Mental Health Education – Demand

 Mental Health

Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a demand for more online learning resources. The pandemic has also created a higher demand for mental health support, understandably. Mental health is a very broad topic, and the way mental health problems affect people vary from person to person. In my opinion, there is always more room for educational content on mental health.

Covering Various Topics

There is a lot of educational content on depression and anxiety. I think a lot more awareness is growing in these two areas. Having said that, there is still progress to be made to reduce the stigma in these areas. However, there is a lot less awareness of other mental health problems. There needs to be more mental health education on illnesses like schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Even commonly suffered problems like premenstrual dysphoric disorder could do with some more educational content on the subject.

Why is it important to cover topics other than depression and anxiety?

Although there is a stigma attached to depression and anxiety, there is a lot more awareness around them than other mental illnesses. Film and television still use mental health problems like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder inaccurately to drive narratives, reinforcing the misconceptions around these illnesses.

Incorrect use of mental illnesses in conversation

You may have noticed that some people may describe themselves as, “A bit OCD”, or they may say, “I’m so bipolar today.” This may seem like a harmless comment, but it takes away from the seriousness of the mental illnesses and also reinforces misconceptions. For example, many people think that bipolar disorder just means having a lot of mood swings. While mood swings can be a part of it, they’re not the only symptom. Bipolar Disorder is characterized by episodes of mania and/or hypomania and long periods of depression. People often misunderstand the seriousness of mania and hypomania, thinking of them as just being more energetic and in high spirits. In reality, mania can lead somebody to think that they’re invincible, which can cause an extreme change in behavior. It could lead them to put themselves or others in danger. An example I recently heard was that somebody with bipolar disorder just decided to fly to another country last minute. This is something that somebody in the right mind would plan in advance, take time off of school or work for and make sure they had the right amount of money to do. Doing something like this without any plan or thinking will have consequences.

Conclusion

This post alone shows that you can’t cover all aspects of mental health in a short blog post, which is why I believe mental health education is always and always should be in demand.