Mental Health Awareness is great, but action is essential

Knowing something that practically everyone experiences and that a quarter of people struggle with on
a regular basis is significant. When you put it like way, it's strange that anyone wouldn't be, but it does
seem to be the case.

The phrase might be a little confusing or not precise enough. People need to be made more aware of
the reality that mental health may go wrong and frequently does, rather than of mental health per se.
And when someone's mental health does deteriorate or fail, they should not, as is sometimes the case,
be treated with derision and stigma but rather with the same care and assistance as someone who has a
more visible "physical" illness.

Awareness is beneficial. If you get depression, anxiety, OCD, or any other disorder, it can be extremely
crippling and frequently take over your daily life. It will only get worse if you receive an explicit denial or
an accusation that you are "faking it," whether from a relative or a complete stranger.

Campaigns to increase public awareness of the problems can help in this way. Increased exposure to, or
discussions about, mental health problems and what they mean for those who deal with them can
improve the understanding, or even just the patience, of those who don't have to deal with them, just as
increased exposure to people of different ethnicities or backgrounds has been shown to reduce feelings
of prejudice and suspicion.

Even though the human brain is extremely powerful, the complex world we live in can still overwhelm it;
hence, when it comes to building mental models of how the world functions, it generally follows the
"keep to what you know" rule. As a result, people react suspiciously to things that are strange or
unknown, especially if they're perplexing and ambiguous or add a component of perceived threat or
danger. All of these responses are defense strategies in a sense; the brain is essentially saying, "This is
NOT how the world is supposed to work, so I must disregard this difficult new information."

However, the brain is not completely rigid. Based on what we encounter in our daily lives, our
conception of how the world (and those who inhabit it) functions is adaptive and always changing.
Additionally, if such encounters entail people talking about mental health and the problems associated
with it, it is more likely to influence how we perceive the world and is therefore less likely to disturb us
as a whole.

In contrast to more physical illnesses, mental health issues frequently affect people's thoughts and
understanding rather than their bodies (although there is a great deal of overlap). In essence, a person
going through a crisis or mental health issue could not be aware of this. To simply acknowledge they
have a problem that has to be resolved, many people require support and assistance. And the more
those close to them who are "conscious" of mental health issues and how they present themselves, the
more likely it is that they will receive care.

So, yes. Mental health awareness is beneficial.