I hate mental health awarness campaigns involving celebrities

[FireFox]

Controversial opinion please read before posting!
Mental illnesses do not discriminate and anyone can get a mentall illness regardless of income and social postion in society

In the UK where i live we have celebrities and the royal family taking part in mental health campaigns telling us 'its ok not to be ok" or "seek help"etc
The same celebrities and the royal family talk about thier mental health issues/experiences
For example prince harry being in therapy etc
There is nothing wrong with seeking help .

I hate mental health campaigns by celebrities because it shows how touch they really are with society.

1) Celebtrities talk of seeing a therapist and how it is helped them they can say seek help and it will be fine. The mental health system inaccessible to general public. In the UK where you live will affect how long you wait on the NHS waiting list to see a therapist. In my area the list is 10 months and you can only get 6 sessions. It is extremely difficult to get help on the NHS.

I dont see any celebrities using thier influence to lobby politicians to make mental health services accesaible to thier general public or even raise awarneess about how unfair it is that those with money can seek help and have acess to better treatment than those with out.
It is easier to wear a ribbon or type some bullshit hashtag#timetotalk( this pharse is used a lot in the UK)

2) Society does more to exclude people with mental illness from being a part of society.
We have anti discrimination legislation which cover mental illness but it does not go far enough
Jobs : employers are not always understanding or accomdating.
In the UK a mental health illness can cause you face restrictions on driving or losing your licence.
In the UK must notify the DVLA about any condition that may affect your driving. Some mental illness are notifiable others are not
Bipolar must be declared
Psychotic depression must be declared
Depression in the severe caterogy must be notified.
Failure to notify means a £1,000 fine if you cause an accident
There is so much inequality and unfairness when it comes to mental illness and so annoying seeing people virtual signal rather than campaign for real change.

What is your opinion on mental health campaigns espically those led by celebrities.

 

[GoBack]

It's annoying yeah, when it's movie stars. Maybe that's me being judgemental but if you have access through money to doctors that will probably prescribe you whatever you ask for...

Or you have money to go to beautiful rehabs and treatment centres where you do yoga and pilates and paint all day and eat proper food and have therapy 4 times a week as opposed to a ward where you wander around like a zombie all day and maybe see a doctor once a week if you're lucky

Yeah that gets under my skin

 

[TheSoulless]

There's way too much virtue signalling. It's easy to say "go see a therapist" and other shallow stuff and then think of oneself as a better person. That applies to both companies and individuals.

 

[Alyatl]

I think those mental health campaigns definitely come from a place of privilege. It's baffling to me that we've managed to commodify mental health, such that access to genuinely effective treatment is limited to the wealthy, while people of lower classes tend to suffer more frequently with mental illnesses, and with more severe cases. You won't hear about artists getting sectioned, or if they do, they're ostracized and made fun of -- suffering from mental health is seemingly inconsistent with the wealthy image, but if the wealthy don't pander and tell others "I'm just like you!", it's bad for their image.

The last thing I'd want to do is delegitimize anyone's suffering, or invalidate their experiences, however the wealthy really do operate on a completely different landscape than the rest of us, and they cannot really capture our own experiences (as we cannot with theirs, but they come from a place of privilege), and therefore for them to say, "it's okay not to be okay" and "talk to a therapist, they're there to help you", is completely out of touch with the reality we face given the current state of the healthcare system and other factors.

 

[BridgeJumper]

Yeah.
The only help I ever got was a few weeks wandering dirty halls wearing white scrubs, being dismissed all the time and fed pills like candy. No validation, no support, no therapy, nothing. The only two things good to come out of this, I met a lot of very understanding people who were also patients there, and it was covered by my insurance
I need real help, wheres my million dollars needed to get it?

 

[nerve]

I hate it. It's a "history is written by the victors" thing. The majority of what's been written & said about living with mental illness is from people who figured out how to do it well. It's hard to find stuff out there from people who've been ill their whole life and never really got better.

If someone's a celebrity or has some sort of platform to speak about an issue, it's pretty likely that they've worked for it in some way and I have to wonder if they realize what a privilege that is, being able to work for something other than surviving.

 

[gnomeboy17]

Yep!! I also live in the UK and I fully agree! It's definitely stupid and they pretend to care about the general public just to be more "in touch" and for money and fame tbh

 

[FireFox]

I think those mental health campaigns definitely come from a place of privilege. It's baffling to me that we've managed to commodify mental health, such that access to genuinely effective treatment is limited to the wealthy, while people of lower classes tend to suffer more frequently with mental illnesses, and with more severe cases. You won't hear about artists getting sectioned, or if they do, they're ostracized and made fun of -- suffering from mental health is seemingly inconsistent with the wealthy image, but if the wealthy don't pander and tell others "I'm just like you!", it's bad for their image.

The last thing I'd want to do is delegitimize anyone's suffering, or invalidate their experiences, however the wealthy really do operate on a completely different landscape than the rest of us, and they cannot really capture our own experiences (as we cannot with theirs, but they come from a place of privilege), and therefore for them to say, "it's okay not to be okay" and "talk to a therapist, they're there to help you", is completely out of touch with the reality we face given the current state of the healthcare system and other factors.

The worst thing if people dare critise the celebritiy mental health campaigns people are vified on social media . Oh my god.
I dont use twitter as it full of sheep.
I once saw a tweet from someone saying people are idiots for not supporting a mental health camapign done by these celebrities.

Yep!! I also live in the UK and I fully agree! It's definitely stupid and they pretend to care about the general public just to be more "in touch" and for money and fame tbh

@justanotherhuman6 The worst mental health campaigns is ones done by the royal family. Bloody hell
I am sorry but they need to a find a new cause.

It is tragic prince william and prince harry losing thier mother at such a young age. I am not going to dismiss thier experience.

I dont believe they are the right people to be involved such a campaign.
Royal family is represents nothing but previlage and inequality in the UK they can never understand the public struggles whatsoever.

Personally i would see more campaigns to cut NHS waiting times for mental health support, making medical cannabis legal for mental health issues.
It is time for action
I

It's annoying yeah, when it's movie stars. Maybe that's me being judgemental but if you have access through money to doctors that will probably prescribe you whatever you ask for...

Or you have money to go to beautiful rehabs and treatment centres where you do yoga and pilates and paint all day and eat proper food and have therapy 4 times a week as opposed to a ward where you wander around like a zombie all day and maybe see a doctor once a week if you're lucky

Yeah that gets under my skin

When it comes to mental hospitals a lot of abuse takes place that dont even know.

 

[TAW122]

Same here, I hate these awareness campaigns because they mostly talk about looking for signs (instead of addressing the root cause or listening to person on "why" he/she wants to CTB), and virtue signal just to make themselves feel like "good" people. I believe (personally) that if more effort was spent on listening to the person who wants to CTB, as well as their reasons and grievances and then acknowledging them (not saying the public should agree necessarily but at the minimum view it as valid problems), we would certainly go further than now, rather than forcing the suicidal to keep quiet, out of fear of risking their civil liberties, freedoms, rights, and what not.