Nurah Speaks

I had the recent privilege to participate in a mental health forum facilitated by young community leaders.  I wanted to continue that conversation here because it is simply impossible to say everything in a limited timeframe when sharing the stage with other fascinating speakers. I find that most discussions on mental health focus on how to improve mental health, ways to heal, ways to cope and manage.  However what I see often ignored is what contributes to the erosion of our mental health.  And frankly, I observe normalized aspects of our own culture degrading the mental wellness of our people. If we take a careful inspection of our media, our families and our education, we find aspects of each that create anxiety, grief, fear, alienation and insecurity.  Couple this with the availability of degenerate food, drugs, alcohol and toxicity in our air and water, we must accept that there is more than a person’s singular traumatic experience that impact the mental welfare of our communities.   The saying goes,