Starting conversations about mental health

I don't really post statuses about depression or mental health on my Facebook page but I heard about a young man who contemplated suicide on the Scots Monument and some of the comments around this I found very sickening. I was surprised to see it was from people who I was friends with on Facebook I ended up deleting them as friends because the comments were just vile. This was a young man who had completely hit rock bottom and suicide was the only thing on his mind which is a sad thing to hear. People taking photos of him and commenting on how he was "selfish" and "should just go ahead and do it instead of causing disruption" is this really the attitude people have about mental health? When someone's so vulnerable and needing help this is how horrible some people can be. It really disgusted me. People writing information on a comment about depression and not being very well educated about the illness. This is a guy who probably had nobody to turn to and felt like this was the only way out and all we can do is criticise him and be horrible towards him. This is someone's friend or family member we are talking about here. I was relieved to hear that after 2 hours the police managed to talk him down and I really do hope he is now getting the help and support that he needs. I was sitting on the train home from college when I thought about writing a status about it but I was having second thoughts because I wouldn't know what people would say etc. I decided to post it in the end and after three minutes since being posted it had 7 likes and then two hours later this happened.....

95 likes and 28 comments. I didn't expect it to get that much attention and people commenting. I had people commenting telling me how they'd felt low and sucidal in the past and I really admired people's bravery of posting how they'd suffered from depression and what got them through it. I had comments of people agreeing with my status and saying they were proud of me for posting a status like this and a few people worked out that I suffer from depression. 

Three hours later. I went onto my news feed again and I was shocked to see that the conversations about mental health were ongoing. I saw various statuses about people suffering from depression and not being ashamed of it and it's true you shouldn't be ashamed of suffering from depression. It's perfectly okay to seek help for depression, it's okay to be in therapy, it's okay to take antidepressants. You need to do what's best for you and if that means seeing the mental health services then that's perfectly okay. We will all require support at some points in our lives and that's not a bad thing at all. I think what people struggle to understand is that depression is an illness, it's not a choice. This quote really does explain it: 'That's the stigma, because, unfortunately, we live in a world where if you break your arm, everyone runs over to sign your cast, but if you tell people you're depressed, everyone runs the other way. That's the stigma. We are so, so, so accepting of any body parts breaking down, other than our brains. And that's ignorance. That's pure ignorance. And that ignorance has created a world that doesn't understand depression, that doesn't understand mental health.'

If anyone needs to vent or anything do send an email to: MHrecoveryx@hotmail.com and I'll reply asap! Recovery will happen and we can fight this❤️