“Your illness is not your identity. Your chemistry is not your character.”- Pastor Rick Warren
It is time to separate the myths from the facts regarding attending therapy sessions. Mental illness is much more common than most of us realise. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in four (4) people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. Some mental illnesses require pharmacological intervention, and in some cases hospitalization. However, many can be helped with talk therapy, also known as psychotherapy, with or without medication.
Often pride, stigma, and mistrust serve as barriers to the management of our mental issues, but they ought not to. Talk therapy has been proven to be beneficial in managing mental disorders.
In an article written by Michael Abrahams, in The Gleaner, Monday, July 27, 2020, who is an obstetrician and gynecologist, social commentator, and human rights advocate said that “therapy may assist you in discovering deficits you have that you may not even be aware of.” Dr. Abrahams also said that in addition to helping an individual understand themselves, it helps them to understand the people around them, thus enabling them to interact more harmoniously with them.
It is clear from these findings that therapy can lead persons to understand that the presence of some people in their space may cause them harm and equip them with the tools required to help them distance themselves from them and remain out of their reach.
Therapy helps give an individual a new perspective. For example, the individual may be aware of the issues he/she has, but therapy can assist him/her in breaking things down and organizing and arranging them in such a way that he/she is able to manage them.
Men’s mental health awareness has become the topic of discussion of late. Many persons are not aware that our mental health can directly affect our physical health. Therapy has the potential to make us healthier by reducing stress and other negative emotions. A good therapist can help individuals break cycles that have the potential to harm their well-being. For example, many psychological issues are caused by traumatic events which an individual may forget or repress the trauma not being aware that it is affecting them sub-conscientiously. Talk therapy will help get rid of these unwanted thoughts.
The campaign on mental health awareness must begin with each and every one of us. This should be a cause of concern, especially among young men. This issue should be a priority to every mental health department, youth groups, and organizations that support health by spreading the word through social media. They can get anonymous feedback from brave men or others who have taken the step to benefit from therapy and provide accessible help from therapists on these social media platforms to ensure that persons are educated on the symptoms of trauma and advise them of coping mechanisms that will help them become better individuals. Hence, the ‘His(Tory) social media communications campaign came into being as a result of an internship being done with Live Well Jamaica; interns were asked to identify a social issue of interest.
Our team decided to focus on the social issue surrounding young men seeking therapy after suffering a traumatic event. A duration of six weeks was given to complete the mentioned task. To arrive at the findings, secondary research was conducted and interviews with young men to learn how therapy has benefitted them. A soft launch was done by each team member on the Live Well Jamaica Instagram and YouTube pages to provide information to our target audience about the findings as well as excerpts from interviews done with two young men who learned to cope with the effects of trauma which has been published on the Live Well Jamaica Blog.
The managers of this campaign, Abigail Gordon; an online English tutor, Kriss-Ann Haughton; a recent graduate of the University of Technology Jamaica who is a mental health enthusiast, Kay-Ann Ford; an administrative assistant who is passionate about mental health, and Sashoi Nichols; a current student at The University of the West Indies who is a mental health workshop & seminar coordinator decided to run this campaign, and pull these myths and facts about men between the ages of 18-25 years old seeking therapy from under the rug.
This campaign aims to get professionals to advise and encourage men to get the help that will facilitate their healing process. Areas of focus are:
- Interpersonal Psychotherapy
- Emotion-Focused Therapy
One famous proverb says “There is a frustrating of plans where there is no confidential talk, but in the multitude of counselors there is accomplishment.” – King Solomon.
Firstly, it is our hope that through our research and findings to show how beneficial therapy is for those going through trauma, health departments and organizations will become more involved in educating persons on this issue. Secondly, we hope that this campaign will encourage persons to learn from our findings and freely start conversations about mental health issues and how talk therapy can help.
According to AWAKE! magazine a program of medical therapy is more likely to succeed if there is good communication between doctor and patient.
Centeredja.com, mentioned that there are three (3) phases of Therapy Intervention:
- Information gathering
- Evaluation phase
- Intervention phase (a therapist works with the individual to employ a range of therapeutic modalities to help reach the mutually agreed upon goals.)
This is just the beginning. It is encouraged that if after a few sessions you feel better, you should not become overconfident and stop your therapy sessions.
Some positive habits Mrs. Clarke-Lee, a Sociologist and Human Services professional for a little over 5 years mentioned are:
- Being involved in a debate or a form of sport
- Reading helps an individual to deal with the trauma they face and help them explore ways they can resolve the issues.
- Journaling
- Setting goals
“Having a mentor also plays a major role in dealing with trauma. A mentor can see the individual in a way that the individual wouldn’t see himself/herself and will get them to eventually see they are worth something and have a sense of belonging in society,” she stated.
Therapy is not just a session, it’s an intervention. For more information follow us on our socials, email us at info@livewellja and check out our blog at livewellja.com
@tellhistoryja
https:vm.tiktok.com/ZMePNQHXU/
tellhisstoryja@gmail.com
