The price we pay when we do not express ourselves. The reason the therapy industry is as big as it is comes down to the barriers we place around self-expression. Therapy, in many cases, becomes a paid route for people to express themselves and reestablish their sanity.
Making self-expression normal within family, friends and community is essential to the message of mental health awareness because it’s important to learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Imagine how much suppression takes place within south asain family cultures. The reasons tend to be fear-based because of what others would think. That suppression essentially means each family member is holding a world of mental fatigue and has disguised it pretty well. Mental Health Awareness month is addressing something beyond our imagination especially when considering cultures we know and have grown up in.
Daughters who grew up without a voice.
Sons who live to match expectations.
Fathers who live to uphold a family image against cousins.
Wives/mothers who carry childhood challenges on top of married life’s challenges…
Whatever the fatigue may be the bottom line is how often is one made to feel they can express themselves?
Mental health awareness is a huge thing and needs huge backing. It is getting recognition in many parts of the world but you can be the judge of whether its acknowledge within your circle of people.
Here’s one way I want to provide for you to mention to family members in regular conversations. The notion of self expression; people should be able to talk their mind within the family. The route cause of all family break ups is people bottling up too much and then things come out in a form of retaliation. It’s hard to deal with retaliation and the real issue is showing emotional behaviour because they weren’t given the chance to express themselves.
Whether you’re able to spread awareness about the various categories of concerns within mental health or not, our job is to promote the fact that mental support starts with talking.
