Our third #ICEAdvent calendar blog comes from ICE member, Laura Dernie, founder of My Discombobulated Brain.
My Discombobulated Brain is a new mental health charity based in South Wales and aims to tackle stigma associated with mental health by encouraging people to talk openly and share their experiences. With one in four people suffering with some form of mental health condition, but studies into it still some 40 years behind cancer, there is so much that needs to be done.
After months of being on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and years of being in the process, My Discombobulated Brain launched in April 2016. This is just the beginning and there is so far to go and none of this will be possible without people supporting us. We are currently developing our programs and asking for things-which I hate doing. But do you know what? Everything will be worth it even if we save just one life. This has been a really hard few months with a lot of hard work been put in, but it is paying off and we were finalists in the Cardiff Regional Awards for our Mental Health work.
There’s a lot of me in this project. There are a lot of tears in this project. There has been a lot of help from strong people who’ve come forward to give their stories to help save people’s lives in this project.
I am proud of every single person who has submitted their truth, whether it be public or not. I have met people with mental health issues, as well as suffering myself. I still cry when I read the stories. I still want to hug every single person whose story I read. I want to sit down with all these people and tell them they are not alone, they are not another one-in-four statistic, they are a person. They are a person who deals, who loves, who has a family. A person who is sick and not sad, a person who may have sat there in alone and in pain and cried, a person who may have screamed at the top of their lungs to try and express their frustration and the emotions they are feeling. But in the forefront of all of this, they are a person.
Why is My Discombobulated Brain here? Why now? Because it is time to make a difference.
If you want to be on the supporter’s wall, all you need to do is take a selfie! If you want to share your truth, write it down, send me a pic and let’s save lives.
If you have a link into schools, please, please put us in touch with them as education is key. Finally, if you work in PR, media or journalism, we need your skills to get us out in the world.