mental health month

It is useful, but emotional problems can never be solved by relying on an expert lecture or a few pages of brochures. Its core value is to turn "pay attention to psychology" from a slogan floating in the sky to a daily routine that ordinary people can reach out and touch without any burden - it has never served people who have been diagnosed with mental illness, but all "normal people" who hide their emotions and are embarrassed to speak out.

When we helped an engineering college prepare for the health month event last year, we initially followed the old idea and wanted to invite well-known experts in the industry to speak on "identification and intervention of depression." After three days of publicity, less than 30 people signed up, and most of them were asked by the instructor to make up the number for the class committee. Later, I simply broke the pot and cut the budget by half to set up a street stall of "Emotional Recycling Station": everyone can write down the recent troubles on anonymous notes and stick them on the display board, and then exchange them for a badge with "Fish allowed" and "Failure is okay", plus a small healing moment written by a stranger, such as "The cat downstairs rubbed my hand today" and "After doing the experiment seven times, it finally worked."

Don't tell me, the booth was crowded with nearly two hundred people that day. Even the boys from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who usually spent time in the laboratory every day and shouted, "Psychological problems are all free time," came over. After writing a note and holding his badge, he chatted with us for a few words, saying that after a week of experiments, there was still a problem, and he didn't dare to tell the instructor that he was afraid of being scolded. He didn't dare to tell his parents because he was afraid that they would worry about it. After holding it in for almost half a month, he finally said it today. Later, he actually came to the psychological center and made an appointment for a free stress assessment. He said that before, he always felt that he was "sick" when he entered the psychological center. After joining in the fun that day, he suddenly felt that it was just like going to the school hospital to have his blood pressure measured. It was no big deal.

What’s interesting is that the academic circle has never stopped arguing about this “light activity”. Public health-oriented researchers always feel that the input-output ratio of these fancy activities is too low. It is better to invest in hiring more full-time consultants and offering more free cognitive behavioral therapy group classes. After all, when anxiety and depression are diagnosed, pinching bubble wrap and changing badges will not solve the problem at all. Professional intervention is just what is needed. This is actually true. I have met students who have shown the tendency to self-harm before. It really requires long-term case consultation to help them. Setting up a stall is really not enough.

But researchers in the fields of positive psychology and public health education don’t see it that way. Here is the data from the 2023 National Youth Mental Health Survey by the National Health Commission: 14.8% of people aged 14-35 are prone to depression, but less than 30% are willing to take the initiative to seek help. The number one concern is “the fear of being considered pretentious or sick by those around them.” If you hold up a loudspeaker and shout "Everyone, come and get psychological counseling" as soon as you come up, more people will hide. Instead, these seemingly "useless" stalls, games, and small welfare will reduce the seriousness of "psychological problems" first, so that no one will dare to take the first step without burden.

I previously took over the administration of an Internet company in Nanshan, Shenzhen. They didn’t even hold a lecture during the mental health month last year. Instead, they held a “meaningless competition”. They set up a stall in the tea room during working hours to compete with who could blow the biggest bubbles and squeeze bubble wrap the fastest. The winner would be given a coupon for “paid daze for 15 minutes.” There was no need for any threshold, and you could play as long as you wanted. When statistics were compiled at the end of the month, their company's EAP (Employee Assistance Program) consultation appointments were 40% more than the previous three months combined. Many employees said that before, they always felt that making EAP appointments was because they had poor ability to withstand stress. This time when they were playing, they asked the resident consultant "Is it normal to have insomnia recently?" and they made an appointment for consultation as a matter of course. No one found it strange.

I have met many students who come for consultation before, and their first words are "I actually have nothing to do, it's just the recent mental health month, come here and have a look." You see, they actually have emotional backlog, they just need a reasonable enough reason that will not be labeled. Of course, not all mental health months are useful. Those who put up a banner and ask everyone to line up to sign "Pay attention to mental health", or force everyone to sit for two hours and listen to boring theoretical lectures, are really useless. If not, they may make people feel that "paying attention to psychology is just a formality", which will make them more resistant.

In fact, to put it bluntly, Mental Health Month is like the annual "Eye Care Day" and "National Fitness Day". It cannot cure your myopia, nor can it make you lose ten pounds at once. It just reminds you: Oh, I haven't paid attention to my emotions for a long time. Get off work early today, eat something good, and don't hold it back. If you can do this, this month will not be in vain.