To think this isn’t a Mental Health Issue

[Topttumps]

I was reading an article in a free supplement about getting back out and attending events etc following COVID. It was of course about people being anxious and offered advice on small steps etc. All fine.
However a line annoyed me. It was something like Mental Health is important so please give people space if wearing a mask. Thus implying that those still wearing masks have a Mental Health Issue. Err no they could just as easily have a physical health issue or care about those who have a physical issue making them vulnerable to COVID.
Wondered what other people’s opinions are.

Wearing a mask while taking public transport and in busy enclosed spaces is hardly the greatest of hardships given all we've endured during this crisis. I'm not anxious about getting Covid but I'm not complacent about it either given that I know more and more double jabbed that have got it. I could really do without the stress of isolating and worrying that I've passed it on to family or colleagues.

I get what you mean, but you say it was an article about people being anxious. So the author was presumably just looking at everything through that slant.
I agree that it is annoying, not to mention incorrect, to assume that everyone in a mask was suffering from anxiety.

Today 18:08 Lovelydovey

Why can’t it say give everyone space - mask or not? Surely that’s the polite thing to do in a pandemic?@Topttumps

I think it’s the polite thing to do anyway, whatever the public health situation. Maybe I’m odd.

I agree it is be DT to give a everyone space. They articles was about getting back to attending events etc after so long.
I am happy to be out send about doing stuff but I am mindful that I have ECV and unvaccinated family members .
Although not found evidence of being given space wearing a mask.

I think it's a good thing to be honest. Not because I think that everyone who is cautious has a serious MH issue....but because MH in general is SO stigmatised.

I do have serious MH issues totally unrelated to anxiety and indeed covid but I basically never mention them at all to anyone.

But your mental health - well it's anything, in my opinion, from your mood on a particular day, to how you feel in crowds / with or without face coverings... All the way through to things like severe and disabling PTSD. It's all to do with the psychology of being. I have the latter one of those two things so I'm not down playing anything.

But maybe if we could be more accepting of ALL MH things and how it affects everyone, day to day, for a whole range of reasons... Then there would be less stigma about it

It’s hard to judge without the original wording. It sounds like it might be badly phrased.

But “mental health” doesn’t have to mean “mental health issue”. Just like saying “physical health is important” wouldn’t automatically mean that everyone you’re talking about has an illness. The author may be suggesting that giving space to people who think distancing is important (which most people wearing masks probably do) will make them feel happier and safer, which are both important to mental health.