This blog post was written anonymously.

I was tempted to write a little introspective blog post about World Mental Health Day, which was yesterday. As I was contemplating the first line – something about what it’s like to be struggling with depression while adding “make WMHD promo images” to your ever-lengthening to do list – I found myself getting more and more frustrated.

So, fuck it. I get that World Mental Health Day is about ending the stigma surrounding mental health in the wider community – but those with mental health issues shouldn’t have to bare their soul about their own personal problems in the hopes that things might improve. Given that mental health stigma does still exist, those who do reveal that they are struggling put themselves at great risk for very little reward, and I’m tired of seeing the ones who have the most to lose always being the ones who stick their neck out. I’m tired and I’m depressed and I’m anxious and I’m angry.

The services that the SU puts on – Advice(su)’s drop-ins, the Courage Project’s trips to the allotments, and such – are great, and a listening ear is invaluable when you feel isolated by your struggles. But I think there’s a tendency on days like World Mental Health Day to focus on the insular, little things that we can do at an individual level, while forgetting about the fact that our society needs systemic and cultural change to truly tackle the mental health crisis. For some, those individual changes may be all we can do. But to see those with the platform and the resources to implement systemic change encouraging us that ‘every mind matters’ in a system where every mind is not valued, and telling us to ‘get your mind plan’ when what we need (to use academia as an example) is more funding, more manageable workloads, teaching practices that account for all ways of learning, the abolishment of oppressive hierarchies, and an end to casualization… it’s insulting.

This World Mental Health Day, take care of those around you, interrogate your own practices, make small changes that could result in a big difference for your friends and peers. But also look at those above you, and remember those with the power to save us, who instead offer the equivalent of ‘thoughts and prayers’ as we are dying.