Mental Health. Do we know what it entails? What falls under a mental health issue? So taboo. Interesting, how we would be surprised at someone suffering from bulimia. Or depression. Or anxiety. We imprint images of beauty on society, unattainable for some through courses other than starvation, then gasp-mouths hanging open and all-when they decide to skip meals or purge them out.
Ah, yes. I’m sorry for the insensitivity. If that’s what it is. Perhaps I’m being blunt. Or, perhaps, I’m voicing a reality families hide behind drawn blinds and silent social media accounts.
A reality which has been stocked in the shadows since the 12th century. Almost nine centuries later, and all we’ve accomplished is put a name to it: mental health, bulimia, anorexia, anxiety, and so forth. It took us Nine hundred years to identify a struggle one in four people endure day and night, summer through winter.
Yet it baffles me, for what did we expect? We represent beauty with pictures of models in skin-coated bones. Productivity is clocking in 12 hours of work. Intelligence is a streak of A's and Honor Roll diplomas. Ah, but anxiety is a myth. Anxiety is a phase, a woman on her period, a sex-deprived male. Depression? A simple state of mind. Anorexia? A shrunken stomach.
Argentina is the country with the second highest number of recorded anorexia cases. Clarin, one of the country’s main media outlets, claimed 37% of women in the nation suffer an eating disorder. And that’s only the cases officially registered. Curiously enough, Argentina has only 6 centers concentrating on bulimic and anorexic patients. Do the math.
Mind you, I have visited Aluba, the most recognized center for bulimia and anorexia in Argentina, and its interior fell short of the house Lily Collins visits in To The Bone. In fact, it had more in common with a run-down shelter home. Would you imagine? The toilets still flush by pulling on a string. Peachy.
Well here’s a statement which may come as a shock to many: mental health is real and our lifestyles are a constant menace, boosting the stats by day. So yes, march for Abortion, march for Equal Pay, march for Trump’s impeachment. These are all very valid reasons to go out into the streets and hold up a banner. And I don’t mean this sarcastically because God knows I’ve attended my fare share of protests.
But know that mental health is an epidemic which doesn’t discriminate by gender, race, nationality, and much less political affiliations. Mental Health is a battle being fought by 450 million people worldwide in silence, behind the scenes. So now, is it still a myth or can we make it a reality?
