Let's Talk 2018

It's Bell Let's Talk Day, a campaign to open up the conversation about mental health in Canada, one close to my heart - now more than ever. I feel this initiative is important in helping to alleviate the stigma that keeps us quiet and judging. Last year was perhaps the first time I allowed myself to admit that I fall into the category of those that struggle with mental illness. I felt an obligation to participate in the social media campaign, but I was in no shape or form to speak up on that platform. I was extremely lost and vulnerable and wasn't ready to put my story out there. I now realize that that was ok, but at the time I didn't feel so, I just felt pressure to share and a lot of shame in not being able to live up to this expectation.

So instead of sharing with the world I found a safe place to start talking, in a trusted friend. Reaching out for the first time and confronting my depression turned out to be a life changing start to self-improvement. I learnt the value in vulnerability and each time I ventured out of my comfort zone to explore my struggles through conversation, I learnt something new about myself and the ways I've been getting in my own way.  Beginning to understand the value in opening up, I started to confide in a few other trusted friends, signed up for therapy, and took to blogging, finding this new freedom in being able to express the things I'd been holding inside for years out of shame and fear of judgement. The more I opened up to others, the more they opened up to me, the deeper these connections grew. I also started reading about others stories and started to realize that my battle was a lot more common (and justifiable) than I ever allowed myself to see it as. Suddenly I wasn't such an anomaly, I wasn't as alone as I made myself out to be. It turns out my problems were real and the stigma I placed on my own mental health began to lift.

Don't be fooled, these conversations were (and still are) difficult, particularly in the beginning. I find myself cautiously contemplating how much I share and to whom I share with. I've learnt there is a delicate balance in how much I can lean on these supports before its weight becomes too much bear for that particular relationship and that you have to learn ways to take on some of it on your own.

It isn't easy making yourself subject to judgement and rejection with your greatest vulnerabilities, but in my experience the gains far outweigh the risks. The more I face these fears the more comfortable I feel talking about my mental health and the more benefits I see coming from it, not just for myself but for others too.  By openly speaking about these things I give others permission to do the same, just as others have done for me in sharing their stories. I no longer feel shame in talking about my depression and anxiety. I can bring it up in conversations and find a purpose in sharing it through my blog, in the hopes that it may help someone else dealing with their own versions of depression and anxiety. I think it's working. Almost exactly a year after I first reached out, I received an email from one of my blog readers. She recognized some of the challenges wrote about in herself and asked if I would meet with her to talk about it. See what's happening here?

So when you hear this campaign encouraging you to talk, and see these brave people speak publicly about their mental health, the thought of taking part can be intimidating. I give those people a lot of credit and agree that it takes a lot of courage to put your face on a public campaign around mental health. But there is another way to be courageous in the face of mental health. And I bet each of those featured in that campaign started here. The courage it takes to face the discomfort of those fears of rejection, judgment, shame of your mental health struggles. The courage it takes to open up for the first time you decide to talk to someone about things you've harboured for years. The courage it takes to show a side of yourself you've never allowed to be seen, even by those who have known you your whole life.

A public campaign is just one way to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness. Yes, conversations will change how we think about mental illness. But you don't have to shout to be heard. It's amazing how far a whisper can be carried. Who knows how a private conversation might change not only how you think and talk about your own mental health, but also how those on the receiving end think and talk about their own or others they know who struggle? Often it is the most intimate encounters that create the biggest ripple effect.

Mental Health is not something you have or you don't, it is something we all have and everyone has their own trial in maintaining a good balance. Mental illness is more common than we allow ourselves to think it is and for those of us who are directly affected, the idea that we are alone in it is what leads to the belief that there is something wrong with us. As long as we keep it from view, we will never counter this attitude, and continue to nurture the very mindset that keep us down.

Let this be permission for you to talk about you own mental health challenges, whether it be a public expression you know or with just one other person, sharing only where you feel safe doing so. You just might find the more you talk, the more you will want to talk and, as I have, discover a new freedom in allowing your truth to be seen, letting go of the shame that keeps us silently disconnected.