“There’s no topic on mental health I won’t speak publicly on,” Juliet Bodley, better known as JulieMango, said. While the comedian is best known for her viral internet presence on TikTok and Instagram satirizing Jamaican life, she’s also a vocal champion for mental health safety and mental illness education.
Her Testimony
In a piece shared with Caribbean National Weekly, she shared the realities of the beginning of her career. “When I just started out, there were times when I would have posted a funny video, and while the world is laughing, I am writhing in emotional pain, because cognitive distortions and imposter syndrome took over my mind,” she explained in the bare-all piece.
Her transparency concerning suicide and self-harm made her the perfect correspondent to give approachable, actionable advice for Mental Illness Awareness Month. “Mental Health Awareness Month is important as a step towards breaking the stigma towards mental illness,” she started, “but it’s not enough. It needs to be a lifestyle practice.”
Bodley wants to see attitudes towards mental illness change across the board, specifically, she wants the institutions that hold up Jamaican society, such as the church and the government, to tackle the problem at the foundation — with the children.
“The church sometimes operates out of fear and not in step with Christ,” she explained, Bodley herself is a devout Christian. She’s quick to clarify that there’s nothing malicious at play but it’s an institution run by humans and humans make mistakes. The elders in the church need to challenge the notion of “possession” when a child is displaying symptoms of mental illness.
Dangerous Stigma
The stigma regarding mental illness treatments and medication is especially dangerous. Bodley sees the divide between faith and medicine as a false binary. “Every good thing comes from God,” she explained, “so when doctors do years of research or create psychotherapy programs, or create medication, [that’s of God].” The comedian cannot help slipping into a bit of a performance “I know many people don’t like medication but I know right now if you have a flu, you going to take Panadol or Cetamol so don’t play with me.”
Bodley wants the government to push mental health more in the high school curriculum. She proposes that the subject be made mandatory from 1st to 3rd form (grades 7 to 9) and then made an elective at higher levels. “The best way to change attitudes towards mental health is to teach children from a formative age,” she theorized, “nip the problem in the bud.”
She explained that schools are where many people develop lifelong mental issues. “You learn how to process [childhood trauma] when you’re a teenager. You develop coping mechanisms and the education system doesn’t teach you how to [do that healthily],” she explained from first-hand experience. Bodley wants schools to try and instill principles and techniques ranging from conflict resolution to relationship advice.
Cutting & Self-Harm
On the topic of cutting and self-harm, Bodley, who has recovered from the practice, wants to both demystify why people do self-harm and give tips that might help bridge the gap and talk to someone who you suspect is practicing self-harm. “People cut because it is ‘pain to pain therapy,” she explained. It’s a coping mechanism where someone struggling for control in their life exercises controls over their body through enacting pain. It’s immediate feedback. A cut, blood, pain. “What this control does is provide a brief toxic episode of happiness and relief,” she explained, “ you are now distracted by this new pain and you’ve forgotten in the moment that old pain.”
Needless to say, this can lead to an addicting downward spiral. Cutters often target parts of their bodies that can be hidden under clothes. If you suspect someone is cutting Bodley urges you to approach calmly. “Ask them what’s going on, give them the opportunity to talk about it,” she advised. She stresses that this first interaction is key. You want to signal that you’re safe. “Do not react with ‘why are you doing that to yourself?!” she gave an example. Cutting might not make sense to you but Bodley pushes for empathy. She stresses that you cannot be a person’s therapist. While you can be there for someone, you need to guide them toward professional help.
“The term can be a trigger for people in denial of their mental illness,” she noted, but it’s important to plug into the conversation nevertheless. If someone, especially a child, doesn’t feel safe talking to you, they’ll get advice, of potentially dubious quality, from someone else — their friends or maybe their partner.
Bodley believes that attitudes toward mental health can change. She is realistic about the gargantuan task ahead of her and other people passionate about the topic, but she believes that once Jamaicans connect and are able to see mental illness like any other sickness, attitudes towards the condition can change sooner than later.
