#timetotalk

Boiled water and a lemon slice, a recently lit 'Midnight Jasmine' Yankee Candle, a recently developed headache (same old), and silence. Pure silence. That's my current position. Asides from typing away I'm doing nothing. Sweet nothing. Il dolce far niente. And I'm accepting this totally. This is what my body needs right now and I'm not going to deny it of precious healing time, instead I'm going to indulge in something I miss dreadfully – blogging. 

Today is the day where we pledge to break the silence surrounding mental health and join forces to end mental health stigma. There should be no shame in admitting you're struggling with your mental health, just as you wouldn't have any shame admitting you had say a cold or a sore back. One in four people will experience a mental health problem in any one year with depression and anxiety being the most common although the two do tend to go hand in hand. 

Unfortunately, there are a number of misconceptions surrounding mental health which inevitably aid the stigma surrounding it. This can have such a negative impact on people that they feel ashamed to seek help or talk about it. Thankfully, with the help of charities such as Mind and campaigns such as Time to Change, our attitudes have significantly improved over the last few years, and more and more people are openly talking about their problems, but still there are people who just don't understand - “it'll get better”, “can you not just snap out of it?”, “what have you got to be depressed about”. Incidentally, it doesn't matter where you've come from, what your circumstances are, or what your background is. You could be the wealthiest, luckiest, and most successful person, surrounded by loved ones, worshipped by many, and yet you could still feel like there's no one there, you could still feel like the most loneliest person alive, taunted by dark thoughts and unable to escape the seemingly never-ending spiral into a deep depression. There may be this huge desire to paint on a happy smile around others, maybe you work in a customer-faced environment and you need to keep up that happy demeanour until it becomes too much. You can't look at someone and understand what they're going through so please be kind to everyone you meet, don't assume you know what demons they may be facing. 

I really can't describe how happy I am that the times are changing regarding mental health, and with the influx in the use of social media more people are reaching out and talking to other people about their problems. Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad (like everything else), and social media has its dark side where mental health is concerned. I can't tell you the number of times I've stumbled across groups on Twitter or Tumblr that are masked under 'support groups' yet tend to glorify problems – specifically eating disorders or self harm – which can be particularly harmful to those working to recover. Thankfully, as I've noticed on Instagram more than anything (I don't use Tumblr all that much) navigating to a particularly triggering hashtag say '#skinny' does come up with a warning now to advise the user that under that tag there may be harmful images. Kudos, IG. That's a step in the right direction. 

I'm a huge supporter of mental health charities with intentions of running 10ks, half marathons, and eventually marathons to raise money for their work and I'll go on about it to anyone who'll listen (sorry guys!) but if there's one thing you could do today that'll help to make a difference and give MH a voice please go to the TimeToChange website and Make a Pledge. If you're experiencing any problems please speak to someone and make that first step or talk to the fabulous people at @MindCharity on Twitter. 

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