Time To Talk Day: Fifers urged to talk about mental health issues

According to new research, eight in 10 Scots say their understanding of how mental health stigma and discrimination affects people has improved over the last 20 years.

The findings of a poll of 1000 people were released earlier this month as part of a drive to encourage people to think differently about new year’s resolutions for 2023 and pledge to make time to talk about mental health.

See Me, Scotland’s programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination, is urging people to start this with Time to Talk Day on February 2. The campaign sees people across Scotland making space in their day for a conversation about mental health.

The charity is asking people across Fife to get thinking about how they can open up mental health conversations in the places stigma most commonly exist, in workplaces, schools, colleges, communities and with friends and family, ahead of the big day next month.

Richard Wood, a See Me volunteer, knows the importance of talking about mental health. The 46-year-old has struggled with his mental health since he started having panic attacks at the age of 15.

He said: “I spent the best part of 30 years pretending that my mental health wasn’t as bad as it actually was. Mental health just wasn’t spoken about, so I convinced myself that all my problems were either of my own making, or it was down to some sort of a failing on my part.”

It wasn’t until he had a breakdown in 2017 that Richard started to speak more openly about his mental health.

He said: “I've had so many conversations about my mental health over the last few years. And that's been with a whole range of people – in medical settings and healthcare, but also with friends, family, colleagues, lots of different people. I think every conversation is important, because it all helps break down those barriers and normalise things.”

Richard is now encouraging people across Scotland to get on board with Time to Talk Day.

He said: “You really don't know what anybody else is going through. For me, the idea of anybody actually knowing how I was feeling and what I was going through was petrifying, but I know how much it helped when I finally spoke about it. Taking the time to talk and listen is so important.”

Resources and activity packs are available now from seemescotland.org.