This week we unpick some of the pressures affecting young girls, look at an artist keen to break mental health barriers and share Alastair Campbell’s mental health journey.
Understanding the pressures affecting young girls’ mental health
We know that all genders, ages and walks of life can be affected by mental health struggles at any time, but this feature particularly focuses on the experiences of young girls and how certain pressures can erode away their self esteem, leading to more serious problems down the line.
A lot of the pressures include things you’d expect, like school, exams and friendships. But there are increasingly pressures coming from other sources too, like group chat decisions and social media comparison.
This artist is addressing mental health stereotypes
We’re all collectively talking about our mental health more than ever before, but it’s hard to make progress when there are still so many stereotypes about mental illness that we erroneously use everyday. Like people saying a tantrum is “bipolar“, describing their tidy tendences as being “OCD” or thinking an eating disorder is just a matter of attention-seeking. To address these common stereotypes, artist Sonaksha Lyengar is creating beautiful artwork with some of these key messages painted into her characters. We hope they get shared a lot on social media, as they’ll really help to break down some of the stigma attached to mental health issues.
The FT talks to Alastair Campbell and a psychologist about success and mental health
This is a great video produced by The Financial Times that addresses how those in successful, high-powered roles can be predisposed to mental health problems. A reporter chats to Tony Blair’s former head of communications and a psychologist to unpick the drawbacks of achieving huge success. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in here, from depression through to the idea of what it means to be ‘content’ and whether that’s what we should really be striving for.
This school gets older kids to teach youngsters about mental health
Studies suggest young people are feeling pressured and experiencing mental health challenges more than ever before, which has left many parents and teachers alike concerned. But this great new initiative from a school in Dumfries and Galloway is teaching younger children about mental health and emotional resilience by getting older pupils to come in and chat to them – the idea being they’re more likely to open up to their peers or kids that are slightly older.
Student? The Guardian wants to hear about your mental health challenges
There’s been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about how universities – and other educational institutions – aren’t doing enough to help students who face mental health issues while they’re studying. To find out more about how students are affected, what’s on offer and whether they’re struggling as a result of lack of support, The Guardian has issued a call for students to get in touch to talk about their experiences. Although it may feel scary to share, we believe there are so many benefits to talking about your problems – whether that’s to a therapist or a publication like The Guardian to further raise awareness and hopefully make some big changes.
Every week we’ll be bringing you a fresh summary of the top stories concerned with mental health, wellbeing and productivity, which provide us with insights into how we can better tackle the mental health issues that affect us all.
Keep checking back to our blog every week to find out what you’ve been missing. You can also follow UK Therapy Guide on Twitter for the last news: @UKTherapyGuide
