It doesn’t feel like two years since I last wrote about mental health – but skimming through the archive on my computer it is. In that time the spectre of mental health problems has loomed ever larger over my extended family. They aren’t my stories to tell, but suffice to say the fallout has been significant, devastating and long lasting. As a result, good mental health and wellbeing remains high on my list of personal priorities.

According to the mental health charity Mind one in four people experience a mental health problem each year. If it’s not you it might be the person sitting next to you, the colleague you just discussed your weekend with in the kitchen or that couple you know who’ve just had a baby and always look tired. Mental health problems are not a stigma, a disease or a weakness, they are part of everyday life.

Anxiety and depression are often misunderstood or dismissed, leading people to hide their struggles. Tragically, by refusing to bring small problems into the open we allow them to grow in secret, becoming greater than the sum of their parts and causing more damage to ourselves, our productivity and the lives of those around us in the long run. To dismiss struggles out of hand is to miss the enormous bravery and strength that is found in vulnerability, and to obliterate the value we place in the lives of others.

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