Why mental health awareness is crucial for society to thrive
Many, if not most Kenyans, view mental health and suicide as a minor issue.
What you need to know:
- We as Kenyans are not doing enough to spread awareness on mental health.
- We are not using our voices to help people who have to go through mental health issues.
Mental health is a rising issue in the society but it is not given the attention it deserves. To many people, the words: depression and anxiety do not mean much but if only we could try being a little empathetic and take our time to understand more about mental health, we could help many people around us.
Personally, over these past few months, I have done my research on mental health awareness and one thing I noticed is that we as Kenyans are not doing enough to spread awareness on mental health.
We are not using our voices to help people who have to go through depression, behaviour disorders, anxiety and other mental health issues.
Glenn Close once quoted: “What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candour, more unashamed conversation about illnesses that affect not only individuals but their families too.”
And I think that is something we should all agree with.
Just because you do not understand someone’s problem does not mean that it is not there. We should learn to check up on our friends and families every now and then to see if they are okay because you never know if someone out there needs somebody who will just listen to them and tell them that everything is going to be fine.
You never know if that one breathe it takes you to tell someone, “I care” will save them from taking their last breathe.
Many, if not most Kenyans, view mental health and suicide as a minor issue but what they do not know is that the ignorance they have towards this crucial topic is what has contributed to a rise in suicide cases in the country.
Children and youth should not have to live with the fear of opening up to their parents or their loved ones about what they are going through.
Furthermore, parents should always be unceasingly ready to lend a listening ear to their children and help them through the challenges they go through in their daily lives.
So, if we claim so proudly that we care about our youth and that they are the leaders of tomorrow, why don’t we help them when they need us?
The writer, 14, is a student at Moi High School Kabarak.
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