Mental Health Awareness Week

Everyone can feel anxious. But when you live with severe mental illness, anxiety can reach a whole new level.

Stigma. Discrimination. Lack of support. Side effects of medication. Mania. Psychosis. Limited access to housing, employment, and welfare. These are unique anxieties faced daily by those of us experiencing mental illness.  

But is that something you hear about often in today’s society? No. 

For Mental Health Awareness Week 2023, we wanted to change that. In a survey of 1,300 people, we found:

• 93% of people living with mental illness said there is not enough awareness and understanding about what it means to be severely affected by mental illness
• 85% of people living with mental illness said that symptoms of their condition cause them stress or anxiety
• 76% of people living with mental illness said that their anxiety prevented them from seeing friends/family 
• 62% of people living with mental illness said that difficulties with accessing support/treatment has caused them stress or anxiety 

Talk about wellbeing and self-care on Mental Health Awareness Week is great, but the 500,000 of us living with severe mental illness in England feel left behind in the conversation. 

Some people might find having a bath and lighting candles helpful, but the world is different if you experience a mental illness.

It’s time for people to truly understand what it is like to live in our shoes. It’s time for a society that truly cares for people living with mental illness. 

Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 is 13-19 May.

The theme has yet to be announced but, whatever it is, we’ll be fighting for the rights of people living with mental illness.