Hello. My name is Matt Pollard and Iām a digital designer here at RocketMill and Iām here to talk to you today about mental health in the digital world. But before I do, I want to tell you a few things about myself that you may or may not know. First of all, I love baking, video games, and wrestling. Although not necessarily all at the same time. And on the opposite side of that coin, Iām terrified of wasps, clowns, and public speaking, which makes this whole thing a little bit of a challenge.
What is mental health in the digital world?
This fear forms a part of social anxiety, which Iāve had pretty much for as long as I can remember and it tenuously leads me on to my topic today. So, what is mental health in the digital world? I hear you all possibly collectively think and thereās this widely accepted idea that digital, especially social media apps and games are detrimental to mental health, but I want to show you how these digital platforms are making waves to really increase mental health awareness and give mental health sufferers outlets and giving them the tools that they need to manage their conditions.
What isnāt mental health?
But before I get into that, we need to ask the question; what is mental health? Or more crucially, we need to identify what mental health isnāt because there are many misunderstandings, misconceptions, and mistruths about mental health. The first one Iād like to dispel is, mental health does not necessarily mean mental illness. Do mental illnesses affect your mental health? Yes, of course they do, but everyone has mental health. Not everyone has a mental illness. Just like not all of us have a physical illness. Mental health, like our physical health, is something that we all have to maintain, to nurture it, and to really try and make better when it takes a turn for the worst.
So, what else arenāt mental illnesses? Theyāre not feeling a bit sad. Theyāre not something you can just get over, theyāre definitely not rare, which is something Iāll go into detail in a little bit, and theyāre most definitely not a sign of weakness. Often people with mental illnesses can be viewed as a burden on society or they see themselves as being weak from suffering from mental illness. When really it takes enormous strength to be able to get through every single day with a mental illness. We need to shatter this idea that mental illnesses are rare and when they really cover a huge range of conditions that most people wouldnāt even consider. And while mental health awareness is getting better, thereās a huge number of conditions that people are scared to talk about or maybe they donāt even consider to be problems at all.
Mental health in statistics
Iāve got some statistics surrounding mental health which will shed a light on the extent of the problem and how common it really is. One in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. Thatās one-quarter of the population or approximately 16 and a quarter million people.
5.9 in 100 people experience a generalised anxiety disorder in 2016. 3.3 in 100 people experienced depression. 7.8 in 100 people experienced them both. 20.6 in 100 people had suicidal thoughts. Thatās 20% of people thinking about taking their own lives. 6.7 in 100 people attempted suicide.
To put that into perspective, if this were a global statistic applied to the worldās population, then that would be around 460 million people wouldāve committed suicide in 2016. Thatās almost the entire population of the United States, Canada, and Mexico combined. When looking at the statistics, it appears that women are more likely to be affected by mental illness. From a 2014 survey, 20% of women reported having a mental illness, whereas 12.5% of men reported to having a mental illness.
But men are more likely to commit suicide. Of 6,000 suicides in 2017, men accounted for three-quarters of them. Thereās even a display just down the road from RocketMill which supports this statistic and it states that suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK. But why? What gives men cause to feel that they need to take their own life more than women do?
Mental health stigma
Recently there were tweets from Johnny Chiodini, a video game journalist over at eurogamer.net and heās a very active mental health advocate. Heās done a series called Low Batteries which looks into mental health and gaming. Heās also done a TED Talk called Can a Video Game Save a life? And heās one of the influences that led me to do this forefront here today. He wrote, āThereās a man crying on this train and his friends are doing nothing but telling him to chill out, compose himself, stop it, be quiet, theyāre being so dismissive and itās properly shit. Off the train now, but that was toxic masculinity in action. His friends could focus on nothing but the fact that he wasnāt meant to be crying, especially in public. From what I gathered, heās just got out of a five-year relationship. Iād be balling too. Imagine being just told to bottle it by friends by that point. Wankers.ā
Wankers are putting it mildly, but it plays into this warped idea that men arenāt supposed to show emotion, that theyāre supposed to bottle up everything inside and be real men and eat steak for every single meal and watch trucks get driven over by bigger trucks. When really thereās absolutely nothing wrong with baking and owning three different types of rolling pin.
He then goes on to say, āPSA, crying is mint. Your body has a hardwired way of making you feel better and you get to make all sorts of fun new noises. Give it a go.ā Which is great advice, Iāve made more than a few snot bubbles in my time, but what is key here besides the point that heās making is that heās using Twitter, a social media platform, to highlight the social stigma and highlight awareness about mental health.
Also, his TED Talk and Low Batteries series can be found on another well-known digital platform; YouTube. Itās digital thatās enabling us to bring this awareness to the form more than ever.
Another example comes from my cousin, Katie, who suffers from both anxiety and depression. Sheās spoken about how social media and the web has benefited her. She says, āTwitter has been wonderful for finding folk like myself and making friends online. I feel accepted there and itās easier to talk about mental health than it is in person or real life.ā She also runs a blog, another digital platform, which allows her to get her thoughts out. Rather than bottling them up inside, which is not only cathartic for her, but may well provide comfort for someone else whoās going through the same thing.
Social media is not a necessary evil
Itās often said in this digital age that social media is so ingrained on our society that it is now a necessary evil, but with the potential to change how social media is used and perceived, I would prefer to say that social media isnāt necessarily evil. Often talking face to face about mental health problems is one of the hardest things that people can do. So having a resource like social media where people can just open up without the need of having to seek someone out in person has already been a game changer. It has the huge potential to do good and is already doing good if you just take time to look beyond the negative.
Apps and mental health
Thereās also apps where thereās been a bit of attention shift recently. Plenty of people are aware of apps like Angry Birds and PokĆ©mon GO, but thereās a wealth of apps out there that aid mental health sufferers and provoke awareness. This is just a small cross-section of apps that are out there to aid a wide range of mental illnesses, ranging from anxiety and depression to the scarier, less talked about ones like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia or even ones that most people wouldnāt even consider to be problems like OCD, addiction, and the eating disorders. While I canāt show you all of these, let me touch upon some of the more interesting ones Iāve discovered.
WoeBot
This first one which isnāt even an app, itās actually a chatbot called WoeBot and it is integrated into Facebook Messenger and it acts as online digital CBT or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It gives daily lessons with the aim of helping reframe negative thoughts. It can track your mood or as you can see from the example here, it just gives you simply a quick outlet for anything that may be on your mind or even give you emergency contacts should things be really serious.
Headspace
Next is an app called Headspace which focuses on mental health maintenance. The idea is it gives you short meditative exercises that help you focus your breathing, clear your mind, manages the stresses of every day life, and simply manage your own head space.
Stay alive
While WoeBot and Headspace focus on managing your mental health to not let it get to a point where youāre in dire need of help, Stay Alive is an app thatās designed for people who are at real risk of taking their own lives and reaching breaking point. It has a range of resources, tools, and contacts to assist you in getting help when you really, really need it.
Flowy
Lastly is Flowy which is an app which actually gamify mental health maintenance. Itās designed for people who experience panic attacks and allows them to manage them by helping them control their own breathing and collecting the coins that you see on screen and they breathe in time with the wind. It actually provides a distraction for their mind and the feeling of overwhelming fear that theyāre feeling. Itās a unique take on mental health management where the game is actually used to escape from the panic that theyāre feeling.
The power of video games
That brings me neatly onto my next point. Donāt underestimate the power of video games. Despite being one of the biggest industries in the world today, video games still suffer, much like mental health, from a stigma. A stigma that all games are like this guy and that video games are the root of all evil, that teach your kids how to kill in Call of Duty or even worse, teaching them how to floss. But the truth is that video games have come a long way over the years and are more than just a form of entertainment. They have flossing, notwithstanding become an art form in their own right and have given means of escapism to many, many people who are struggling with their mental health.
I, myself, on many occasion have video games to thank for lifting my mood out of a dark depression and just when things seem at their very, very worst. But itās just not the means of escapism that give video games an important role to play in aiding mental health. As many games are now actually tackling mental health issues directly, which is helping raise awareness and gives gamers who may be suffering with their mental health a way to realise theyāre not alone in their struggles.
Here are just a few examples. First of all, Life is Strange is a story-driven game which tackles issues of depression and teen suicide. Night in the Woods tells the story of Mae, a college dropout, who returns to her hometown and deals with her struggles with disassociation and anxiety. And another one of the characters, Greg, actually confines to Mae that he may have bipolar disorder.
More recently in Hellblade: Senuaās Sacrifice, you play as a protagonist that suffers from psychosis which is often a mental health trait that just gets applied to villains usually. In Hellbladeās case, the game is so impactful that it actually comes with a warning at the start of the game because it doesnāt pull punches with the depictions it portrays. It can, at times, be deliberately disturbing, especially to those who may have suffered from similar experiences. Itās pushing boundaries in places that other mediums may be afraid to venture.
So, as you can see from this very small proverbial dip in the very larger ocean, itās clear that mental health and digital are inextricably linked and things are getting much better in terms of mental health awareness and the tools that are available to us. But weāre not there yet. If we were, I wouldnāt be up here doing this talk. I want to see a world that people who have mental health disorders, that digital doesnāt just have the potential to be life-changing, but life-saving.
Overview
So, what I want you to ask yourself is; what can we do? What can we do as individuals? What can we do as a company? In fact, here at RocketMill, we already hold digital workshops that look to make use of the resources that we have available to us to start making a difference. And, most importantly, what can we do as an industry? Because this industryās full of invaluable tools and resources and most importantly, so many talented people that could use those skills to help start making a difference and help those who need it most and those who donāt have the means to help themselves.
But while I hope for a day where everyone can get the ability to save their own lives at their fingertips, the best way right now to reach out and get help is to talk to someone. Whether itās a friend, a family, or a charity. Because when things are at their darkest, youāre never truly alone. There will always be someone out there who wants to help you. Thank you.