Let’s Talk About Mental Health Without Making It Miserable

Breaking the stigma with honesty, humor, and a little bit of spice

Mental health is an important topic because it affects all different areas of everyone’s present and future life. However, I do not feel it should be addressed with such a heavy and rigid attitude.

Since everyone experiences some sort of current mental health challenge, mental trauma, mental diagnosis, and/or just hard mental health days, we should be allowed to address mental health with more approachable, enjoyable, and personal zest.

Do not get it twisted, MENTAL HEALTH IS SERIOUS! I am not encouraging you to fumble the bag. Mental health doesn’t have to be a chore, and it doesn’t need to be seen as the annoying and distasteful part of you.

What is mental health?

In a professional definition, mental health is your unique emotional, psychological, and social well-being. If we are being straightforward, mental health is all your emotions, thoughts, environments, actions, and previous experiences coming together to form WHO YOU ARE.

A mental diagnosis is a diagnosis that is provided by a PROFESSIONAL, not Google, and not me!

Why Everyone’s Quiet About Mental Health?

Take a seat—we’re going to get A LITTLE deep! Chatting about mental health can put you into uncomfortable or awkward situations due to the expectation of mental health being forbidden. For some reason, people and many cultures tend to avoid, judge, and make fun of those who talk about mental health.

Mental health is like that family secret that everyone is aware of, but no one speaks about.

Engaging in the forbidden conversation with those who aren’t too fond of …….. whispers mental health or mental diagnosis may lead to you experiencing the stigma firsthand.

After interactions like these, this may cause feelings of being ashamed and feeling as if something is wrong with you, all while leading to isolation, sadness, and you lacking the ability to revisit or discuss certain things again.

And honestly, let’s not do that. Silencing your thoughts, feelings, and needs doesn’t improve anything!

Step 1: Start Talking

One way to reshape that perspective is the way I am engaging with you right now. Be open-minded, honest, ADD SOME humor, slang, and kindness.

OOOOOH puddin, how a little bit of kindness can go a long way.

If we talk about mental health like a cup of coffee or some Jordans, we can help break the stigma. We can rewire our brains to feel and provide others with support and understanding. SIMPLE as 1-2-3!

JUST KIDDING—NOT THAT EASY 😂😬. It will take some time and applied pressure, babes.

There are plenty of ways to make mental health fun. And no, pookie, I am not talking about binge-watching a Netflix series in 24 hours. Don’t worry—I will talk about that in another blog.

Some of my favorite fun ways to deal with my mental health include dancing it out in an oversized T, journaling with a bunch of cuss words, and reenacting positive ways to handle annoying situations with a crap ton of sarcasm.

Let’s not forget about the iconic moment of how Issa Rae RAPPED IN THE MIRROR. I don’t rap in the mirror; however, I do have full-blown conversations.

In a group setting, there is always participating in activities like game night, movie night with some spare time discussing challenges, or a music session in the car.

Baby, the music sessions always get my friendships/family-ships right. We either put on R&B and talk deep or turn up a little and dance battle.

Learning and teaching other people fun ways to talk about mental health while making mental health normal can reshape the perspective on those awkward conversations.

Step 2: Balance the Mood, Not the Message

Just because we are learning how to ease up on the mental health stigma doesn’t mean serious conversations won’t pop up.

We change the way we view mental health so it isn’t seen as something to be ashamed of or scared of. Instead, we widen the point of view to something that is part of our lives and needs to be taken care of.

TO BE REAL, SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO BE SERIOUS AND MAKE THOSE IMPORTANT CALLS TO GET THE SUPPORT WE OR OTHERS NEED.

This balance helps you and other people’s brains stay healthy. Be serious when it counts the most, but enjoy life.

Make It Fun

Accept yourself and others and laugh while showing up for those who may need it. Don’t forget, puddin pop, LAUGH WHILE SHOWING UP FOR YOU! Just approach it with some spice, babes! ☺️

I encourage you to create fun ways to integrate mental stability into your life—shoot or steal mine! Write them down, share them here, share them with your friends, but most importantly…… use them.

Mental health is serious work, but babes, we can still show up real as heck, laugh a little, and handle the chaos with honesty and humor.