If you’ve ever met me in real life, you know that my Facebook profile consists mostly of long-winded mental health rants. This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to you since a) I’m the editorial director here at Spoon KCL and b) I spent a large portion of last year in treatment for mental health issues, but sometimes, I get the sense that people get a little fed up with how persistently I post about these problems.
The truth is that it’s taken me years to even admit to any of my mental health issues, let alone post about them on social media. And now I’ve broken down that barrier, I’m eager to keep it well and truly trampled into the ground.
So here are my reasons for the infinite posts about mental health.
1. It’s a huge part of my life
You can tell a person’s hobbies by their social media. Footballers post about football; musicians post about music; fangirls post about fandoms. Don’t get me wrong — I’m in no way trying to insinuate that making myself vomit or not physically having the energy to get up off my sofa are my hobbies, but they are things that I’ve spent a large amount of time doing these past few years. So it’s only natural that, whether I like it or not, they have become a part of the definition of me.
2. Awareness
I’m alllllll about the awareness. If you haven’t read this blog post yet, you should totally get on it. I’m super passionate that people should be aware of what’s going on in others’ minds, that speaking up about mental health issues should become normalised and that the stigmas associated with mental health should disappear. And how can I ever expect other people to spread awareness if I myself never post about it?
3. I do it for me
You know what — I never asked anyone to follow my blog. I didn’t invite people to find my Instagram or to add me on Facebook. I don’t post so that everyone else reads it; I don’t post so that I get likes. I post because in the end, it gets it off my chest. My posts on social media are the conversations that I wish I could find the words to have in real life and that’s completely fine by me.
4. I do it for people like me
Since I’ve decided to become more public about my mental health problems I have had more people than I can count messaging me with similar issues. Some of them thank me for speaking up; some of them express gratitude for the feeling of solidarity that my posts give them. Either way, the fact that I can help just one single person, let alone several, fully gives me more than enough reason to continue with my posts.
I’m sorry if you’re fed up of reading about my endless mental health issues and I’m sorry if you think that I’ve completely overdone it but I’m not going to stop. It has taken a lot — including time and effort and love from so many other people — to help build me up to a place where I feel comfortable enough to talk about these important topics and now that I’m finally here, why should I step back for someone else’s sake?
So yes, I probably (definitely) overdo the mental health posts but no, I’m not planning on toning it down any time soon. I am privileged enough to have both a platform and a voice and I fully intend to use them to spread messages that I believe are important.
So I’ll see you on my next mental health rant.