Let me make a few statements and then I’ll attempt to pull the threads together.

• Mental Health is a complex collection of recognised conditions with a range of underlying causes, both ‘nature and nurture’. Some have physical/body chemical causes others are more cognitive.
• Mental health issues are personalised. Each individual presents, understands and is affected by their own unique bundle of issues in a unique way.
• Similar conditions can impact individuals in different ways depending on a multitude of factors including belief systems (their own and of those around them); the support they receive emotionally and medically and therefore their ability to conduct a ‘typical’ lifestyle (never say ‘normal’).
• Many incorporate their conditions into their definition of self and wouldn’t have it any other way; while others struggle to accept things or even if they did would give anything to be rid of them.
• The professions continue to attempt to create classifications of mental health conditions, recognising that they are simplistic and fuzzy against the more complex reality they are applied to, but accepting that they are better than nothing.
• Most members of the public around the world are poorly informed/educated formally about Mental Health and so the common misconceptions are usually perpetuated through mis-representation in popular media and the adult equivalent of playground rumour.
• Different cultures around the world, and even within the same country, take different stances regarding the acceptance of MH and disabilities generally; in far too many parts of the world people are hidden/locked away or persecuted for their specific behaviour.