Your mental health is arguably more important than your physical health. If you’re not in a good mental place, your physical health will start suffering as well. During the global pandemic, more and more people are suffering from anxiety and other mental health problems. To compound the problem, hardly anyone speaks up about how they feel. We’re bottling our emotions and not letting them out into the world. 

You can’t force people to speak about their mental health and the sensitive issues they face. It’s up to them to come out and speak about it if they wish. However, you can definitely do your bit to encourage more people to talk about this topic. Many people don’t speak up because they’re ashamed or embarrassed.

Below, you’ll see some ideas to help you encourage more people to talk about their mental health problems.

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Share information on your social media

You don’t need a huge following to have an influence on social media. Share information through Facebook posts, Twitter retweets, and Instagram stories. All your friends and acquaintances that follow you will see this and read it. It’s such a simple way of getting more information out there so people understand they’re not alone. When a person is aware that they aren’t the only one suffering from an issue, they’re more likely to speak out. Or, at the very least, they could contact you for some private help. You’re not a psychologist or a mental health expert, but you do have two ears and you’re ready to listen. 

Raise awareness by doing something for charity

Raise more awareness by doing something for a mental health charity. This way, you can encourage people to make donations and share even more information. For example, you might decide to run a marathon or go skydiving. Post about this online and write a little backstory as to why you’re doing it. Raise money for a mental health charity to further help those in need. Another good idea is to arrange things like colour fun runs to get more people involved. Stuff like this might not be a good idea during COVID, but there are plenty of other fundraising ideas out there. The whole focus is to draw attention to the mental health charity and speak openly about different mental health issues and why they’re normal. 

Share resources and tips

If you’ve been through something yourself, you could be a great source of comfort to another who’s struggling. If you have tips for how to cope with a mental health issue or some resources to share, your information could prove very useful to someone else, especially if they trust what you’re saying. You can make sure you’re providing the right type of info by researching organizations like The Awareness Centre so that you can share information that’s well-researched and accurate. Open yourself up to questions and share your own experiences, it could have a big impact on someone else.

Create an Instagram page

Another social media-based idea is to create your own Instagram page that talks about mental health. More specifically, you can use it as a platform for others to speak about their problems. Set it up so people can message you or send an anonymous email talking about their problems. With their agreement, you post it on your page anonymously – or with their name if they wish. It can be an excellent outlet for people to talk about their mental health problems without feeling like they’re being judged. The anonymity of it encourages more people to speak out.

Look, we’ve all taken a mental battering in the last few months. Some people can deal with mental health issues a lot better than others. If we all worked together to end the stigma around mental health, more people would be able to get through their dark times.

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Note: This is a collaborative article.