How To Speak The Language of Mental Health

dear walt

let’s get out of here let’s take a trip

to paris and lose ourselves in the

cobbled parisian streets

without a worry of time or a sense of

direction in mind

let’s follow the sounds of accordions

wrapped around the leafy alleyways

and pick pastries along the way let’s

get an appreciation

of those fine culinary arts let’s get an

appreciation

of the arts why don’t we take a tour of

the louvre

and immerse ourselves into its extensive

trove

of art monuments and history like for

example

de la crois liberty leading the people

where

classically modelled figures are painted

in the gritty realism

of the french revolution or caravaggio’s

death of a virgin where the consensus of

biblical representation in art is

rejected

to paint people in a down-to-earth way

or what about ingress’s la grande

obelisk

where formulaically we’ve created a

distance between

us and the painting using her gaze

to draw us in and that concludes the end

of the tour of the louvre

now i want to ask a question if we were

now to step outside

and speak to any person that we might

find on the street

and ask this french local to ask us

about the paintings themselves and to

tell them the stories of the paintings

without speaking french how would we

communicate this

or in other words without speaking the

language of mental health

how do we know when and how to help a

friend with depression

learning the language of mental health

requires a set of rules

syntax and grammar that we have to

follow

and learning any language has the

culture of such a language

shape the nature of its communication

learning french or german or spanish

follows this and with mental health the

words

that we so carefully choose or

carelessly choose

has an impact to impact those on

something

far greater than just ourselves

the term mental health awareness has

become so ubiquitous as a phrase

many believe it will soon start to lose

its meaning

so with this what is the next step it’s

one thing to be able to help a loved one

but to provide support to a colleague at

work

or someone across you on the bus

requires mental health

action and by learning the steps of

mental health language

we can take this action we can be the

link

necessary to provide support to those

around us that we love

and need to support so what’s the first

step

while it may sound a little

counterintuitive the first step requires

no talking

whatsoever but we will still be

communicating

here we need to understand that we

require empathy

and not just sympathy and the art of

active listening can help us with this

this is where we provide feedback in a

conversation

showing that in a comprehensive and

responsive manner we’re not just

listening to someone

but also understanding their feedback

and their key

parts of what they’re telling us so to

do this

consider your posture your proximity to

the person that you’re speaking to

the eye contact that you’re making are

we nodding our heads

and repeating key parts of the

conversation that they feed to us

research has shown that distress can

increase in times of isolation

and when our experiences are so

different from one another

and facing a mental health challenge can

make us feel

so alone being an honest listener can

provide the space necessary

to open up and it all takes just a bit

of listening

people commit crimes people

commit moral atrocities but people

die by suicide

the definition of suicide and its

description

was based on the fact that originally it

carried an illegal status

today however it carries criminal

connotations to say that people

commit suicide

because of this today our use of

language has not yet changed

and nor have our perspectives of those

today

that may suffer these mental health

conditions

many professionals advocate for the use

of people first

language where we see past labels

removing the agency of the effects of a

mental health condition

and instead see people as

people we have labels today that we

attach

that define people who they are today

and instead

we should be looking past these as not

definitions of who you are today

or who you will be tomorrow so

stigmas can be very sticky and in these

cases

they can prevent us from getting jobs

they can have us

treated differently and sometimes they

could even prevent us

from recovering research has shown

that stigmas that carry connotations of

their shame

and illegality can put us in a position

where we will prevent the seeking of

helpful behaviors

and even sometimes increase the

likelihood of them occurring

in these instances the power of just one

word

can change this and change the world of

someone through the careful

selection of language

in the same way we challenge these

stigmas that are perpetuated by society

but we also have to challenge the self

stigmas that come

from just within us as a species

we are meaning makers pattern seekers

and also

storytellers and our understanding of

the world around us is shaped

by these qualities however within the

context of mental health

we don’t tell stories we keep things to

ourselves

we cling to self-stigmas as a result

we don’t explain we don’t learn and

therefore

we can’t help this is why we have to

claim our own narratives and tell our

own stories

to challenge these self-stickings

ten years ago today my mum jacqueline

passed away from suicide

it was the hardest thing to ever happen

to my family and i and only by telling

our stories

by being there for one another were we

able to understand the gravity

of the situation outside of the family

however

i wouldn’t talk about these stories i

would learn to dodge questions

to ignore mum jokes and also

to stay quiet when people spoke about

their mums

i was scared and as a result of being

scared i didn’t mention it to anyone at

all

only until i started hearing from people

with direct experiences with suicide

all of them having stories that they

wanted to tell but also stories

that they needed help understanding

by challenging the cell stigma by taking

it upon yourself to narrate your own

story

you can break down these barriers and as

a result

see growth

the next step is to notice if someone is

at risk

as a species we are meaning makers and

pattern finders

and you’re probably picking up on the

fact that i’ve now said this twice

that’s because we’re really great at

spotting anomalies

and inconsistencies that’s because we’re

really great at spotting anomalies

and you see the human brain

receives so much information that we

need to use a process

of separating the signal from the noise

and this filtering mechanism

is simply called attention some of it is

automatic

but some of it is also controlled

so have a think where do you control

your attention

in the morning is it to the papers is it

to your breakfast cereal

or is it to the person that sits across

you in the table

there’s a technique that we can use to

overcome this

and it’s called effective perspective

taking

and this is where we use our attention

by trying to empathize with others

considering the inference of their

emotions

by doing so not only can we better

understand

the context of someone’s behaviors and

why they might occur

but it also improves interpersonal

relationships

with others so think about it

friends that you don’t see as often what

might be happening with them

people at work who seem always tired

what might they be going through

even people who don’t start as many

conversations as they once

used to why might not they want to

these are questions that we have to

consider when we look at

such symptoms of mental health behaviors

because

even though symptoms can be different

across different conditions there is a

lot of

information out there that we can use

such as self-help articles and online

courses

to have a look out for some of these

signs and even though it’s important to

focus on these

spotting the anomalies and

inconsistencies doesn’t require a

medical license

or a psychology degree once we do this

the next step is knowing how we can make

a connection

and asking a vital question

recent research has shown that the best

way to try and begin to help someone

with this

is to collaborate with them in a

co-constructed manner

that can help have some some beginnings

within a conversation where we show

what they’re where to help and not just

to listening taking active listening

one step further in these situations

we have to ask questions such as what

has happened to you

that look further and invite a

conversation where a multitude of

factors

can start a discussion rather than

looking at just

one defining feature and problem

which may be centered and critical

in such cases we have to look past this

and consider the individual

and everything around them and not just

one mental condition

which they may be suffering from next we

need to understand

how to keep support close to us

we live in a digital age in an

interconnected society

where information super highways can

transmit self-help articles

research reports and also online phone

books of all mental health care

practices

close to us and

to be able to change the world all we

need is a keyboard

and an internet connection to get all of

this

it’s an empowering thought to consider

that with only these tools

all of us can do it or even easier with

a more common denominator

such as a mobile phone that all of us

have in our pockets

however while all of us may have one we

don’t all use it in the same

way the language of mental health that

we use

has to be carefully considered for other

people but also for machines

search engines are very sensitive to the

information that we feed them

with keywords changing the results that

we get to see

so what are we searching for are we

considering the symptoms

of certain mental health challenges is

our language emotional

or is it more clinical are we looking

for articles which have clickbait in the

titles

or are we looking for something which is

referenced by medical guidelines

in this interconnected world we can find

this and support other people

but we can also dive a little deeper

self-care strategies are preventative

and professional support

can help be protective and these are two

different sources of help

which we need to provide people at

different stages of when a mental

condition might be faced

and this is because mental health flows

like a river

in the upstream the waters run much more

slowly

and it’s much shallower when we’re there

as a result

it’s easier to swim to the shore however

the further downstream that we head the

more turbulent the waters become

and the harder it is to take ourselves

out from this river

at different stages in our lives all of

us will be

at different points down within this

river and it depends

on how we know which access of support

to provide

to be able to get out of there we’re all

equally susceptible

to these mental health challenges and by

understanding when we need preventative

care

and when we need professional protective

care we can know

how is best to be able to take ourselves

out of this part

in the river

so looking towards the future how can we

build a world where we democratize

mental health support and how can we

make it so that we’re all bilingual in

the language of mental health

this year i’ve been working on a project

with a few other students called i speak

mental health

where we’re building evidence-based

mental health first aid kits

to support those in need that may find

themselves floating past the upstream

of the river in these cases

it’s really important to consider the

psychology of design

but our goal is to focus on the design

of psychology

how we can build resources that are

capable of challenging these stigmas

using a more appropriate vocabulary and

also

building confidence to provide support

to those in need

and all of these can come together so

that we ourselves

can be the necessary link to provide

support to other people

when speaking the language of mental

health

in a world so large but also

so interconnected sometimes it can seem

difficult

as just one individual trying to make a

change like this

but i want to share with you the results

of a fascinating study conducted by

psychologists in the 1960s

they sent out letters to people all

across the corners of america

asking them to forward the letter to a

mr jacobs in boston

now these people were from all over the

states

and despite living in a country with

hundreds of millions of people

and sending out hundreds of letters they

made a fascinating discovery

and that is that it took only an average

number

of six correspondencies to get the

letter to mr jacobs in boston

regardless of who you were six degrees

of separation

here in university we live in the midst

of a social explosion

where we’re capable of seeing people all

around us

in much more frequent time periods for

example

have a look around the audience today

how many people do you know

or even just recognize because of this

we’re capable of sharing things such as

freshers flues

or trends or even ideas here in glasgow

in the west end

which i consider to be a two degree of

separation city

so like this as individuals we can be

that link necessary

to set off the chain reaction to a

greater network of people

within our small two degree of

separation cities

that is capable of providing support

where they need it

and in order to achieve this in order to

provide mental health action

when speaking the language of mental

health i think we need

some much bigger picture thinking so

that we can turn

this dear world into dear you thank you