Mental health is important. Talking about mental health is important. Supporting people with mental health is important. These are fundamental truths we must acknowledge. Nothing takes away from these truths. Having said that, Undaunted has an uneasy feeling in its stomach.  Mental health awareness is everywhere. So much so that it’s become sort of a white noise.

There have being people who have broken through this white noise. Donal Walsh broke through it when he gave a simple and direct message to his generation. Things are never as dark as they seem. Problems are transient. The permanency of suicide is not the answer. It was an uncomplicated message crafted from an experience none of us would want to have. Donal’s reaction to his illness inspired us to take a step back.

Back to the noise. Let me explain. Like thousands of others, I live with a disability. It’s there. I have friends whose disability is mental illness. It is part of them. So much so, they use it as a creative tool to inform their art. Not as therapy. It is part of their lives and as their art is influenced by their lives, their mental illness is there. No big deal. It is a lived experience.

This lived experience is nothing new to them. To those who do not have mental illness—unfortunately I have to use the term ‘chattering classes’— it seems to me that mental health awareness has taken on a dual aspect of something vaguely exotic coupled with the cultural cache of an addition to your wardrobe.

This may seem harsh but it is something that has been fermenting in my mind for some months. Talking about mental illness seems to be overtaking talking about property prices as the sexy thing to do. Does this mean we may be avoiding real issues like how easy it is to access mental health services, the quality of these services, and whether these services acknowledge that they are treating a person? Are we just feeling good by just saying ’mental health awareness’ without thinking it through?

So there you go. Mental health awareness is vitally important but please make sure we are talking about it in a real way rather than in a way that makes us feel ‘worthy’.