Take It Easy
RETIRED, NOT EXPIRED: WORDS FROM THE AFTER(WORK)LIFE – WITH OCCASIONAL MUSIC

I have told you before about my pledge to the Time To Change initiative, and why I have done this. At the risk of repeating myself, I began blogging to share my experience of depression, in the hope that it would help others. If you want to know more about this please click on About Me or My Story in the menu bar at the top of the site. If you go anywhere near Facebook or Twitter today I hope you see the hashtag #timetotalk, as today is Time To Talk Day – here in the UK, at least. It is also World Cancer Day, but I’ll leave it to others who are far better qualified than I to talk about that.

The designation Time To Talk Day has been started by the Time To Change people, the idea being that as many people as possible make the effort to spend 5 minutes talking about mental health, either directly with someone who may be in need of support or just needs to understand better what this can mean to people, or by other means. This is my way: by sharing some links and information with you I hope it will encourage to you to become better informed about mental health issues. And while you’re doing so, why not sign up to the Pledge Wall?

Time To Change have produced a couple of short videos to show how easy it can be to start a conversation, and how it can be appreciated. For those who are suffering with any kind of mental illness a simple question about how they are feeling can mean so much, so please make the effort if there is anyone you know who may not be feeling their best. Take a look at the videos, this link leads you to both:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ttcnow2008

As well as, hopefully, opening a conversation here I have also applied for the #timetotalk pack, and have shared the leaflets, coasters etc. with friends, neighbours and at my GP practice. If only one of these leads to someone being helped, my work is done!

I hope you can find 5 minutes today to talk about mental health – however you do it is fine. And I hope you’ll follow the links I’ve given you to find out more: the Time To Change site is packed with useful tips on how to start a conversation in a variety of contexts and also provides a link for anyone who may need to seek help and is afraid to make the first step towards that. For those of you in North America, for whom this may not seem so relevant, you have the Stand Up campaign, which you can access either by clicking on the logo at the top right corner of this site or by clicking here. It is also a very good resource for anyone needing help or advice.