The Student Room Group

Let's keep talking - Time To Talk Day - let's talk about mental health

Thursday 6th February will be the first ever 'Time To Talk' day, 24 hours in which to start conversations about mental health, to raise awareness, stamp out stigma, and share the message that mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, neither is talking about it.

Time to Change, the organisation that set up this campaign/day, are hoping to achieve a million conversations, let us be one of them!


Editor's note: looking for more discussion about mental health? Visit the mental health forum, where you can start your own discussion right now.




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im a little early, thought i might contribute the this conversation and get the ball rolling!
whilst i personally am not affected by mental health issues, a very good friend of mine has had to leave our sixth form due to some sort of mental health problems (im not sure what, no-one has said). and can honestly say that i never thought it could affect young people so profoundly, bit of a shock. i think we need to be taught alot more about it. im not sure why its cosidered such a taboo subject?!
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Sounds interesting.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by FourLeggedPencil
im a little early, thought i might contribute the this conversation and get the ball rolling!
whilst i personally am not affected by mental health issues, a very good friend of mine has had to leave our sixth form due to some sort of mental health problems (im not sure what, no-one has said). and can honestly say that i never thought it could affect young people so profoundly, bit of a shock. i think we need to be taught alot more about it. im not sure why its cosidered such a taboo subject?!


I agree - there is nowhere near enough education on mental health. To be honest the only time, I think, I probably started properly learning about it when I started psychology in my a-levels.

Much more needs to be done, I mean it is just as important as physical health and sexual health, and (most) schools delivers lessons on this. The only 'education' the public get on the mental health is via the media - and more often than not mental health is portrayed in a derogatory and discriminatory way - although I think that this has slightly improved recently.

Again, I think why some regard mental health as a taboo subject could be that it is rarely talked about and a lot of people are so misinformed or uninformed. I remember an old colleague of mine, who works for a mental health charity, telling that not too long ago cancer was considered a taboo subject - but over time as more people have talked about it and learnt about it is not so much (if at all) a taboo subject.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 4
Today's the day! Feel free to talk about anything related to mental health; ask questions, have debates (if you wish). Let's keep the ball rolling and hit 1,000,000 conversations.
Reply 5
So how is everyone feeling today? :biggrin:
Reply 6
Original post by xsindy
So how is everyone feeling today? :biggrin:


I'm pretty good :smile:
Only in uni for 2 hours today, so I'm happy
And yourself?
Reply 7
Something to get the ball rolling...

When you hear the words 'mental health' or 'mental illness', what do you think of/about?
Reply 8
Original post by HBPrincess
I'm pretty good :smile:
Only in uni for 2 hours today, so I'm happy
And yourself?


Awesome! :biggrin:
I'm in 9-5 today, so feeling a little tired and drained T~T but overall, I'm in a good mood. :tongue:
Reply 9
Good to hear - hope your day goes well :smile:


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Original post by HBPrincess
Thursday 6th February will be the first ever 'Time To Talk' day, 24 hours in which to start conversations about mental health, to raise awareness, stamp out stigma, and share the message that mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, neither is talking about it.

Time to Change, the organisation that set up this campaign/day, are hoping to achieve a million conversations, let us be one of them!




Posted from TSR Mobile


Brilliant stuff :smile: Thank you for setting this up!

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of - if you broke your leg you wouldn't be ashamed, or embarrassed or feel you couldn't talk about it.

We've all had our moments of feeling a little blue and sometimes due to a number of stressful times impacting on our lives those blue times can become a few shades darker and become more prolonged. But by supporting one another through those moments, days, weeks, months or years those navy blue times can eventually become brighter and brighter.

So let's talk about it :smile:

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Original post by She-RaBrighton
Brilliant stuff :smile: Thank you for setting this up!

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of - if you broke your leg you wouldn't be ashamed, or embarrassed or feel you couldn't talk about it.

We've all had our moments of feeling a little blue and sometimes due to a number of stressful times impacting on our lives those blue times can become a few shades darker and become more prolonged. But by supporting one another through those moments, days, weeks, months or years those navy blue times can eventually become brighter and brighter.

So let's talk about it :smile:

phototimetotalk.JPG


We'll said :smile:

Do you think some mental health problems are considered by some more embarrassing or more of a taboo than others, if so, why?


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As someone who has been affected by MH quite seriously before and have friends who have also been affected, I fully support this day.

One thing that I think needs to be addressed it the stigma behind MH. Hopefully days like this can address that point :smile:
Thanks for setting this thread up - great to get involved with the Time to Talk Day, which I have shared on my Facebook!

I have schizoaffective disorder depressive type and whilst I'm quite open about my problems, I know that for other people it is harder to talk about it. Hopefully today will encourage people to be more open, and those who are not ill, to be more receptive to hearing about life with a mental health problem :smile:
Reply 14
It's great to see stuff like this being discussed, it's a real shame things like therapy are seen as bad and as such people shy away. Hopefully in the coming years the taboo surrounding mental health issues will dissipate.
Original post by HBPrincess
:smile:

Do you think some mental health problems are considered by some more embarrassing or more of a taboo than others, if so, why?




Some are really casual, stuff like OCD has become a commonplace thing to say for anyone who even tidies their house or puts away the dishes. It's a blessing and a curse, because it means that it has increased awareness but at the same time it's often taken less seriously.

Alot of things that are certified mental health issues are seen as cash cows, the ADHD drug that pharmaceutical companies produce being a clear example. Whilst it's been proven to be a real problem, over awareness of it has belittled the disorder and it's become something of a running joke.





Then there's the stuff that is popularly misrepresented. The one that immediately springs to mind is multiple personality disorder - which is not the same as schizophrenia. Alot of films, literature, and even cartoons have portrayed it for hundreds of years now, sometimes with gravity, and others with levity. But there's never any real popular desire for education to be done on it.


I think that we have sex education as a standardised thing in schools, and we have racial awareness periods in which children are taught cultural history.

Would it really be so difficult to have a mental health awareness week in which popular myths about mental health disorders are pre-emptively debunked?
(edited 10 years ago)
It's easy to say 'Let's not be embarrassed about it' and 'let's all be open and sunny rainbows about it', but in the real world, there's a reason why people with MH get ostracised a bit. There's a stigma about it, I've always found :dontknow:

And for the record, I have social anxiety and suspected avoidant personality disorder and depression. Though I do hate labels :fyi:
Reply 17
Thanks for creating this thread - it's an absolutely fantastic idea. :yy:

I don't have anything specific to say, but thought I'd share this video I came across a while back. It's probably the best explanation I've found for what depression is like:

Great idea. I know that I struggle to talk to people in real life about my illness but I hope that others can gain confidence from today and get conversation started :smile:
I really hope this thread gets seen by everyone on TSR today as there is SO much stigma around mental health that every single barrier no matter how big or small needs breaking down!


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