Hello, everyone. I welcome you all again to my blog, and I am very excited to write and share my blog with this community. It is a pleasure sharing this post with you, and I hope we will sustain this project with the support of the community members and the Hive ecosystem. The community's future is bright, and to reap its benefits, we need to collaborate and work together as a community.
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In my previous post shared here in the community, we looked at bedtime routine and how one can inculcate it in his or her daily routine. Today, I will be writing this post to share my thoughts and views on the weekly prompt-2 topic "Depression and anxiety affect millions of people worldwide, it also affects you and me, yet there is a continuous stigma surrounding mental health. This prevents many from seeking help or speaking openly about their struggles. For this prompt, explore the societal and cultural barriers that cause this stigma.".
The two most common mental health conditions that are affecting most people globally today are depression and anxiety. Even upon its prevalence, mental health conditions remain a stigma and that is preventing most people from sharing their struggles publicly. This tends to damage these individuals and the best solution is to find the core roots of mental health stigma as far as societal value is concerned.
In this post, we will discuss cultural and societal barriers. One common cultural barrier is traditional values and beliefs. Some communities or cultures see mental health issues as a sign of weakness or failure in life, thus demotivating people to fight them.
In addition, family and community expectations, as well as the pressure or burden of maintaining a good family, can prevent people from seeking help from others. To avoid this overthinking, we need to encourage them to have open conversations and give them support to help them take care of their families.
Lack of awareness and education is a societal barrier that must be attended to because a lot of people don’t have a fair knowledge about mental health issues and this can lead to stereotypes. Educating them and bringing their awareness about these mental health issues can help promote empathy and help do away with myths. Also, the media is another societal barrier as they sometimes display mental health problems in a negative and bad way which tends to reinforce stigma.
A more supportive and conducive environment must be created to help conquer all these societal and cultural barriers to help perpetuate mental health stigma and all its related issues.
Thank you all for your time and attention in reading my post. I am looking forward to seeing you all in my subsequent posts.
