Feeling deflated about Time to change Attitudes to Mental health survey

If I’m honest I have never been a big fan of a Time to change and the whole campaign. It’s not because I don’t think it’s a good idea or don’t feel it needs doing it’s just I can’t get excited about it.

I never really felt stigmatised, I never really felt that it held me back and I certainly didn’t really noticed any bad attitudes towards me because of my disclosure. The reality for me was of disinterest really. So long as I was managing it well people just didn’t really care.

I have to say that I started seeking medical help about 25 years ago and A time to change was not even thought of at that point. I was a bright student with great determination and a will to get things done which despite my symptoms and problems I did. I wasn’t an A student but I was good enough that people just didn’t worry about me. I wasn’t a disruption to them and largely I was the least of their worrys, something that continued throughout my university career. If I needed help then I just went and got it and although in many incidences it wasn’t that easy to get hold of and several doctors were rather unhelpful I just kept going back until things got sorted and okay so my life wasn’t great at times and I took some time out, but then I’m not sure that it could have been improved that much either.

I don’t know I guess the fact that I started talking about my issues before the campaign and disclosure was par for the course for me, has meant that this new found freedom to speak was really not something that came as a great relief. I was talking before all of this before it got start and really not that bothered. The fun part is that now we have a time to change and everyone and their dog is disclosing I feel people are expecting that the first thing out of my mouth should be disclosure, I should be talking about this.

I have issues and proud! (Or whatever your choice of language is)

I’m not ashamed/ afraid anymore!

Well quite frankly I am just as afraid and ashamed as I was before, it’s just it really wasn’t that bad for me. There are days of course when I wonder whether I should be, whether my life would have been so much easier if people had been the sympathetic, supportive help that everyone else keeps saying their families were but really I’m just not angry enough to anything about it.

And yes I would like more support, more help and easier access to services, but really all I do want is to enjoy my life and I find it really hard to find that when so many people are pushing the anger button on NHS services, or attitudes to mental health, or disclosure and talking about it all the time. Really! I just want to get on with my life, campaigning is what I have been doing since I was 15. Slowly but surely in every institution, workplace, with friends, and family I have gradually talked about the things that bother me and as people have responded I have continued to talk and it annoys me that so many people seem to feel that this is not enough. The world needs to know.

I think the world does know it just hasn’t got enough impetus to do anything more than it is doing. Did we get parity of esteem? Parity of funding?

I do wonder if the improved attitudes to mental health is because of the campaign or inspite of it?

Don’t get me wrong I am really pleased that so many people are getting something from this, including but not limited to MP’s having the freedom to open up about their issues, to put them on the Governments agenda. I just wonder if that really was a time to change, or whether it was a natural progression from the likes of me and other professionals who never saw a problem and just got on with things.

And yes the freedom and change in attitudes to people holding government positions and CEO was well over due I just can’t get that bothered by the campaign.

I guess I just feel that the only reason we have this campaign is because of the likes of others like me and me who just got on with it and showed enough people that there was not that much to fear that people starting asking why is it taboo and shouldn’t we change that?

So did we need a national campaign? Do we still need a national campaign?

Yes I feel we do and you’re probably wondering after my lack of enthusiasm why. It’s quite simple really, because so many people feel it’s making a difference. Because so many people are now talking when they weren’t before. I do wonder whether they would have got their on their own, but if a campaign is prompting them to open up when they haven’t in the past, then this is reason enough. If the campaign is getting it put on the Governments agenda and a high priority for NHS funding then yes we need it. It just seems like there is so little change for such a big outlay of cash.

I guess for me the biggest problem is that the changes in attitudes to mental health don’t really feel like the great strides they keep telling me that have been achieved

 4.8% of the population have improved attitudes to mental health. Big deal.

Even the larger improvements

• A 6% rise in willingness to “continue a relationship with a friend with a mental health problem” (82% to 88%).
• A 7% rise in willingness to “work with someone with a mental health problem” (69% to 76%).
• A 5% rise in willingness to “live nearby to someone with a mental health problem” (72% to 77%).
• A 5% rise in willingness to “live with someone with a mental health problem” (57% to 62%).

Don’t really feel like that much.

Full report can be found as a downloadable word document at the bottom of the page