blueknot Breaking Free September Reflections on Mental Health Month "The reality is that adverse experiences in childhood, as a young person and/or as an adult have an impact on us as human beings – on our biology, activating our ‘stress response’, and on us emotionally and psychologically.

People with experiences of complex trauma can present in a range of ways, which, in a biomedical frame are seen as symptoms and behaviours, and which, in a diagnostic frame, are grouped together to form diagnoses.

While this frame has its place, it benefits from the addition of a psychosocial frame, as we are unique individuals – human beings who experience all sorts of events along life’s journey.

As the World Health Organisation states… ‘levels of mental distress among communities need to be understood less in terms of individual pathology and more as a response to relative deprivation and social injustice’

So when we ask ourselves the question: ‘what happened to you’ rather than ‘what is wrong with you’ (the guiding tenet of being trauma-informed) we are seeking to understand the circumstances of people’s lives and their experiences during their lives in the context of their culture, background and unique situation.

Because without asking the question we are unable to begin to understand the origins of mental and emotional distress.

The reality is that people experiencing mental distress are having reactions, including ‘stress reactions’ as a result of their experiences or in the context of their experiences – whether repeated violence and abuse, social exclusion, discrimination or oppression or a combination of these experiences.

Traditionally people with mental illness have been viewed through a ‘them and us’ lens rather than one which understands the human condition i.e. that we all can be and are vulnerable at different times in our lives and experience adversity, and that vulnerability and experiences of adversity are part of being human.

Being vulnerable is not something to be ashamed of or stigmatised but something to be understood and embraced. Similarly, being abused or neglected or exploited or subjected to violence i.e. being a victim is not the person’s fault. It is never okay to blame the victim and expose them to further shame, or to shun them, deny or minimise their experience.

And so too, experiencing mental or emotional distress is something to be understood and responded to with compassion and acceptance, not dismissed or labelled without taking the time to understand a person’s journey.

So as we approach mental health month, what can we, as a community do differently?"

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