Today is #bellletstalk day and I wanted to share a picture of me now vs four years ago. Four years ago I had just lost my father to prostate cancer. I was angry and depressed and trying to pretend that everything was fine. In the first picture, taken a week ago, I’m genuinely happy.

The point of this is not to show how I’m “feeling better” now. I had mental health before my dad died and I still have mental health. Having mental health, which everyone does, means that it can be good or bad at anytime, and you can be better at different times at managing it.

The point of this post is to show that I’ve started to be more honest with myself and others with how I’m doing. Before, when my dad was still alive, I had him to talk things through with and I didn’t need to pretend to be okay, cause he made me okay. When I lost my favourite person, I tried to pretend my mental health was okay, instead of working on it myself. Now I’ve learned that there will always be hard days, but there will always be people in your corner cheering you on.

If you’re comfortable with it, give someone a hug today. Not only is it great for your own mental health, but you never know if someone is just pretending to be okay. An unexpected hug from someone might be just the thing they need to make it through the day.

I hope my story will encourage people to stop pretending they’re okay when they’re not, and to start talking about mental health 💙💙