The Struggle of Mental Health TED Talks


Today, it is commonly known that 1 in 5 Canadians will struggle with a mental illness in their lives. However, this fact hasn’t always been known. Over the past 20 years, if not more, many mental health advocates or as I like to refer to them as stigma busters, have been working from all corners of the globe to create a new narrative that surrounds mental health. Their goal has been to make talking about mental health, as easy as it is to talk about physical health. As a result there have been great strides in creating a dialogue which is open and supportive through mainstream media in TV shows and movies such as Silver Linings Playbook, Homeland, and Degrassi. As well as through schools and government funding. There have been including celebrities from all disciplines such as Demi Lovato, Wentworth Miller and Clara Hughes. This being said, the fight against mental health stigma has been largely fought against with the help of the internet.

You may be familiar with TED talks and know that they are used to teach and explain concepts and ideas to a wide variety of audiences. If you are unfamiliar with them “TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world”.  These talks are not only hosted in person at a variety of conferences around the world, they are professionally filmed and posted on their website! TED talks are designed to educate people on a specific topic or their opinion on one, there are TED talk themes around science, technology, the environment and most recently mental health. The addition of mental health TED talks really drives home the efforts of our stigma busters and I believe that these will greatly benefit their efforts to end the stigma around mental health. We have found this amazing playlist which has a compilation of talks on depression, schizophrenia and suicidal feelings. Check it out: