Big props to my friends @gogrfx & @creativeelc for taking these crazy ideas that swirl in my head & helping to put them into pretty infographics.
The left shows how most of our society views the topic of mental health: mental illness, manifested by genetics alone. It’s what I thought till I learned first-hand how wrong I was.
On the right you see just SOME/MOST of what actually affects our mental health on a macro level. (This list would have gone off the page if we included things like social media, performance expectations, etc.)
But look at the difference between these two “lists.” Who doesn’t deal with at least some of these challenges on the right?! Simply put it you have a family, a job, or friends, you can find yourself at least somewhere on the right.
When we eat too much of the wrong foods over time, we adjust by exercising & eating healthier, or else we get overweight & risk major physical health complications. When life’s stressful/traumatic challenges accumulate (similar to that poor diet for our physical health), why don’t we do anything about them? Why wouldn’t we think we’re risking major MH challenges by just “letting them be.”
Please pay attention. Because of the stats that continue to be thrown at us through mass marketing campaigns, 4 in 5 believe this topic doesn’t apply to them. I was one of them. Please learn from my mistakes.
We are living through a time where talking about unification is less popular and more risky than talking about divison