the error of our ways: on mental unwellness six months later.

In february, Bell's Let's Talk day took place and what a day it was!  Advocates of mental wellness everywhere texted and tweeted and Facebook'ed all day long, sharing the #BellLetsTalk hashtag and Bell Facebook pictures as often as possible.  The creative corporate social responsibility initiative to stick it to the stigma surrounding mental unwellness was inspiring and invigorating.  What a clever idea, a communications company making a play on our inability to communicate about mental wellness.  So great!  So witty, charming, commendable!  I texted 'til I could text no more.

At the time, I wanted to write something about mental wellness here in this little blogspot of mine.  But what was I to say?  The issue has become a topic of great fervour and passion for so many people I know.  I had no great story, no careful words of wisdom to offer.  I decided I'd sit on it, write about the subject in six months.

Well, here it is: six months later.  With horrifyingly eerie timing, it was less than a week ago that I read about the Winnipeg mom whose death and children's deaths are being mourned as a result of the 32 year old mother's postpartum depression, and, perhaps more importantly, the attached stigma (it ought to be noted that whether or not the tragedy is actually due to postpartum depression is still a matter of speculation).

The National Post writes that "postpartum depression can occur after a woman has given birth and is a serious health risk for both women and their babies.  The symptoms are more intense and longer lasting than the typical baby blues and may equally interfere with a mother's ability to care for her child".  Today, a study has been released by the Canadian Medical Association Journal detailing the correlation between living in an urban centre (i.e. Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) and a heightened percentage of women suffering from postpartum depression.  According to the study, the major risk factors for postpartum depression include "history of depression, social support and immigration status".  

I understand my connection between mental unwellness on a general level and postpartum depression might strike some as reaching.  After all, postpartum depression ought not to be lumped in with bipolar disorder, just as bipolar disorder ought not to be lumped in with postpartum.  I suggest the self-perpetuating troubles of postpartum depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, ADD, and so on are all related to that same stigma that we tried so hard to tweet away on February 12th.  A lack of social support, to me, suggests a woman feels she has no one to talk to.  Immigration status could very plausibly mean that your support system is even smaller than the average woman's, if existent at all.  What of cultures where a woman vocalizing a complaint is culturally unacceptable?  In that case, the ability to speak out about one's mental health following the birth of your child is likely even more significantly decimated.  These elements which encourage silence remain the same whether the depression or other mental unwellness one is experiencing is a result of one's post-birth or general physiology.  

To be strong and silent; to stand in the front of the line when work is handed out and in the back when praise is given; to not air your dirty laundry - these are mantras we have been reared with.  With these obscure lessons that silence is somehow golden firmly embedded in the formative years of so many of us, it is unsurprising that to speak out when the thing which ails ye can't be seen with the naked eye, nor under a microscope.  What's more surprising to me, though, is the inclination that this path might make sense.  

Just as teardrops, when they are large and round and compassionate, can leave a long strand washed clean of discord, the summer rain as it washes away the motionless dust can bring to a person's soul something like endless breathing. (The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery).