Be The Change: ‘Project Talk’

Say you wake up one day and your friend says they have the flu, what do you do? You tell them to get well soon, you maybe bring them a hot drink or suggest some films to watch whilst they’re too sick to do much else, and you’re able to help them get better. If your friend falls over and breaks their leg, you visit them in hospital with flowers, and then become their slave for weeks pushing them around in a wheelchair and grudging them a little every time it runs over your foot, but you can still help the problem. But what do you do when your friend tells you they think they might be depressed? Or if you think that they might have an eating disorder? Once you lose your ability to quick-fix a situation, things get a lot tougher. 

Mental health issues are a taboo in society, and this taboo is reflected on our university’s campus, as it is on all others across the country. People don’t know how to deal with issues like depression and anxiety, so they ignore them. Ignorance is bliss, for everyone except those that have to suffer in silence. 1 in 4 people experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year. So why are we not talking about it? 

Campus society Be The Change has set up ‘Project Talk’ to tackle the stigma of mental health around campus, as well as to promote the services available to those suffering and their friends and to raise money for mental health charities. The project’s first event, the ‘Share your Story’ evening that took place on Monday 2nd February, saw lots of people coming together to share their hugely varying experiences in a safe and confidential environment. Some people spoke, and some simply listened, but by the end of the evening there was a real sense of shared understanding and experience. 

Along with members of Mind Your Head and Voice, Project Talk wants to continue with events like this to promote the importance of mental health issues in and around campus and to encourage those that are struggling not to struggle on their own.

So let’s get talking. 

Photo Credit: facebook.com/btcexeter