Let's learn to talk

An old British-English saying promotes the wisdom of talking about one's personal troubles. "A problem shared is a problem halved".

In a world besotted with social media, we're not short of ways to connect. We watch others' lives via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WeChat and more.

But in recent years it seems there has been a decrease in mental health. 

This can be a taboo subject to discuss. There is a stigma attached to mental health, and from a young age, we are often told to 'suck up' problems. This may be the right attitude to have, although, it might also lead to issues getting bottled-up. Repressed feelings often manifest later as depressive and even physiological illness.

Some people struggle to open up; they compare their problems with others, one of the most typical ways to dismiss one's own particular problem.

Hopefully, most of us are often there to listen to friends and loved ones in times of need. We offer a helping hand or shoulder to cry on. Is this you? Okay.

Are you receptive when people try to provide you with the same support?

Perhaps you do - and you should! You owe it to yourself to take issues at face value and try to address them.

Comparing your problems to those of others doesn't fix anything. It trivialises personal troubles. No matter how significant or insignificant, you might consider an issue to be, if it's on your mind, then you can probably not deal with that problem alone. That's your instinct telling you to reach out to someone you trust. A problem shared is a problem halved. 

Remind yourself that you are not alone. That's the first step. It can be easy to feel lonely in a world overwhelmed with casual opportunities to socialise but are these adequate?

 A lack of or inconsistency in education about mental health around the world can make it challenging to express how we feel deep down. Yet, if we take things at face value, together we can begin to master this.

Historically people often believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession, witchcraft, even a punishment from God. This helped to form contemporary stigma. Nowadays, we are beginning to understand that people suffer from mental illnesses due to various internal and external factors, visible or hidden.

It is said that people currently take in as much sensory information in one day, as they did in a lifetime a few hundred years ago. Are we at risk of overexposure? Is this too much information for our brains to process? It is thought that this could directly be a reason for a lot of peoples troubles.

Together we need to break the stigma, normalise our troubles and talk about them! By understanding to care for yourself and others, the world will become a better place!

Now excuse me while I go tweet about it...