World Mental Health Day: A Letter to My Colleagues

Habiba, October 9, 2018

Dear colleagues,

I want to be open with you all about my own mental health, particularly at work and I would appreciate it if you could take the time to finish reading this.

It's hard to talk about mental health, so ask twice.

Matthew, October 1, 2018

We all do it, don’t we?

‘How you doing?’

‘Yeah, I’m good thanks.’

Or, in my neck of the woods, ‘I’m alright.’

No further questions your honour.

Most of the time we will be just that: alright; fine; okay. Good, even.

Sometimes though, we won’t be. Sometimes we might feel that our whole world is falling apart. Still, ‘I’m alright.’

But sometimes, all we want is for someone to see. For someone to break through and ask, ‘Are you sure?’

5 ways to ask twice when your mate says I'm fine

October 1, 2018

When asked “how are you?”, how often do you tell the truth?

Yep, thought so. Don’t worry, I fib too. All the time.

Now, how often, when someone says to you “I’m fine”, do you follow up if you’re think they’re not? Yep, me too.

I’m very fortunate that I have a fiancée, some family members and a handful of mates who seem to sense when my mental health is dipping and know to ask me twice (or more!) if they hear “yeah, fine, you?”.

Now, asking twice doesn’t mean literally saying the same thing again. That would be annoying.

“How are you?”

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