#MentalHealth

May was #MentalHealthMonth but its not just that month should we all bring attention to depression, anxiety & mental health.

@who has been trying to tell us for years based on the best scientific evidence tha if you're depressed or anxious , you're not weak or crazy, you're just a human being with unmet needs.

That's why one of the leading doctors @unitednations in their official statement for #WHD state that we need to talk less about chemical inbalances and more about in the way we live. & Just like how junk food has taken over our diets and made us physically sick, junk values have taken over our minds and made us mentally sick. For thousands of years, philosophers have said, if you think life is about money, and status and showing off, you're going to feel like crap.

But weirdly, hardy anyone had scientifically investigated this till a research by Prof Tim Kasser suggests several really important things. Firstly, the more you believe you can buy and display your way out of sadness, and into a good life, the more likely you are to become depressed and anxious. And secondly, as a society, we have become much more driven by these beliefs thru the mass medias.

We've been trained to look for happiness in all the wrong places, and just like junk food doesn't meet your nutritional needs and actually makes you feel terrible, junk values don't meet your psychological needs, and they take you away from a good life.

We feel this way for reasons, and they can be hard to see in the throes of depression -- I understand that really well from personal experience. But with the right help, we can understand these problems and we can fix these problems together. But to do that, the very first step is we have to stop insulting these signals by saying they're a sign of weakness, or madness or purely biological, except for a tiny number of people. We need to start listening to these signals, because they're telling us something we really need to hear. It's only when we truly listen to these signals, and we honor these signals and respect these signals, that we're going to begin to see the liberating, nourishing, deeper solutions.

I have seen too many people & friends that had suffered under the hand of depression and if anyone gonna stand up. I will do all my best to break the social stigma on mental wellbeing.

From this instant, I, Quah Jing Ru,shall pledge to advocate mental health awareness across all medias whenever I can and use my personal story to enlighten people to be as bright as they can.

#MentalHealth #positivevibes #SelfLove