Why State of Us has been a long time coming

The idea for State of Us has lived in my heart and mind for several years now.

My drive for this is extremely personal – I’ve suffered with bouts of depression and self harm since I was a teenager but things really came to a head in 2016 when I was diagnosed with anorexia and told I’d probably had an eating disorder since I was a teenager.

My wellbeing quickly declined and with a mental illness that was also very evidently manifesting itself physically, hiding it from work – to my great shame at the time – was not a viable option.

I have been on a long and convoluted journey with my own acceptance and honesty around my mental health; that journey is still ongoing. But a couple of years into recovery I realised that I was living in a strange twilight zone where people I worked with every day were largely aware of the fact I had this diagnosis, but that I never really acknowledged it or explained to people what it meant for how I live my life. I was often frustrated that people around me didn’t seem willing to recognise, acknowledge or try to accommodate my needs. But the truth was, if I didn’t articulate my reality, how could I expect anyone else to try and understand?

There is an argument of course, that it’s not the responsibility of those struggling with mental health challenges to educate others, and certainly when I was in a point of real crisis, I couldn’t have even considered talking about my experiences. But as my health started to improve, I started to feel a drive to step up.

On World Mental Health Day several years back therefore, I posted on LinkedIn about my eating disorder. I’d been warned not to do it - told it would damage my career - but the truth was, I knew that I had to do it for me. To push past the inherent shame I felt. What I hadn’t anticipated, was how big an impact my truth could potentially have on others. Every time I post about my experiences, multiple people - often people I don’t know - get in touch to tell me their stories, and share how my posting has encouraged them to speak up or ask for help.

My personal experience is that as a society we have become much more accepting of mental health in the abstract. Indeed the pandemic awoke whole swathes of the population to the reality of mental health. Clearly I wish the cost of this discovery hadn’t been so high, but in many ways, it provided us with an opportunity to push forward for change. Because, when faced with it head on, people still find mental health a scary concept. And that’s ok – because I’ve been living with an eating disorder for years now and I still find it scary.

In the time since I first published that post, I’ve seen other people I know and admire step up and share their own experiences, I’ve been invited to speak at various organisations and I’ve seen society continue to shift. But the undeniable truth is that even though the stigma is starting to be broken down, there are other challenges to tackle. In many ways an increased openness around our collective mental health is creating a new challenge: the NHS is under considerable strain and encouraging people to acknowledge difficulties and ask for help has created even greater demand for services. The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) released analysis of NHS Digital data in March this year which has shown mental health services received a record 4.3 million referrals during 2021. Perhaps most worryingly, they identified there were 1.4 million people awaiting treatment for mental health issues, something which they identified as likely to worsen.

So what can we do?

For me, nothing was not an option. I have been lucky enough to be surrounded and supported by incredible people in my personal journey. Not everyone is so lucky. I have had a sense for some time now that I wanted to take action – that just talking about my experiences wasn’t enough and I could do more to help others.

State of Us was grown out of that desire. It certainly isn’t a cure-all, but my hope is that if it can make even the smallest difference to people who are struggling - or help create environments that minimise the potential for people to struggle - then it is an endeavour worth pursuing.

Mental health can be a scary thing to grapple with, talk about and support others through. But together, I really believe we can make a difference for the collective benefit of us all.