Canadian conference uses social media to help those with mental illness

From The Vancouver Sun in Canada:

While most people wouldn't consider having pneumonia or a broken bone something to be kept secret, the same can't be said for mental illness.

Admitting to appendicitis or asthma can be easier than saying you suffer from depression, anxiety or other mental illnesses.

It is this stigma that Vancouver's coming Mental Health Camp is hoping to address with a one-day conference focusing on using social media to help the 20 per cent of Canadians who experience mental illness at some time in their lives and all Canadians who are affected indirectly by it through family, friends and colleagues.

"It is difficult for people to talk about it, in any way at all, even with really close friends," said Isabella Mori, a counsellor and co-founder with environmental scientist Raul Pacheco-Vega of Mental Health Camp, now in its second year. "It's only between 30 and 35 per cent of people who have a mental illness who actually ever approach a professional."

Mori said social media can help deal with the stigma surrounding mental illness by allowing people anonymity and also offering a forum and a place to connect both for those who want to remain anonymous and those who would speak openly about their experiences. "One of the bigger things around this is that so many people have used blogging to help dig themselves out of that stigma," she said. "It can all start so easily -you can anonymously say something out loud -see what happens when those words are out in the Internet and you don't even have to attach your name to it.

"It is one of the reasons social media can be a good resource. It gives people an anonymous forum to talk about the fact they are having difficulties, maybe think out loud, and reflect. Because the Internet has become such an interactive forum they can hear from others and they realize, 'Wow, I am not the only one.' "

Steffani Cameron, a blogger and a speaker at Mental Health Camp, at first wasn't open about the fact that she was suffering from depression. Then she started talking about it on her blog.

"Everybody who follows my blog knows the struggles I have been through," she said.
"Once you start clueing people in, you find everybody has been touched by these things but it is the elephant in the corner and we are still not talking about it."