Any day is the perfect time to talk about mental health, but we know that many people feel anxious or ashamed to start that conversation. Despite the great gains that have been made in raising awareness of mental health issues and how common they are, too many people who experience mental ill-health are made to feel isolated and embarrassed.
Time to Talk Day is the perfect excuse to chat to the people around you about mental health — and you can have the conversation anywhere! Whether on your lunch break with colleagues, over dinner with your family, or walking with a friend, you can use Time to Talk Day to kick start the topic. The conversation doesn’t even need to be face-to-face — how about sending a text to a friend who’s been feeling low?
Being open about mental health is better for all of us. Often, people refer to ‘having mental health’ in a negative sense. But the truth is, we all ‘have’ mental health all of the time, just as we have always have physical health. The state of our mental health can fluctuate, just as our physical health does. Our mental health may be ‘good’ or ‘fine’, but it may also be ‘anxious’, ‘stressed’ or ‘depressed’.
You can read more about the false divide between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mental health in this article written by Richard Carlton-Crabtree, our Director of Insight Healthcare Services, for the Independent: Blue Monday: The truth about the false divide.
1 in 4 of us has an issue with our mental health at some point each year. It’s certainly #TimetoTalk about it!
Our sister organisation, Insight Healthcare, offers free, confidential talking therapies across the country. If you are feeling low, anxious, or finding it hard to cope, you can refer yourself to one of our services by filling in an online form: click here to see our available services.