Mental Health Awareness Month 2025: Turning Awareness into Action

Mental Health Awareness Month 2025: Turning Awareness into Action

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to spotlight the importance of mental well-being, reduce stigma, and encourage action for better mental health support. Established in 1949 by Mental Health America (MHA), this annual observance has grown into a global movement, with millions participating across the U.S., UK, Canada, and beyond. This year, as we mark the 76th anniversary, let’s explore the history, themes, and ways to get involved in Mental Health Awareness Month 2025.

A Brief History and Purpose

Mental Health America founded Mental Health Month in 1949 to raise awareness about mental health conditions, challenge stigma, and promote wellness for all Americans. The initiative stemmed from the efforts of Clifford Whittingham Beers, who, after experiencing maltreatment in mental health institutions, advocated for better care through his book A Mind That Found Itself and the founding of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Over the decades, the month has evolved, with organizations like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) joining the effort to provide resources and foster open conversations. The core goals remain: educate the public, reduce stigma, and ensure access to support for those affected by mental illness.

Globally, similar initiatives have emerged. In the UK, the Mental Health Foundation has led Mental Health Awareness Week since 2001, with the 2025 edition set for May 12-18 under the theme "Community." In Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association hosts Mental Health Week from May 5-11, focusing on unmasking mental health challenges. These efforts highlight a universal truth: mental health matters, and one in four people will experience a mental health issue in their lifetime.

2025 Themes and Key Messages

This year, SAMHSA’s toolkit for Mental Health Awareness Month emphasizes weekly themes to guide discussions. Week 1 focuses on supporting older adults’ mental health, noting that life changes like physical decline or loss can impact well-being. Week 2 highlights children and families, with data showing that many adult mental health issues begin in childhood—early support can make a lifelong difference. Other weeks address serious mental illness (SMI) stigma and self-care strategies. SAMHSA encourages using hashtags like #MHAM2025 and #MentalHealthMatters to amplify the conversation.

The UK’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme of "Community" underscores the role of social connections in mental health. Strong communities provide belonging, support, and purpose, reducing isolation. However, the Mental Health Foundation warns that recent welfare cuts threaten these vital networks, urging action to protect them. Meanwhile, Canada’s campaign, "Unmasking Mental Health," encourages vulnerability to foster deeper connections and reduce the isolation caused by stigma.

The Stakes: Why It Matters

Mental health is critical to overall well-being, yet stigma and systemic barriers persist. The OECD estimates that mental ill-health costs economies up to 4% of GDP due to lost productivity and healthcare expenses. In the U.S., NAMI notes that millions live with SMI, but many avoid seeking help due to shame. In the UK, Rethink Mental Illness highlights that those with severe mental illness face shorter life expectancies and limited access to housing, employment, and social security, exacerbated by a cost-of-living crisis and proposed cuts to social support. Globally, suicide rates are at their highest this millennium, with men under 50 in the UK particularly at risk, according to Mental Health UK.

These statistics reveal a gap between awareness and action. While public understanding of mental health has improved—stigma around depression and anxiety is decreasing—the most vulnerable, like those with severe mental illness, are often left behind. The establishment narrative celebrates progress, but critical voices on platforms like X argue that awareness alone isn’t enough without systemic change, such as better funding for mental health services and updated policies like the UK’s anticipated new Mental Health Act.

How to Get Involved

Mental Health Awareness Month offers countless ways to participate:

• Share Your Story: NAMI’s 2025 campaign, “In Every Story, There’s Strength,” invites you to share your mental health journey using #MyMentalHealth. Storytelling fosters connection and hope, breaking down stigma one narrative at a time.
• Use Resources: SAMHSA’s toolkit provides downloadable graphics, social media posts, and best practices for discussing mental health. MHA offers a planning guide for organizations, workplaces, and educators to create impactful programs.
• Advocate: Join advocacy efforts with the National Council by signing up for alerts, contacting lawmakers, or sharing your story about access to care. In the UK, the Mental Health Foundation encourages donations to protect community support systems.
• Get Trained: The National Council offers Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) courses to learn how to identify and respond to mental health challenges. You can even become an instructor.
• Engage Locally: Participate in events like NAMIWalks United Day of Hope on May 17 or the European Mental Health Week (May 19-25). In-person activities, like workshops in schools or Wear It Green Day, are great ways to connect.
• Support Others: Check in on friends and family. As Mental Health America suggests, sometimes all someone needs is a listening ear. If you or someone you know needs help, resources like SAMHSA’s FindSupport.gov or NAMI’s HelpLine (800-950-6264) are available.

A Call to Action

Mental Health Awareness Month 2025 is more than a campaign—it’s a movement to prioritize mental well-being for all. While the month brings vital attention to the issue, the real challenge lies in sustaining this momentum year-round. The establishment often touts increased awareness as progress, but without addressing systemic inequities—like inadequate funding, outdated laws, or societal stigma—the most vulnerable will continue to suffer. Let’s use this May to not only raise awareness but to demand change, support each other, and build communities where no one feels alone in their mental health journey.

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Sources

• Mental Health America (mhanational.org)
• SAMHSA (samhsa.gov)
• National Council for Mental Wellbeing (thenationalcouncil.org)
• Mental Health Foundation (mentalhealth.org.uk)
• NAMI (nami.org)
• Mental Health Europe (mentalhealtheurope.org)
• Rethink Mental Illness (rethink.org)
• Canadian Mental Health Association (cmha.ca)
• Mental Health UK (mentalhealth-uk.org)

Lent & The Purge

Spoiler alert.  If you have not seen the movie, "The Purge," then too bad.  You will know about the plot in this post. :)

In this movie, the United States of America collapsed after economic and social disarray. We are not given the details of this, but are told that there is a new order that runs the nation.  This order was developed by a totalitarian regime that is described as the "New Founding Fathers."

Every year, these "New Founding Fathers" allow all criminal activity to be legal for 12 hours.  This period is called, "The Purge."  The idea behind this "purge" is based on psychological research in the movie which claims that by having a psychological catharsis via the means of violence and aggression, then citizens will remove these inner animalistic drives and this in turn brings down crime. In other words, by letting out the aggression for 12 hours, American citizens will not have this aggression repressed throughout the year in their lives which will force them to commit crimes randomly.  So by letting it all out on one night, they release all of this aggression from the Id and then can live normal lives guided by the super ego the rest of the year until they need to release that aggression again.

In the movie, we see a group of wealthy ivy-league educated Caucasian youths seeking a homeless African American man in order to butcher him. This is representative of the Darwinian view of "survival of the fittest."  The wealthy seek the poor in order to cause their extinction.  We also see in the movie how other wealthy neighbors try to kill the family the movie's plot is centered on due to the fact that they are jealous of their success and angry that the family made money off of them by selling security systems for protection during "The Purge" event.  One of these neighbors is shown at the beginning of the film as being friendly with the wife of the main character who designed the security systems.  This neighbor then tries to kill her later on in the movie and is insistent on doing so showing this animalistic aggression in her forcing her to try to kill the wife.

Psychologically speaking, the idea of a "purging" of aggression by allowing citizens to commit crimes for 12 hours is not scientific.  Aggression brings about more aggression and not retaliating actually helps (Bushman, BJ. 2002).  As a matter of fact, the only time aggression gives a sense of relief is when a victim attacks or kills someone who is trying to attack or kill him or her (Myers, D. 2013). This is due of course to the mere fact that the victim eliminated his or her threat.  If you stopped someone from attacking or killing you, will you not feel relief?  Anger is a natural emotion, but it has limits.  We should never let angry get the best of us (Ephesians 4:26-27).

As we continue on in the season of Lent, I thought of this movie and the idea of "giving it up" during Lent. Catholics "give something up" during this period as penance.  It is meant to bring our focus to God solely and as a symbolic gesture that we can give up anything for God.  Lent is a true "Purging" that is healthy psychologically, physically and spiritually.  Instead of going around and taking out our aggression on others for 40 days, we give something up for God. We show the strength of our character by sending out the message to ourselves and others that what we gave up does not control us.  During Lent, we do more penance and perform more charitable acts.  These should hopefully condition our minds, bodies and souls to be more Christ-like. Instead of holding grudges, we forgive those who hurt us and have mercy on others who may become problematic.  Holding anger and grudges does not work and hurts our minds, bodies and soul (James 1:19-20).

Lent purges us of the disordered desires that original sin has developed in us forcing us to sometimes behave like mindless zombies just running on pure instinct. Jesus gave us an excellent example when He went into the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). In the Scriptures, going into the desert meant going into isolation in order to seek God. This is why the Hebrews went into the desert after they left captivity (Exodus 15:22).  Lent should remind us of this.  We leave the capitivity of sin and society's scripts that often force us to behave in an unchristian manner in order to encouter God in the desert, so to speak. The desert is a hot, dry and weary place that will scare us, especially after we have become accustomed to societies "goods" and comforts.  We prefer to know of the desert via images or text than to experience it first hand (Robinson, "On the Lord's Appearing" p.205).

Like Israel, we will struggle and question God when the desert becomes too much to handle (Psalm 95:9).  Then the ancient narcissistic cosmic pain in the rear named Satan loves to show up in order to tempt us and remind us of how "good" we had it before we accepted Christ.  If we are not careful, we can fall into acedia or spiritual laziness/sloth which paralyzes us from being with God and living out the Christian life.  While in the desert of Lent, we must come out victorious in Jesus and not create idols of gold like the Hebrews did in order to satisfy their materialistic desires (Exodus 32).  Lent is the time to really focus on where we stand before God in light of the passion of the Christ.

God so loved us that He gave His only Son to die a horrible and humiliating death, so how do we return that love (John 3:16)?  By giving up meat on Fridays and fasting, we remind ourselves that while we are biological organisms needing nutrition, we are also spiritual beings who need God and without this God we would not exist (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3). What is a steak or three full meals compared to living in God who is the creator of life?  It is via this penance, prayer, reception of the sacraments, reading of Sacred Scripture that we purge ourselves truly. We begin to realize that the things we gave up that we depended on really are not needed. A true self-actualization takes place that surpasses anything Maslow could have formulated. During Lent, the mind, body and soul return to their equilibrium because God is the only center that holds and can hold us together.  May Jesus Christ be praised forever!      

Question on Agnoeticism

A young man recently posted a question on my Facebook regarding Hypostasis.  Here is the question and my reply:

Question:

I've got a question in Christology I have not satisfactorily answered. It is what is written in Mark 13:32, "32 "But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."...I know about Acts 1:7 ("7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.")...but this would not answer, WHY WOULD JESUS WOULD APPARENTLY LIE OF NOT KNOWING WHEN THE JUDGEMENT DAY IS.....I would not subscribe to the idea that he doesnt really know being God, of the Parousia. And the reasoning, that only his human nature speaks when he said that denial, is impossible, because of the reality of the Hypostasis. Can anybody help me or can Sacerdotus reply ? Thanks in advance...and i would appreciate if the reply is made via my email.

Sacerdotus replies:

Thanks for your question.  

Your question is important and I'm glad you posed it.  Agnoeticism was a heresy that was condemned by many Popes.

“If anyone says that the one Jesus Christ who is both true Son of God and true Son of man did not know the future or the day of the Last Judgment and that he could know only as much as the divinity, dwelling in him as in another, revealed to him, anathema sit.” - Pope Vigilius, Constitutum I of 14 May 553

It states that Jesus did not know the hour of His second coming, basically making Jesus to look like a demi-god or merely human and not divine.

Jesus has three kinds of knowledge:

• Beatific knowledge 
• Infused knowledge 
• Acquired knowledge.  

Beatific knowledge is when a human being knows things via inspiration or Divine guidance. Infused knowledge is when God directly puts knowledge in our minds without us doing anything by means of learning on our own.  Acquired knowledge is what we all rely on which is learning via the senses. Christ knows of His second coming via the first two, but not acquired knowledge because no human can know/learn of this on his/her own.

St. Augustine comments:

“According to the form of God everything that the Father has belongs to the Son for All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine. According to the form of a slave, however, his teaching is not his own but of the One who sent him. Hence of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. He is ignorant of this in the special sense of making others ignorant. He did not know it in their presence in such a way as to be prepared to reveal it to them at that time.”

So to sum it up: Christ knew, always knew, but it was not the time for him to reveal it.  Think of it as a sort of mental reservation, not absence of knowledge.