How to Not Write the Same Old Crap About Depression
Bear with me here. I’ll get to the good stuff.
But first, I have a couple of things I’d like to get off my chest. I figure if these things annoy me, they’ll probably annoy you too.
Let’s have a quick whinge together.
1. Why? Why, oh why? When people are talking so much more about mental health, why, do we still have to deal with stigma and discrimination?
If you’ve been writing a mental health blog for a few months, or even if you read a few mental health blogs, you’ll notice that they usually say the same things you’ve seen everywhere else.
We are still dealing with the same issues that we were when Great-great-great-great-great Aunt Millicent was locked away in the attic because of melancholia.
Remember when we first discovered the AIDS virus? The stigma attached to that diagnosis was horrendous. Until several people worked really hard to get rid of that prejudice. And now, there’s very little stigma attached to it at all.
Disclaimer: I know there still is some stigma attached to it, but it’s considerably less than it used to be. Not trying to piss anyone off here, or belittle anyone else’s struggle.
Why hasn’t that happened with mental health?
2. Why? Why the fuck are we not doing more to lower the global suicide rate?
I don’t even know where to start with this one. It seems to me that lowering the suicide rate is a simple process. All we have to do is breed human beings that know they are loved, respected, and are allowed to be as weird as they like.
Yes, I know that’s a very simplistic view. But I think it’s true. If we can create a society that treasures all its members, even those with different opinions, or supporters of opposing football teams, won’t people stop thinking that death is their best option?
I’ve been criticized before because of my crusade to end depression and suicide. But I don’t care. Because I know that however unlikely it is to happen if every person made an effort to understand mental illness and support each other, we could stamp it out.
Sigh…okay that leads me nicely into todays topic of how to make your blog stand out from the crowd.
What Have You Got to Offer That’s New?
As many of you know, I have my own experience of Depression and I’ve spent over 25 years working in the mental health system here in New Zealand.
As a community support worker, we had fortnightly meetings to brainstorm ways to motivate clients. I had just started with this particular organization so I was full of newbie enthusiasm. I suggested we try something with some clients (I can’t even remember what it was now) but I got shot down in flames, really quickly.
“We’ve tried that, it doesn’t work.”
Okay, fine. Why don’t you try it again?
Because this time it might work. People who have been in the mental health system for a while have heard the same things over and over again. They usually know more about recovery techniques than the workers do. But that doesn’t mean those techniques will work for them. At that time.
Often a certain piece of information needs to be heard several times before it’s said in the right way. In the right tone of voice, in the right outdoor cafe, with the worker wearing the right blue jersey.
Who knows what the right ingredient is?
My point is, that even though you’ve heard something hundreds of times you may not be at the point where the switch clicks in your brain and all of a sudden it makes sense.
You Don’t Need to Offer Anything New
Unless of course, you do actually have the cure!
It’s not what you know. It’s how you say it.
And that will be completely unique to you. And the unique way that you share what you know could make the world of difference to someone who needs to hear it being said in that particular way.
There is no one way to cure mental illness. There are several ways. And there sure are ways we haven’t even discovered yet. But does that mean we should stop trying to find a cure?
Of course not.
Think of it this way. How did you learn how to tie your shoelaces?
Unless you were born in the age of velcro sneakers (ugh), you practiced. You did the exact same thing, over and over again. Until it stuck.
So, How Do You Stand Out in the Mental Health Blogging Crowd?
You be you.
You don’t try to use fancy words or psychological terms, you just be who you are.
If you currently publish a mental health blog or provide mental health services and programs, you’re probably doing it because you want to help other people.
One of the best ways you can help is by sharing your own story. Depression makes us feel very alone, so knowing someone else has felt the same and has survived it, can be enough to get that person through the next hour. Then the next hour. And then the next hour.
What If You Can’t Find Your Right Words?
There are many ways to tell a story. An artist does it with pictures, a musician does it with tunes and a writer does it with words.
Some people are born storytellers and can speak their story in a way that makes you feel like you were there.
I’m not. My tongue gets twisted, I get flustered, and I develop a stutter.
But, by shit, I can write a good story.
So, that’s the way I choose to tell me story. Through these articles and through my fiction.
We have to talk about this stuff. We’re never going to change anything if we don’t talk about it.
Depression needs to be a normal, every day, topic of converation. So that we can reduce stigma and discrimination, including self-stigma and discrimination. So that we can get help when we need it and so we can help others when they need it.
Have I mentioned all this before?
Yes. Good.
And I’ll mention it again.
To buy Fiona a goblet of blood (or a coffee)