Sharing – It’s Also Okay Not to Talk About Your Mental Health
In an ideal world, anyone dealing with mental health struggles could find a safe place to discuss them and find others dealing with similar issues openly. We do not live in an ideal world, so it’s OK if you can’t talk about it, too.
I talk about my mental health struggles fairly openly. I still make choices about what I share and how I share it. I’m not an open book online. I am an open book to a small number of people. There’s a slightly larger group of people who I am comfortable enough with that they are free to ask me anything about my mental health, and another group that I know cares but isn’t comfortable talking about my trauma, so we don’t talk about it.
Those groups have some overlapping members, but I’m OK with all of them. Even in my personal life, there are times when talking about mental health is appropriate and times when it isn’t. Undoubtedly, I make similar choices about what I have to say online.
As I said earlier, we don’t live in an ideal world where everyone has an open mind and is comfortable having conversations about mental health and trauma. We have to make choices. For some, there are serious consequences to being identified as someone with mental health struggles in their professional lives. Others aren’t safe enough to talk about the trauma they are currently dealing with. We all make choices when dealing with different people around us, who we know are safe, versus those we don’t feel safe with.
Your choices are valid. They don’t have to be the same as mine because your life isn’t mine. All I ask is that you be thoughtful about your choices so you don’t find yourself in an unsafe situation. That’s all we can expect of anyone, no matter how much we want to see and hear more voices talking about mental health in the world.
