As it is Mental Health Awareness Week, some of the wonderful writers of Mental Magazine shared what they  think mental health is and why it is important to them.  

Emily Tumber: “I’ve seen so many people around me  struggle with their mental health for as long as I can  remember. I’ve also seen what struggling with an illness you  just don’t understand can look like. I’ve also felt the pain and  isolation that untreated, undiagnosed mental illness can  cause. We have to create a safer, more accepting world.”  

Grace Grossman: “Mental health is important. Is it the  conduct of our lives and how well or bad we may be doing.  For me, mental health is mental hygiene – so keeping clean  mentally and physically. Mental health is important because  people suffer from it and I too, have been a sufferer of  depression and schizophrenia. You never know what  someone is going through.” 

Samantha Mansi: “My mental health is when my anxiety  gets out of hand. When I overthink and I worry. I just can’t  turn my mind off at night. Mental health to me means years  of being in a fight v flight which was both mentally  exhausting and extremely tiring.”  

Joana Costa: “My mental health journey has allowed me to  understand why I am the way I am and how to deal with it in  a healthy manner. Mental health awareness destigmatizes  and normalises the need for help when it comes to invisible  struggles and illnesses that we all have to face throughout  life.”  

Bernardo Almeida: “I come from a culture where mental  health isn’t taken seriously. It is seen as a form of laziness  or lack of strength. Only after living in the UK, I came to  realise things had names and I managed to help, guilt-free.  Nowadays I talk about mental health because I know it eats  me away if I keep it to myself.”  

Carolina Piras: “Latin philosophers used to say ‘mens sana  in corpore sana’, which means that you can’t have a healthy  body, without having a healthy mind. That is what mental  health is for me, are the roots of life and the thing that we  should pay attention to throughout our lives.”