Time to talk day 2024 (1st February)

 Today is time to talk day (1st February 2024), a day to encourage people to talk about mental health to help break the stigma and encourage people to reach out for support.

1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime, from mild to moderate anxiety and depression, to more severe and enduring Mental Health problems such as eating disorders, personality disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).

Often people are blamed for having a mental  health problem and just told to be positive, but you wouldn't tell someone with a physical illness, stop behaving the way your physical illness is making you behave, yet often people are told things like this with mental health problems.

I've often shared my mental health story to help raise awareness and to help explain to people why I am the way I am but although I do that I do often feel ashamed and guilty that I struggle the way I do, especially times I'm struggling more, and often it's easier to share a recovery success story than a relapse story.

I have diagnosis of personality disorders, borderline or emotionally unstable, a disorder that has highs and lows similar to bipolar disorder but whereas bipolar is caused by a chemical imbalance, borderline personality disorder is caused by attachment issues, trauma, neglect or abuse in childhood and the highs and lows are triggered by environmental and relationships and fear of being abandoned yet often their intense behaviour pushes people away. I only have traits of borderline personality disorder and alot of the diagnostic criteria overlaps with an eating disorder, the original mental health problem I had that began when I was 12, going through phases of anorexia and bulimia and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) at times thinking and behaviour overlap between anorexia and bulimia. I also have avoidant personality disorder, a severe form of social anxiety that causes you to avoid relationships and life experiences that make you feel anxious for fear of rejection and failure. 

Often more severe and enduring Mental Health problems are stigmatised more as they can be hard to deal with but often it is hard to get ongoing professional support and a support network of family, friends and charity support helps, just to talk and feel listened to and understood.

Locally in Grimsby there is a crisis cafe open in an evening where you can go to talk to staff and other service users who have mental health problems. Sometimes talking about other things and being distracted from your mental health problems helps, other times talking about the mental health problem is needed if need support for a specific problem. There are some parts of my mental health problems I feel more ashamed of and often people don't understandand don't like how you behave because of your mental health problem such as self harm and certain eating disorder behaviours such as being sick or taking laxatives but the person suffering also doesn't like doing those things either, often the mental health thoughts and impulsively become stronger than you and you need help to stop but often the help isn't there.

Early intervention is best for a chance of recovery yet services are often reactive rather than proactive as they are overstretched but still reach out and try get the help you need for yourself or a friend or family member from a gp or NHS talking therapies for mild to moderate anxiety and depression.

It's time to talk, time to change and end the stigma around mental health problems.