, putting it in writing on social media as ourselves and not be judged or put ourselves at risk in some way. At least, this is how I feel.

It feels that lately, my family and many people I know have also been struggling with mental health issues. I think it has all gotten worse since coming out of the pandemic, especially with my kids and their generation. I think the isolation they faced during the pandemic caused a surge in mental health issues in the youth.

Not to mention the gun violence that is out of control. The world is in crisis.

So I am glad there is a Mental Health Awareness month. I hope it does get people talking and working on improving mental health for peace and well-being all over.

[eskielover]

I have a lot to say about the current society situation regarding mental health from my own personal experiences & observations but I am sure it would not be a popular view. So all I will say is that it needs to be an awareness & TREATMENT, not an untreated normalization of the problems.

[splitimage]

I work on a mental health support line, and I'll quite confidently say that the pandemic and it's lockdowns definitely took a huge mental health toll. We actually expanded our hours from 4-8 hours/day and added a new 1-800 line for cross Canada callers and it's busy.

I hear from so many people, especially seniors who are struggling with social isolation and loneliness and a lot of the seniors centres/programs that they might have gone to pre-pandemic have out right closed or reduced services.

And mental health resources are really hard to access and either have huge wait lists or are massively expensive. Mental health resources for youth are especially lacking. At my mental health hospital alone wait times have tripled from pre-pandemic waits.

I just feel very lucky that I have established mental health care that is stable and good.

I tend to be pretty open on social media about my mental health and addiction history, but they're pre-requisites for my job so it's safe, and as a result I get a lot of people asking me about resources.

We also have what's called Bell's "Let's talk day." which is a fundraiser by Canada's largest telecom where they donate the proceeds of that day's billings to mental health charities and they promote talking about mental health. It's actually done a lot to raise awareness

[Nammu]

My daughter will be on the news tonight talking about a local NAMI event. She’s very open and involved. Despite the scars I have and that have been asked about I have not talked about mental health with any of the seniors from the senior center.