Mental health is complex, and that’s why we need to talk about it. Let’s eliminate stigma and work together in building communities that enable mental health support to those around us.

Written by Ncumisa Kunana; Images by Shubnam Shama, Dan Meyers, Brain Lundquist, Tyler Nix, Derek Anies and Anaya Katlego via Unsplash.

It’s 2021, yet conversations around depression and mental health still aren’t happening  among young men in South Africa. This has its roots in many social fallacies ranging from, ‘men aren’t supposed to show emotions’, ‘mental health is a white man’s disease’ to ‘uthakathiwe’ – meaning ‘you have been bewitched’. We live in a society where our elders shun mental health. The onus is then on us, the youth, to eliminate the stigma and work together in building friendships and communities that allow positive conversations that offer help and support to those around us. With the complexities of depression and mental health we elicited the help of NGO, The Bravado Movement, and psychologist, Walter Bradley, to provide us with a guideline on how to start positive conversations and create safe spaces.

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