About twenty years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a landmark global health report that openly addressed the field of mental health for the first time. Anyone would agree that since then, policies have been established, plans implemented, interventions developed and people have been helped through research and new treatments. However, a paradox emerges: while actions, awareness, and research on mental health have increased significantly over the past two decades, the latest health reports from both the European Union and WHO indicate that this progress doesn’t reflect our efforts to understand and improve mental health.
In fact, it seems that the way people approach mental health today isn’t much different from the approach decades ago. And if you’re wondering why this is the case, I’ll tell you what the facts show. The reality is that we often wait until we see an obvious, glaring issue before we consider that we might need to do something about our mental health. We underestimate the power and importance of being in peace with our lives. We dine with our fears and sorrows, we are unsure of what stress truly means, and refuse to take even the smallest amount of time to understand ourselves. Many times, we are do not give attention to who we connect with, we avoid asking ourselves whether we felt anything meaningful during the day, and we struggle to identify what joy means for us. In other words, we create policies, therapies, and interventions for something that, to some extent, we don’t fully believe holds much power or significance in our lives.
And since one of my interests is debunking myths and stereotypes, I’ll tell you that mental health is not built in a day, mental disorders have never been cured by just one pill (or even many pills), and a mental disorder can simmer for years without you realizing it. Furthermore, we now know that refusing help is far more costly in terms of both money and time than receiving help; your mental health, like your physical health, started to form long before you were born, and the way you think, perceive, and interpret reality has a much greater impact on your health than you might believe. So, I encourage you not to isolate yourself when things seem hopeless. Seek out your people, look others in the eye when you speak to them—research confirms that no connection can be made without eye contact—support others when you can, and when things get tough, speak up. For this year’s World Mental Health Day, I urge you to be less skeptical of the term “mental health.”
Today, I leave you with my suggestion to view mental health differently. Just because something appears healthy to our eyes doesn’t mean it is healthy for the person experiencing it. And what seems unbearable or incurable to us may, in fact, find healing in ways we never imagine.
Dr Markella Grigoriou
Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
English (UK) 
Ελληνικά 
