I don't know about anyone else at the moment who's also struggling with mental illness during the lockdown but from what I've seen on social media there seems to be a real backlash from the Great British Public towards conversations around people's mental struggles at the moment. The recent #BeKind trend on social media seems to have gone out of the window to be replaced with something much nastier.
The worst recepient of this kind of abuse I've seen in the last couple of days is the singer Sam Smith, a long time advocate for mental health and who has spoken about their (they have asked for gender neutral pronouns to be used) own mental illness, who broke down during an Instagram post due to the effect the lockdown is having on their mental health. Below I've screen shot a straw poll of responses I've seen on Twitter (I've neglected to include those that were just looking for an excuse to hurl homophobic and transphobic abuse at them).
Thankfully there were some who defended them.
From the responses above there seem to be two themes to people's criticism. Firstly that because they are successful and rich they should somehow be immune to mental illness. Now I'm not a scientist or biologist and really not all that intelligent but I do know that the symptoms of mental illness come from the brain's transmitting pathways becoming interrupted in some cases or certain chemicals becoming unbalanced in others. In fact there are some fascinating scans that show how brain builds can slightly differ between different conditions as detailed in the photo below.
This of course points to the symptoms being of a physical origin and unfortunately I'm pretty sure that however many millions someone may or may not have in the bank they can't be used to re-wire something that's already broken. Just because a broken brain isn't seen it doesn't make it any less valid than having say a broken leg. I would be interested to see if a famous face was to complain about a physical ailment if they would be subjected to the same abuse?.
The second theme I picked up was the comparison between the efforts of the fantastic Captain Moore a 99 year old army veteren who has raised over £14 million (last time I checked) for the NHS by doing laps of his garden, and Sam Smith's tearful reaction on their video. I have to be careful here as I in no way want to cast any disrespect upon Captain Moore, a genuine hero and gentlemen who frankly deserves a knighthood, but I find it quite distasteful that his achievements are being used to attack another human being's response to this situation and being the pleasent man he seems to be I imagine he would feel the same.
Whilst I'm not going to get into the use of the 'snowflake' term which winds me up so much (perhaps that means I am one? Well I've been called far worse let's be honest! ) the mocking of Sam's tears and underlying suggestion that they are somehow weak in their reaction is typical of the stigma still associated with mental illness.
This is the very bedrock that the stigma charities and experts have been fighting for years to break down, is built on. The shaming of those of us who struggle to cope because our brains don't work in the same way a large portion of the population's do. There are some really great strides being made by charities such as Rethink, Mind and Time To Change
And of course the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge's Every Mind Matters initiative. Unfortunately the torch and pitchforks on Twitter show that we have a long way still to go.
Be kind everyone.
Love Jen
XxxX
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