Talk openly about mental health: mental illness touches so many lives and yet it’s still a giant secret. Be brave and share your story
Educate yourself about mental health: challenge people respectfully when they are perpetrating stereotypes and misconceptions. Speak up and educate them
Be conscious of your language: don’t use mental illnesses as adjectives. Saying someone is retarded is politically incorrect, but it’s still fine to throw around words like crazy, psycho, lunatic etc
Encourage equality in how people perceive physical illness and mental illness: we should explain mental illness as similar to any other illness. When someone acts different or “strange” during diabetic shock we don’t blame them for moral failings. This should also be the case with mental illnesses.
Show empathy and compassion for those living with a mental health condition: listening is one of the most important ways one can show empathy. Listening without judgement or preconceived notions about mental health and being open to what the person is sharing will go a long way
Stop the criminalisation of those who live with mental illnesses: the criminalisation of mental illness has wide ranging and devastating consequences. For example, individuals with psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are 10 times more likely to be in jail or prison than a hospital bed.
Question the way people who live with mental illnesses are portrayed: research suggests most media portrayals of mental illness are stereotypical, negative or flat out wrong.
See the person not the illness: strive to listen and understand rather than judge. Focus on the individual instead of the illness. Their diagnosis does not define them.
Advocate for mental health reform: it is important that legislators take into account mental health when they legislate disability rights. Mental illness is health and should be seen as such by law. Political reform can end the mental health dystopia that kills so many.
Welcome to the Upside Down 