There has been much written and discussed this week about Charlotte Dawson and her battles. {For those of you not in Australia, Charlotte was a media personality who took her own life. She had battled depression. She had also been the target of intense cyber bullying.}

All of this discussion and writing is a good thing. Although Charlotte was far from alone in her battle, she obviously felt alone with her battle.

Just like too many everyday people who are not in the media spotlight, including way too many young people.

I have spoken about my anxiety on a couple of occasions. Today, though, I want to share with you an excerpt from my friend Israel’s blog.

“There is a huge stigma about depression and mental illness – that it’s not real, that it’s not serious, that it’s something to be ashamed of. I hid my feelings for months from my own wife – someone I keep nothing from – because I didn’t feel it was worth talking about, or that it wasn’t something I felt comfortable admitting. […] By removing the stigma around mental illness, we have the opportunity to encourage these conversations, and embrace them with compassion, love and empathy, and free of judgement.”

Beautifully written from a personal viewpoint, here’s the full post.

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.
{Henry Wadsworth Longfellow}

Thank you for sharing your story Israel. As I said to Israel on Monday, we need to talk more about mental health issues in everyday people, to hopefully reduce the stigma attached to them. Only then can we hope to save more people from the darkness.

Having a mental health issue is okay. Being bullied is not okay. If you are experiencing either, please reach out for help.