‘Time to Talk Day 2026 will be held on 5 February 2026. This event is a significant initiative aimed at promoting open conversations about mental health and wellbeing, encouraging individuals to listen and share their experiences. It is a day for everyone to come together to break down stigma and support one another's mental health.’
You won’t believe how stressful this post has been! So, it usually takes me about a week to create a blog post of a decent length and the graphics to accompany it, but it wasn’t until February 3rd that I realised Time To Talk Day was coming up very soon and I had no content for it! At first, I messaged fellow mental health Blogger Martin Baker (of www.gumonmyshoe.com) and I said it was only two days – but when I started writing content that was about prioritising and the fact that my Mum’s Birthday is the same day of Time To Talk Day I realised that’s actually three days (Mum’s Birthday is February 6th). Then, I googled and it turns out Time To Talk Day is just the first Thursday of February and that yes, this usually lands on the 6th but this year it is actually the 5th – so my maths ended up, sadly, being correct and I was back to not only rushing the content but also, finding a new topic because it is, in fact, not on my Mum’s Birthday(!). So, with two days’ notice, the best I could do was to run through the archive of previous Time To Talk Day posts and providing some insider, exclusive insight into each one…
Time To Talk 2014 – 2016:
Whilst I did start blogging in January 2013 and so,
technically – because it was one month later – I was able to blog about Time To
Talk Day that year, I would say that I didn’t really feel like a ‘Blogger’ at
that point so early in my career.
Unfortunately, because I started blogging as a
psychiatric hospital inpatient, for a long time in the beginning of I’m NOT
Disordered, I actually don’t remember a lot of things that happened or how they
happened. So, when I did my first Time To Talk Day in February 2014 with the
mental health campaign who created the awareness date but have now ended with funding
problems; Time To Change, I can’t remember how I came to be volunteering at an
event… I do vaguely remember attending the training for it with a member of the
hospital staff and meeting Angela Slater (who is actually – all these years
later – still a massively important friend and a really big supporter of my work,
my blog, and its content) and then I posted a blog post about the fact that I
would be at the event at a big shopping centre in Leeds: The
'Time to Change Experience' Leeds | I'm NOT Disordered.
Then, the day before Time To Talk Day, on February 5th,
I posted a piece describing/announcing what I’d be doing on February 6th –
the actual Time To Talk Day as a means of encouraging people to follow my Twitter,
because for the Day, I was planning to tweet all my thoughts and memories and pretty
much just everything that came into my head that day. In the blog post on the 5th
(which you can read here)
I explained that I was doing this as a means of raising awareness that mental illness,
for all those who experience it, isn’t just there for the one day of the year!
It’s constant and it’s unforgiving. And it can’t be timed or adhere to any sort
of schedule or plan or diary in terms of only being difficult when you’ve got
no commitments that day! And these factors were all particularly true for the
fact I used to experience auditory hallucinations (in the form of voices) which
I heard through my ears but which seemed to take up my entire head and, to
garner empathy and aid people in understanding it, I actually once used the
analogy – and blogged about it here
– of it being like listening to music through headphones.
That Time To Talk Day – February 6th – I
felt like the voices were particularly loud and this meant that tweeting
absolutely everything throughout the entire day felt impractical and
upsetting/triggering. So, I did seven tweets – which I then recorded in a blog
post which you can read here – and
I actually think that they did still provide a good – albeit small – piece of insight
into life with hallucinations. Then, on the 8th of February, I
volunteered at the Time To Change event in Leeds (which, I obviously blogged
about, and you can read it here)
with the same member of staff who’d accompanied me with the training – she had apparently
asked to come in saying that she wanted to see me use the training and experience
what an event like that was like.
At this event, my role was mostly about handing out
leaflets and encouraging people to go to the actual main stand about the
campaign and engage in the activities there like the whiteboard where people
were writing their pledges (I actually did one that’s pictured in the blog
post). This responsibility of handing out leaflets has always stayed with me
over the years of attending events and having absolutely massive responsibilities
and roles at some very important, key mental health events. I don’t want to, in
any way, disrespect people who do this responsibility at events, it’s
incredibly important if not vital to raising awareness because it targets more
people than those, who are purely stationed at the stand, can reach and engage
with. But I also want to recognise what an achievement it has felt like to be
trusted with more and more responsibility and opportunities. A perfect example
of this was that for another Time To Change event (Story Camp) the following
year (2015) in London, I was actually asked to do the closing speech for the entire
event (I obviously blogged about it, here)!
And I remember feeling like all my hard work that I put into my blog and
creating my content, was really paying off and being recognised and rewarded!
Strangely, though, the following two years (so 2015
and 2016), I have no blog posts for Time To Talk Day, however, in a blog post
in February 2016 (this
one) there’s a photo of me at a Time To Talk Day event so I must have done
something in those two years and just didn’t blog about it – which is actually really
annoying, especially when I’m trying to do content like this!
Time To Talk Day 2017:
This year, I guess I was making up for lost time in
so far as content because I ended up engaging in a massive series of posts that
were actually in partnership with Time To Change. I think that I managed to secure
this collaboration because by that point – well two years earlier actually – I’m
NOT Disordered had reached over 100,000 readers (you can read about that milestone
here
and here)
and this had given me a lot more confidence in approaching in organisations with
ideas of ways we could work together.
With Time To Talk Day typically being the first
Thursday of February and not actually a set date every year, it fell on the 2nd
of February in 2017. So, we actually launched the collaboration content in
January because there was quite a bit of content to post in relevance to this
date. The first post went up on January 25th …
Post One: https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/01/post-one-timetotalk-day-in.html
Post Two: https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/01/post-two-timetotalk-day-in.html
Post Three (which featured Angela Slater who I met
at that very first Time To Talk Day event back in 2014!): https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/01/post-three-timetotalk-day-in.html
Post Four (which featured Martin Baker who I
mentioned at the beginning of this post and who I consider a very important
best-friend now): https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/01/post-four-timetotalk-day-in.html
Post Five (which was in collaboration with Angharad
May who had actually featured in a Channel 4 documentary at the time called On
The Edge and Online – it’s no longer on the Channel 4 website so I can’t link
it now!): https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/02/post-five-timetotalk-day-in.html
Post Six (this one was with the previous Comms and
Corporate Affairs Director of – what is now called CNTW – NTW, the NHS Trust in
charge of all the NHS mental health services in my locality including Cumbria
and Tyne and Wear) : https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/02/post-six-timetotalk-day-in.html
Post Seven (which was with Alex Redman who was a Time To
Change Champion and as well as being a friend, she’s now a hilarious Comedian!):
https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/02/post-seven-timetotalk-day-in.html
Post Eight (this one was with the Corporate Governance
Director at the private healthcare company who owned the psychiatric hospital I
was in for two and a half years – the one where I created I’m NOT Disordered): https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/02/post-eight-timetotalk-day-in.html
Finally, Post Nine (this final post in the Series
was with the Police Liaison Lead in CNTW: Claire
Andre) : https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2017/02/post-nine-timetotalk-day-in.html
This Series was actually really good for my
confidence in this industry and to really think of myself and own the title of
being a ‘Blogger’ (I actually wrote a blog post in December 2015 with the title
‘Am I A ‘Blogger’ Now?’ (you can read it here). And I
think it did this because having these various, amazing, inspirational, and
important people do content for my little blog? Well, it left me feeling a lot
more powerful and influential myself; just to think that I had the ‘clout’ to even
be able to ask these people let alone, to have them actually agree to do it!
Time To Talk Day 2018:
This year was a massively important and a post that
I think was honestly fundamental to my blog’s popularity, success, and
subsequent work and collaborations. It was in collaboration with Northumbria
Police and featured a video (which was also on YouTube: you can watch it on
there here or you can
just see/read the blog post which features it, here)
of me talking to the Force’s Mental Health Lead (at that time): Inspector Steve
Baker about mental health whilst building a Lego Police car I’d bought from my
local Wilko!
Now, to get to do something so casual with such a senior
person in one of the largest Police forces in the Country and the largest in
the Northeast?! Well, it led to some really happy and proud thoughts around
achievement and influence. It made me realise that I’m NOT Disordered was so
powerful and influential that I could do something like that!
Admittedly, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows
though, I did have some reservations – particularly around the imposter syndrome
feelings in worrying that I, the quality of my content, and the standard and popularity
of my blog were unworthy and undeserving of such a huge and important
opportunity or experience. This, I think, is something that’s incredibly common
and which proves to be a really challenging thought or feeling for an
Influencer/in the Influencer industry. In fact, it’s been a huge motivation for
a lot of content creators to fully quit their role! Luckily, no matter the gravity
or depths of feeling inadequate and unworthy, I love blogging and content
creation in general so much that there’s very little that could get in my way
of doing that!
Time To Talk Day 2019
This year for Time To Talk Day, I actually chose to
do three blog posts. One reason for this was because I had so many ideas and couldn’t
decide which to cut – so I did them all! The second reason was that by that
point in my blogging career, I had come to recognise that for events and conferences
etc the best way to gain attention for them and engagement, is by publishing as
much content about it as you can!
The first post was: https://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2019/02/the-benefits-of-talking-about-mental.html
and it was actually made up of a piece of writing a NHS Peer Support Worker had
put together in answer to the prompt of what did he think were the benefits to
talking about mental health. The sad bit of this post is that Paul Nicol (the Peer
Support Worker) was a huge part of my career and the opportunities to work with
the NHS Trust he worked for (Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne, and Wear – CNTW) but
we’re no longer in touch. This is very unlike me – to be honest – I’d like to
think of myself as a loyal person, particularly in collaborations and content
creation in partnership with others. I feel that I really, truly recognise and
appreciate people’s roles in particular content and that I want to show my
gratitude by not only always being grateful to them, continuing to support their
content that doesn’t feature me, but also by always keeping them in mind for
future opportunities to work together again.
The second post, TIME
TO TALK DAY 2019 ... WITH GUESTS!! | I'm NOT Disordered, was actually also
a bit of a collaboration because it was created with six people who were each talking
about the same topic at that first one – what are the benefits of talking about
mental health? In connection with how I gave that update about who I worked
with in the previous one… The final person to take part in this second post,
was John Lawlor and he was the Chief Executive of CNTW but has now retired and
handed the reins over to James Duncan (who has featured on my blog a lot too)
and whilst John and I have each other on Facebook, the relationship he and I had,
has now kind of transferred to James! Then the fourth person to participate in
this blog post is Martin who I’ve already spoken about and who is now a very
good, best-friend! The other four people who took part in this post, I’m no
longer in touch with.
After those two posts for Time To Talk Day, I received
quite a few messages asking if I was going to publish a piece which is completely
by me and focused on my own opinion and experiences. And, since I really like
to give readers what they want or are looking for/need, I created this post: 'EMPATHY
SHOULD BE A MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE PROVIDER'S BEST-FRIEND' | TIME TO TALK DAY |
I'm NOT Disordered. Now, don’t get me wrong, I always ensure that my
content is the way I want it to be and that I only really blog about things
that I’m comfortable disclosing/discussing. If someone asked a question or for
a piece of content with a theme which I felt was too personal or upsetting or
whatever, I wouldn’t do it. My readers can’t dictate my blog’s content, and I
think what helps with this is the number of readers I have now, because they
help to recognise that I must be doing something ‘right’ by judging and
regulating things myself.
Time To Talk Day 2020 – 2023
For the post in 2020 (TIME
TO TALK DAY 2020 | I'm NOT Disordered), I actually really utilised the
theme for the day that was determined by Time To Change and that was around the
game: Would You Rather. A little surprisingly, I did two ‘would you rather’
questions and I say ‘surprisingly’ because I can think of a ton more that I
could have used or blogged about! I mean to the point where I may even create a
new blog post with that theme!
I really love when an awareness date has a
particular theme related to their overarching one because it’s actually really
useful for us content creators and Influencers to know what the organisation
who founded the date would want in terms of content that mentions their awareness
date. Like, if it was Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) and they were, for
some reason, hoping for content on the impact of self-harm, but hadn’t set that
or announced it as some sort of theme… They’d likely just get a ton of content creators
talking about mental health generally and they might be saying things that the
Mental Health Foundation (the organisation who actually head up MHAW and are
responsible for setting the theme) already know or have already created content
about.
For the following three years, I didn’t publish a
blog post Time To Talk Day – this may have been because on March 31st
2021, Time To Change’s funding ended, but they actually announced it the
previous year in an article on their website (which you can still read here).
So, because I knew that it was happening so far in advance, I think that’s why
I didn’t even do the one for 2021 – I wasn’t aware it was continuing without
them! I feel like I can’t even remember actually finding out that the awareness
date: Time To Talk Day, was still running and that it was now through another
organisation: Mind (their Time To Talk Day website page is here)).
Time To Talk Day 2024 – 2025
For the awareness date in 2024, I had been working
with the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NUTH) for over one
year on helping to develop their brand-new, Trust-wide Mental Health Strategy
(which launched early last year, and I blogged about it and revealed its contents,
here).
And we were always looking for other excuses and topics relevant to being able
to create further content on it, but which wasn’t directly about the Strategy.
So, a huge amount of work that went into the
Strategy being about language and the importance of it around mental health in
particular, and with a new trend in content creation being around ‘red flags’
(though typically concerning content in relation to relationships – romantic ones,
mainly), I decided to one (which you can read here)
about the ‘red flags’ in mental health communication. I liked this idea – if I
do say so myself! – because it made me feel – or at least be able to recognise
that I was – somewhat creative to have adapted something which was rather popular
on social media and turned it into a topic, theme, or format of blog content.
The following year – this time I have no excuse;
or, if I do, it wasn’t good enough to have remembered it! – I actually didn’t create any content!
And that brings us to this year and this piece of
content that – to be honest – feels somewhat lazy but I was so desperate to put
some sort of content out and I didn’t have a whole lot of time to do it, so
this seemed like the best option or compromise! I hope it gave you some insight
into some of my content and provided the opportunity for you to learn more
about the posts and my thoughts and feelings about them as well as the impact
they had. I actually think it’s really important that readers – especially of
blogs like this and with this level of a following, have this kind of insight into
what they’re reading because I think it can help them to feel more connected to
the blogger. It makes it all so much more personable and relatable.
So, whatever you’re doing today – I hope you can
perhaps learn from this post how valuable it can be to provide others with some
sort of understanding of your decisions and actions.