Oh #WorldMentalHealthDay a day which I despise...

(Long letter to follow...)

Working for better mental health does not need more awareness. It needs more action, it needs more anger, it needs more rage.

It does not need any more Robin Williams memes...

I don't want any more words about checking in, about OK-to-not-be-OK...

I want funding for community services. I want to question a system that routinely breaks people mentally, and then does as little as possible to help people heal...

I want a mental health system that acknowledges and then changes prejudicial thinking against non-white people, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, fat people, or people in economic hardship...

Mental distress can indeed affect anyone, but to say it affects everyone equally is nonsense at best and wilful ignorance at worst...

I want mental health to actually have parity of esteem with physical health beyond mere political pledge.

At the same time, it's not merely a 'broken brain'. The personal is political, mental health is not only a matter of 'wellness' but of oppression...

No, I will not be engaging in your mindfulness program. I will not involve myself in the subversion of other cultural practices by westerners that do nothing but stifle questioning and addressing the issues...

On #WorldMentalHealthDay we will be told to check in, that it's OK to be a bit blue. None of the messaging will be about challenging systems of political oppression, about the mental effects of the climate crisis, about poverty, about misogyny, racism, homophobia, ableism...

If this all reads like I'm angry on #WorldMentalHealthDay it's because I am. I've been in this game for a long time now, awareness has been raised. Whoopee-doo. What has been accomplished beyond that?

At this point #WorldMentalHealthDay is nothing but a maintaining of a status quo which does nothing to move things forward in a meaningful way.

Here endeth the rant. Check in on your friends, but then check the systems that continue to crush mental wellbeing.