Today is Bell Let’s Talk day and just like every year I am feeling a lot of mixed emotions. The five cents that goes towards mental health initiatives with every social media post end up being bigger and bigger donations every year and that makes my heart swell.

However, I am always left wondering at the end of the day when everyone basically stops posting and the stories people share get lost in the rest of their posts, is this it? What happens from this point?

Do the people who have mental illnesses that are brave enough to share their harsh sometimes unbearable realities just go back to normal as if they haven’t just cut open their soul for all of Canada to read? Do the people reading really care or is Bell Let’s Talk day just some event to participate in because everyone else does it?

And below all these questions, I wonder, I am just making too big a deal of this?

I just get this nervous tummy ache whenever I participate in Bell Let’s Talk because I want so much to relate and talk to those people who have shared the same experiences as me, but I just don’t think anyone really cares. This could just be the petrifying stigma I have on my own mental health talking, but it just seems somewhat damaging to be so open about your struggles one day every year in January, to have people read it, retweet it, share it, ext. then just to seem to forget and ignore about it the next day? 

Does this kind of exposure help those who ache to seek help but are too scared to? I hope so. I think looking past all the glitz and glam this day has turned into over the past 8 years if this kind of day helps someone who needs to see they aren’t alone then it’s all worth it.

There is one thing I am certain of, the stories shared on this day are shared by some very brave, very strong people. I hope to be that sure and gusty one day.

Today, despite all my questioning and jadedness towards Bell Let’s Talk take the time to really pay attention to the stories that are shared, don’t forget that this is someones everyday life. If you decide to put your own out into the world- I wish you the best of luck I am so envious of your courage.

Let today be just the beginning of the mental health talk.