Mental Health Awareness Week: What Comes After the Hashtag?

Every May, Mental Health Awareness Week brings an influx of green ribbons, helpful hashtags, and heartfelt content across our screens. This year’s theme— “Movement: Moving More for Our Mental Health”—echoes a truth we often forget that our mental well-being is not just shaped by our minds, but by what we ask of our bodies, our roles, and our environments. Those of you who have looked at my website and blog posts will know that I often emphasise the importance of food, sleep and exercise to our mental health. I really like this year’s theme!

But for many people—especially professionals in safety-critical or high-accountability roles—this week can also feel conflicted. You may appreciate the visibility but still find it hard to connect with what is being said. Perhaps you are someone who performs well, cares deeply and copes privately with stress, anxiety, mood or other mental health issues. Do you ever wonder, quietly, whether awareness alone can shift the load you carry?

Let us talk honestly about what Mental Health Awareness Week does well—and what it cannot do without us.

The Good News: Stigma is Shifting

There is no denying that public conversations about mental health have expanded, softened, and matured over the past decade. It is no longer shocking to hear a public figure speak about anxiety. Workplaces are increasingly investing in mental health training. Even industries that once prized stoicism more than anything else—aviation, healthcare, military—are beginning to create more space for psychological support.

These shifts are important. And they have been hard-won by clinicians, campaigners, and communities who kept pushing when it was not easy. Awareness has opened doors that were once bolted shut.

But the question that always follows awareness is: what next?

Beyond Visibility: The Quiet Reality of Mental Strain

In my clinical work, I meet people who often feel unseen by these campaigns—not because they are invisible, but because they have learned to keep functioning no matter what. If you were to follow people like this as if you were a documentary crew for a week or so, you might start to notice that they have prioritised presenting an image of functioning well. With a closer look, you might see housework chores not being done, gym sessions not happening, lots of phone scrolling, very long periods of inactivity and sleep and start to see a person who appears to function well but is unhappy, anxious or struggling.

They are the airline pilot who puts everything they have into passing a simulator check but can’t find the energy to play with their children at home. The junior doctor who hears about “self-care” and tries not to laugh. The senior manager who signs off on mental health policies while privately believing support is for everyone else.

Awareness weeks rarely speak directly to these people. Not because they are forgotten, but because their experiences do not often fit the public narrative of struggle. They are less likely to say, “I’m not okay” and more likely to ask, “How can I keep going like this?”

What they need is not just a reminder that mental health matters. They need evidence that the systems around them—workplaces, professional bodies, even therapeutic spaces—are equipped to hear what they carry.

Movement as Metaphor: Shifting from Surviving to Noticing

This year’s focus on movement invites us to think both physically and metaphorically.

Movement is not just exercise. It is the shift from coping to noticing. From endurance to engagement. From isolation to even subtle forms of connection.

If you are someone who has spent years overriding stress responses, movement might mean pausing for one minute longer than you normally would. If you have become an expert at compartmentalisation, movement might be allowing a friend to ask how you really are—and resisting the urge to deflect.

Community: The One Intervention We Can All Offer

One of the most powerful buffers against psychological distress is connection. Not social media connection or wellness-as-performance, but actual relational presence.

Mental Health Awareness Week invites us to share messages publicly—but also to check in privately. If someone in your life seems less available lately, reach gently. If a colleague makes a small comment that does not sit right, follow up. It may mean more than you know.

Professionally, we are only as effective as the spaces we create around us. Awareness is the start. Access, equity, and honest relational support is the long game.

Not everyone needs a huge community, but it’s rare for anyone to function well in complete isolation. One of the pillars of good mental health I keep coming back to is having enough meaningful and supportive relationships. For some, that’s a few close friends and/or family, for others it’s having a larger network. I also like the concept of “light social connections” – as humans, we get a small psychological lift from some of the smallest interactions, smiling with the barista who makes your coffee, greeting the cashier at the shop, chatting about dogs with another dogwalker you’ve never met before. Noticing those can make a difference.

And If This Week Does Not Land with You?

That is okay too.

You do not have to post, perform, or even participate to be a valid part of this week. Your mental health does not need to be tied to a date or a theme.

What matters is that you keep returning to yourself. Quietly, consistently, and with care.

And if you need support, reach for it—not because a campaign says now is the time, but because you’re allowed to want more than survival.

Ultimately, if Mental Health Awareness Week means you “check in” with yourself and decide things are going well, you’ve got something from it. If things aren’t going well and you would like to move from surviving to noticing and perhaps even continue through small changes to

thriving, that almost certainly needs more than a week but every change needs to start somewhere.

One of my favourite questions in therapy is “How do you eat an elephant?” Not because I want you to eat an elephant but because it’s unusual enough to jolt most people and make them try to answer. The answer from a therapy perspective? “One spoon at a time” Small changes build up quickly and create momentum. What's your first spoonful? Maybe reaching out to a friend, starting a new rest or mindfulness ritual in your day, downloading one of the apps I recommend in the resources page (coming soon!) on this website. Or as this week’s theme suggests, just move.

Whatever you do, from letting this week pass you by to using it to make big changes or anything in between, have a good week!

Here are some useful resources.

1. Mental Health Foundation – Trauma and Mental Health

Comprehensive explanation of trauma, how it affects us, and what support is available. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/a-z-topics/trauma

2. Mind – Accessing Mental Health Support

Practical guide for understanding options from GP visits to therapy and crisis lines. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/seeking-help-for-a-mental-health-problem/

3. NHS Every Mind Matters

Personalised self-care plans, resources, and national campaign hub. https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/

4. Mental Health Awareness Week 2025 – Official Hub

Campaign resources, research, and public engagement tools from the Mental Health Foundation. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week

5. Headspace – Trauma-Informed Care Explained

Gentle, clear introduction to how trauma shapes our behaviour and how to be supportive. https://www.headspace.com/articles/trauma-informed-care