Today I’d like to express my frustration towards the lack of interest we have for mental health issues, and particularly in Ireland. 

As much as mental health is a significant problem around the world, there are still many places where it isn’t talked about enough. Places, where children feel they cannot speak up about it and are in a cold isolated place alone. One of these are Ireland, which we don’t hear enough about on the news and we should, as a population, work to create a difference. 

In Ireland, a wider proportion of the population suffer from mental health issues. This is shown by a recent report from the OECD, claiming that Ireland is the 3rd worst country in terms of mental health issues, out of 36 other European countries. This country must feel suffocated under an immense pressure of being labelled and named or even claimed the ‘depressed’ country of Europe. This is where they need to protest and shout restlessly for help, a call for lifesaving treatment. However, this cannot be claimed when it is harder for them to shout. A whopping 3 in 5 Irish adults (60%) claim they find it difficult to speak to an employer about a personal mental health issue and 57% say they wouldn’t want others to know. Is this because they’ve been pinned down from a young age and threatened to stay ‘clean’? Or because it hasn’t been advertised as something that can be worked on, to achieve a better lifestyle? 

A main factor of my compassion for the rightful treatment of Irish people is someone I met online. Whilst playing a game earlier, I had met an 11 year old from Ireland and we started talking about our lives and interests. He was very out of it, almost afraid to tell me anything. Yet, what I found out pushed me for the justice of children and younger adults in Ireland. He said, that he had been bullied from a young age, wanted to purposely hurt himself from the age of 4. And you want to know why he was bullied? He had ADHD, and Autism. He is turning 11 this year, and his main focus is to continue a future in art therapy, so he can help people like himself. This shattered my heart, broke me. That although, he had grown up too quick and been exposed to the real truth behind society, he wanted to help those that were similar in his situation. It disappoints me to think, several thousand children a day, are in the same situation as him in Ireland, silent and aching, wanting to speak up and say something, yet they can’t… 

I’m hoping that this article reaches the people in Ireland and the governance, not only to help those that feel inclined to it, but for a wake-up call, the government to understand that we really need to do something. A suggestion for me, is to make therapy for mental health issues more affordable and accessible for all age groups, ethnicities, salaries, and genders. This disgusts me, how therapy costs more then people’s salaries, yet peoples well-being’s are more important. Insightmatters, a counsellor in Dublin, has prices on their website for therapy. Individual therapy, ranging from €85-100 per session is 50 minutes long and is with a psychotherapist. Comparing to UK’s prices, the average price for an individual session is £45 for the same amount of time. Why? Why does it have to be more expensive, more lethal for people’s salaries just to ask for help?

Therefore, im really hoping that you sign my pledge. Not for myself, and not for anyone else, but for those children who are mentally exhausted, tired and fed up. Those children who stay silent, and cover up their issues, because if they cry or show any emotion, it’s considered weak. It’s for Ireland’s government and mental health professionals to have a wake up call, and finally understand there is a serious underlying issue why those statistics are consistently increasing.