Brew, not Blue, Monday
Sue Smith, our Premier Team Leader, in-house Mental Health First Aider, and Samaritan volunteer shares her thoughts on Blue Brew Monday:
“Mental health is more important now than ever.
“It has always been important but with few people being brave enough to speak out about it for fear of being treated differently or looked at as ‘weak’. It has been a subject that was very much frowned upon as ‘attention seeking’ or just being unable to deal with things.
“With mental health now being brought to everyone’s attention, we are finding people are becoming braver in speaking out about their mental health and also asking for help if they are struggling.
“Today is a good day to take that step: reach out for help if you think you need it; reach out to a friend for a chat; pick up the phone instead of sending that email or text. It doesn’t have to be a [insert preferred video calling tool] call, just has to be a connection.”
Originally called Blue Day, Monday 18th January is known as the most depressing day of the year – Samaritans are putting a positive slant on this and now calling it Brew Monday – a time when we can all take a few minutes out of our sometimes busy and hectic lives and give a friend, family member, neighbour or anyone else, a call and have a cuppa while we chat.
Now more than ever before is social interaction needed- the pandemic has caused an awful lot of loneliness and depression for people for a variety of reasons and this, on top of any existing mental health conditions is causing people even more anxiety, stress and depression. A 5 minute chat could make their day.
Who hasn’t got 5 minutes during the day to just pick the phone up and say “hello” ? You maybe pleasantly surprised by how much you cheer someone up. For more information from the Samaritans, visit: Brew Monday 2021 | #BrewMonday | Stay connected with a virtual cuppa (samaritans.org)