Today I have been like a weeble pushed right over – left all of a wobble and unstable in my depression. It is another episode in the saga that is my car bump last month that has been the trigger this time, but you don’t need to know about that.
More important is the morning I spent in Birmingham yesterday at a resourcing event for Time to Change – the group behind the ‘Dave from Accounts’ adverts whose aim is to challenge the stigma and discrimination around mental health issues. We discussed the importance of breaking the taboo, the conspiracy of silence.
I have felt that this has become a part of my calling – as a person, though as a church minister I have openings to speak out that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I am researching faith and depression in order to raise the issue and create a place for stories to be heard, valued and to recognise the gifts and insights that we people of faith and depression bring.
And there is a real need for attitudes to be challenged, people should feel free to ‘come out’ as mentally unwell, and free to be silent if they choose. But forced silence out of fear is all too common. When I wrote in the village magazine about being off sick with depression it had a powerful impact, but I cringe when people tell me how brave I was to write it. It shouldn’t need bravery to say I am unwell, I need help and your care. And as long as it does people will be slow to get support and more likely to reach full blown crises that need never have happened.
At the Time to change event we were told the results of surveys that show that the experience of stigma and feared stigma was – for a very high percentage – as bad as or worse than the mental health symptoms. And frankly the symptoms are more than enough to cope with without the extra hassle.
Over the last 24 hours since returning from the Birmingham event I have lurked in an internet conversation about self-discrimination – when we feel so guilty about taking time off for something as un-tangible as mental health concerns that we try to do what we are not capable of managing. Most of us would not put the same pressure on ourselves if it was a physical illness. I have chatted to someone about discrimination in work because their mental health is considered irrelevant although physical matters would be accommodated. And I have heard about someone I need to visit who is in need of support but has been so stigmatised and rejected over the years because of poor mental health that it is very hard to acknowledge their need for support and they are incredibly isolated.
Add in my own wobbliness and it has been a Weebles World all round this week (and its only Wednesday!) It is Time to talk, time for the Weebles’ voices to be raised and heard...
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