The #WhatYouDontSee Twitter Trend Is Debunking Myths About Mental Health
A new social media hashtag is helping to debunk mental health myths [Photo: unsplash.com via Pexels]
As anyone battling a mental health condition will know, you can’t always tell if someone is suffering from depression. Just because someone looks happy doesn’t necessarily mean they are.
But a clever social media trend is aiming to throw some light on that message by encouraging people with mental health conditions to open up about what they are really going through, despite how they may look.
The #WhatYouDontSee hashtag was started by Blurt, a charity dedicated to increasing public awareness about depression, in a bid to debunk some of the stereotypes surrounding the condition. Launched to coincide with Depression Awareness Week the movement aims to encourage sufferers to share their experiences of depression, revealing aspects of the illness that others just don’t see.
“We want to highlight the reality of depression, the impact depression has had on our lives, giving people a chance to share ‘what you don’t see’,” reads Blurt’s website.
Just because someone looks happy doesn’t mean they are [Photo: gratisography.com via Pexels]
Jayne Hardy, founder of The Blurt Foundation, told The Huffington Post that the campaign was introduced as a way of responding to people who have told someone with depression that they “don’t look depressed”.
“Again and again, members of our community tell us they’ve been told they don’t ‘look depressed’, that they can’t be ill because they’ve been spotted smiling, that they’re too young/old/pretty/smiley/privileged to be depressed, and so on,” she explained.
“We’re so over hearing comments like this. Depression can hit anyone, at any time, regardless of age, gender, and personal circumstance. You can’t tell from the outside who is suffering, because depression can’t be seen.”
The #WhatYouDontSee movement is helping to breakdown stigmas surrounding mental health [Photo: Rex Features]
And the campaign seems to be working as since it’s introduction to social media hundreds of mental health sufferers have posted ‘mhelfies’ with a caption explaining the ‘hidden’ ways they have been affected by depression.
“#WhatYouDontSee is the brain fog + memory loss that make it very difficult (and embarrassing at times) to hold a conversation or do your job,” tweeted one woman.
“#WhatYouDontSee is the feeling of loneliness even when surrounded by many people,” wrote another.
“#WhatYouDontSee is going through the side effects of medication - insomnia, dark thoughts, hot sweats, shaking, nausea & anxiety,” added another mental health sufferer.
“#WhatYouDontSee is the terror that someone might notice something is wrong, and the pain when no one does,” one Twitter user tweeted.
Amber Smith also used social media to try and highlight the fact that you can’t always ‘see’ depression [Photo: Facebook/Amber Smith]
This latest campaign comes after one mental health sufferer also decided to use social media as a platform to highlight the fact that depression isn’t always visible.
Amber Smith, shared before and after panic attack selfies to Facebook to show that the ‘normal’ face we present to the world doesn’t tell the whole story.
“I’ve been battling with anxiety and depression for years and years and there’s still people that make comments like 'you’ll get over it’, 'you don’t need tablets, just be happier’, 'you’re too young to suffer with that’,” she wrote. “F*** YOU. F*** all of you small minded people that think that because I physically look 'fine’ that I’m not battling a monster inside my head every single day.”
What do you think of the #WhatYouDontSee campaign? Let us know @YahooStyleUK
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