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Imagine someone in a wheelchair being told to get up and walk. You couldn’t envisage anyone being so insensitive. Imagine someone suffering with depression being told to ‘snap out of it’ or to just ‘smile’.

Like the first comment, if it was that simple do you not think they would have tried?You’re asking them to do the impossible: they just don’t have the strength.

I was diagnosed as bi-polar last summer following a final breakdown - although it transpires I have probably had it since my late teens, early twenties. The one thing that surprised me was how my whole life suddenly made sense and everything dropped into place.

It answered so many questions about the person I had been and some of the decisions I had made throughout my life.

My counsellor first gave me the idea to write many years ago. I remember scoffing at the suggestion of starting a journal recalling my primary school days when I used to write awful banal nonsense about my summer holidays.

One of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had to have came when I decided I had to tell one of my best friends about my battle with depression.

The first day I settled on telling her, I couldn’t. I had built myself up, all ready to state the fact, and then to answer the questions that I knew would come later.

I have spent the last decade of my working life trying to prove that I am not a failure and trying not to admit that I might be, by forcing myself to keep quiet about my depression. The Time to Change project has made me think about this a lot, raised questions within me and forced me to confront my own contribution to stigma. I am talking primarily about the stigma towards mental health in the workplace.

"I’m alone", "It would be better if I was dead then I won’t be a burden”, “People won’t believe me if I say I’m depressed, that my smile is fake”. To a depression sufferer like Frankie Sanford these comments are on a constant torturous loop.

It was a question that normally we all take for granted, that demanded a positive, unhesitant answer and one usually replied in the affirmative.

But after hesitating with a pause that was so long and wide you could have driven a 192 bus in it, I eventually answered Jeff with a mumbled, "yes, I think..."

Since I can remember I have been raising my heart rate: climbing trees, jumping from walls, playing immense hours of football on car parks and fields. But the year 2011 saw my heart rate decline. It felt as though it had been extinguished all together.

In the run up to Mother's Day I am working with the mental health anti-stigma programme Time to Change, run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, to raise awareness about a mental illness that affects one in 10 new mums.

After 10 years of yearning, investigations into places where, quite frankly, no one should have to go, and finally resignation, our much longed for baby surprised us in April 2008. At the age of 42 a new baby is never going to be a breeze physically speaking but then when is it ever? Thousands of women do it every day. I’ll cope!!

These are the words which you worry you’ll come across time after time when you are diagnosed with what is now clinically referred to as ‘Health Anxiety’. Of course everyone becomes concerned with their health at certain points in their life but, for me, health anxiety became debilitating when it combined with the onset of depression at the beginning of last year.

 "I have mental health problems". How daunting and overwhelming does that sound? It's certainly not something I've ever said aloud before. It feels strange, like something that applies to other people. But that's the thing about mental health isn't it ... it's all around and affects people you would never expect, who you would never suspect.

Stephen Collins illustrated the comic strips you might have seen recently on social media or in the press. Here, he blogs about what it was like to work on the Time to Talk campaign:

I just read a post by a good online friend (one I have been lucky enough to also meet in real life albeit over a year ago), the lovely Clive Edwards.

Speaking out about mental illness and my experiences is hard! I’ve just found how difficult it is to speak out while writing this blog. I have had four psychotic episodes over the past ten years and have experienced depression and anxiety. I have worked pretty much the whole time in different workplaces and contexts.

Acknowledging you have a mental illness can be difficult, even more so when you have spent your life working as a qualified mental health nurse dedicated to helping others. Herein lies the irony I suppose. In 2004 I experienced severe depression which had been insidiously creeping up on me for many months before.

When I saw the story about Roy (find him on Twitter @badlydrawnroy) and his experience of work place discrimination, I couldn’t help but be shocked and awed.

I was shocked that when he disclosed his mental illness (depression) to his boss, her reply was:

We're a small company, there's no room for passengers.

Time to Change asked me to review Andrew Flintoff’s ‘The Hidden Side of Sport’ - a documentary to be aired at 10.45pm, Wednesday 11th Jan on BBC1.

What a fantastic film. 

My name is Sitara. I am 22 and live in the south west of England with some other girls. I love to drink tea, sing, and am currently training to be a teacher. I also have a mental illness. I suffer from anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s something that I have found really hard: each day is different and each day is a challenge 

Almost exactly a year ago, an extraordinary thing happened to me.

I’m going to write a  series of blogs focusing on the  "taboo" behaviours associated with differing mental health disorders. No matter whether the behavior is public or private it helps to talk. My main aim is to get things out in the open so people do not have to feel alone and experience guilt, shame and self-loathing during or after an episode of being unwell. Make no mistake these behaviours, if left in denial, can destroy lives.

In the space of a week in February 2007 my life changed forever. I was halfway through my second year of university when I started having panic attacks out of nowhere. I couldn't concentrate on anything, or go to my lectures or seminars. Eventually I had to go back home to my parents' house in London, where I have been ever since.

In February 2009, I was sectioned, tranquilised and detained in a secure psychiatric hospital. Fortunately, my stay was short; after seven days, I was given a week’s leave at home, following which I was discharged.

The first form of mental health related stigma I experienced was from my own parents.  

When I was first diagnosed with depression, my parents encouraged me to keep it a secret and made it clear they did not want other friends or family members to find out. This made me feel alone and ashamed of how I felt. 

Macdog73 is a supporter of Time to Change who has recently been part of the #befrank movement on Twitter, which, prompted by the Time to Change campaign, has seen hundreds of people open up about their mental health problems.  She talks about how Twitter can be a helpful place to share experiences and find support.

"Facing up to Australia's fast bowlers was nothing compared to facing up to my depression."

When Marcus Trescothick flew home early during two overseas England cricket tours his reasons were somewhat of a mystery. 

I have swine flu, AND whilst I'm more than happy to receive your messages of sympathy I'm wallowing in a vat of self pity the size of the Watford Gap which is hardly admirable, thus I hardly deserve your kind words. (grin)

Out There is one of Time to Change's project in Cumbria, and helps to promote mental wellbeing by using the unique outdoor environment of the Lake District for a range of activities. Ian has been involved with the project first as a service user, and now as a staff member.

"Before I came across Time to Change, I was depressed and living on benefits. I didn't have much enthusiasm for life and had become isolated.

Karen and Vivian, participants in Time to Change's PhysicALL project at Beds and Luton Mind, talk about the beneficial effect it has had on their lives.

Karen's Story

Here's a piece of information which might make one or two recoil in shock. For the most part you couldn't spot a depressive from any other member of society; you might need to get very close to someone before it became apparent.

When Tony Blair asked Alastair Campbell to work for him in 1994, he revealed his mental health problems to the man who would be Prime Minister.

Robert has had Bipolar Disorder since he was nineteen. His family desperately tried to help - but shame and embarrassment about mental illness always made talking difficult. He had depression for over a decade. And despairing of a normal existence, he nearly ended his life.

When Sue had cancer her friends and workmates rallied round her. It was their support and love that helped her get through the treatment. But when she told the same friends she had been diagnosed with depression, their support disappeared almost overnight.