The 10th October 2018, the day I realised a whole lot more than I originally thought I knew, the day I believe I can say confidently now that a lot more people than just myself came to a great amount of realisation and had their eyes opened. The day that was World Mental Health Day.

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This is a topic I have never really spoken to anyone about in great detail, maybe because I didn’t think it was particularly relevant to my life or due to a lack of complete understanding of the topic even though obviously I was always aware of it. On this day, I realised how important the topic of mental health really is, from scrolling through all social media platforms, my phone was covered with the hashtag #WorldMentalHealthDay2018. It amazed me to see how many people were confident enough to come out about their struggles with mental health, no matter how big or how small these struggles were.

I think it really hit me the most and made it so real to me when I read a very brave post written by someone very close to me. I couldn’t help but feel slight guilt however, when I was reading it. I was always aware that this person had their struggles but never did I fully understand the extent of them and how much they affected her life. If you were to ask my friend group, or anyone that knows and loves this person what their personality traits were, you would’ve got answers such as care free, laid back, doesn’t give a s***, cool as a cucumber, easy-going, cheerful, enthusiastic, upbeat, I could go on all day but I’m sure you get the idea! This person was so good at hiding how she was really feeling and telling you that she’s OK and making sure that everyone else around her is OK.CK6

You never truly know what’s going on behind closed doors, this is why it is so important that we be kind every day, ask your friends, your family, your dog, your granny, anyone if they’re OK. A simple chat is all they might need to let them know you’re there.

This amazingly selfless person who has been my inspiration behind this blog, took the brave step on the 10th October 2018 to post about her struggles, not for attention, but for anyone else going through problems or issues similar to hers to let them know that it is absolutely OK to ask for help and to not try to battle your demons on your own. CK8

Our generation needs to stop letting social media platforms take over our lives in negative ways. Don’t get me wrong, I believe social media is so powerful and great for topics such as this to raise awareness and try to bring about change. I love how this year especially, I think that the stigma that comes along with mental health has been broken down that bit further due to the help of social media. However, unfortunately, as I said before, it can cause so many negative effects and has the potential to be so poisonous, especially on young adults and teenagers.

All of the famous bloggers and instagrammers with thousands of followers and seem to have the perfect life through these platforms that we all wish we could be like? FAKE NEWS!! People aren’t going to post the bad things that happen in their day to day lives, that’s why their instagrams, facebooks, snapchats etc look so perfect. They get to literally put a filter on their life.

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We need to start trying to teach ourselves to stop comparing our lives and our looks to other people who we don’t even know. I need to take my own advice here because I am so guilty of doing this sometimes and letting it affect my mood, which I’m sure majority people reading this blog might be guilty of this also.

Let’s continue to break the stigma, live our own lives, stop living behind smartphone screens, be kind to everyone around us, realise that nobody is perfect and know that it is absolutely OK to not be OK.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post!

 

Claire Kearney is a final year student at Ulster University studying Communication Management and Public Relations. She can be found at: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-kearney-835a68165/ ; Instagram – @claire_kearney ; Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/claire.kearney.98?ref=bookmarks ; Twitter – @Claire_Kearney