Our Story

When people talk about mental health, one of the first things that people can often think about is the negative associations. Those negative stigmas that are attached to mental health are so prominent, so damaging and are all too often having a huge impact on the number of people who actively seek out professional help for mental health issues, before it’s too late.

 

For decades, people were told that mental health illness simply aren’t real, that they aren’t anything to be taken seriously and that they aren’t unwell, they are simply acting in the wrong way. Young children, especially boys, are repeatedly told to ‘man up’ whenever they show any sign of negative emotions such as crying or displaying signs of being upset.

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These stigmas have often caused frustration, anger, even disbelief, to people who have been unfortunate enough to suffer from mental health conditions, and to those who want to help those who suffer. How can an illness, a proven illness, be viewed in such negative ways?

 

An illness that often requires medical interventions before a person feels better, that is treated, that requires the use of medical professionals, that has it’s own medication treatments, still be viewed the way that it is? It is these frustrations that led me down my career path.

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I studied psychology counselling and health at university, and for my dissertation, I decided to focus on attitudes towards mental health, with a view to determining if these negative stigmas are still prominent and try to develop some level of understanding as to why.

 

My initial research found a big difference between the attitudes of males, directly compared to females. Because of this, I focused my work on men’s opinions towards mental health.

As expected, the results revealed what I originally believed – that men have negative opinions towards mental health. However, what I didn’t know at the time, was that this research was the first step in creating The Lotus Mental Health.

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To gather my data for my dissertation, I conducted interviews and used a discourse analysis to put together my findings. During the interviews, one of the themes that often came up, was childhood. That negative mental health perceptions often develop throughout childhood – with the use of the phrase ‘man up’ being key. It was this that ultimately led to the development of The Lotus Mental Health.

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It is in childhood when people begin to form their opinions on things that are around them. Children are impressionable and take more notice of their surroundings than people can sometimes give them credit for. If they hear negative opinions about emotions, there is every chance that they will take those opinions and make them their own.

 

This is where my first idea comes in: books! A series of children’s story books that tackle mental health from a very simplistic and child-like perspective.

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I began my research. I looked at online book stores, libraries and general Google searches, but to my dismay, I couldn’t find any books that focused on mental health from the perspective of a child. There were books that were aimed at children who have parents who suffer with mental health illnesses, but nothing that addressed the emotions can affect a child’s mental health.

The way that I think mental health should be discussed is quite simple – normalise it. From as young of an age as possible, ensure that conversations surrounding mental health are normal, and that it really is okay not to be okay.

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Here at The Lotus, we want to spread this idea as far and as wide as possible. In order to achieve this, we are focused on developing materials such as the story books, information leaflets for parents/carers, children, young people and teaching staff within schools. We are also developing training for teaching staff, that focuses solely on mental health – including signs to look out for and how to recognise that a pupil may be struggling.

 

Similarly, we are also developing information for children, both primary and secondary ages, to help normalise talking about mental health and recognise that it is real, and what the signs are to look out for, both within themselves and their peers.

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Please take a look around our website, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Thank you for supporting The Lotus Mental Health