As I’m sitting here on my second of 8 trains today I realised that it’s world Mental health day. It’s a serious topic which affects everyone on earth. We forget that everyone has mental health, whether it’s good or bad health is another matter.

I’ve previously written a post about mental health in the wake of Robin Williams suicide, you can find it on my LinkedIn. I spoke a little about my experiences and the little things that help.

This post will hopefully show people that it’s fine to talk about mental health, in fact I encourage it. Only through talking about it openly will people be able to accept that it’s a normal part of life and in turn, feel comfortable enough to seek help when necessary.

I’m pretty open about my depression, I try not to talk about it all the time but I won’t avoid questions when they come up. It’s not something which is easy to understand so questions are good! It’s extremely important to remember that it affects people differently so don’t assume you know what they’re going through, even if you’ve been through something similar before.

Mine has been on and off for years now and it’s currently rearing it’s ugly head again and so I’m back on anti-depressants and am being referred to CBT. It’s hard for me to remember any prolonged periods of happiness over the last few years. There are very few days where I wake up and feel totally chipper. In fact there are none. My mood can change throughout the day though. If I can motivate myself to get up and to work I usually have a decent day at work. I have a very friendly team and all in all I have a good job. Things like this pick me up. However things that seem trivial to some can be a massive deal for me, for example, making mistakes, even tiny ones, can be enough to throw me off for the whole day if my mood is low… Picking myself is infinitely tougher.

There are several things that help though, things I mentioned in a previous post (which you can read on this blog). At times when human interaction makes me feel sick and curl up into a little ball, it actually turns out that human interaction is exactly what I need. It’s always great when the people I love text me just to see how I’m doing. This feeling of not wanting to see, speak to or even be in the vicinity of other people is one that comes up often, suddenly and intensely. I’m just lucky I have ways to get out of that funk.

I could write about my experiences for hours, and I’d be happy to share more but this blog is already looking pretty long. Please feel free to comment, ask questions, share and talk about this post and the topic. It’s one of the most bizarre topics to me, it’s one of the most common in the world in that everyone has mental health, good or bad, but it’s one of the things that people don’t take seriously, don’t talk about or even recognise is a problem. Absolutely mental right?

Side note: this is the first time I’ve ever written a whole post on my phone, sorry for the lack of pictures and links to things.

A