interesting night!

Tonight I went to an event at the Workman's Club, which consisted of music and poetry to raise awareness for mental health issues. Each of the performers had a personal experience of some period of mental ill-health, as I am sure most of the people in the audience did - whether through drugs, alcohol, other addictions, ED, anxiety, depression, OCD etc. What an interesting idea to actually literally showcase it. I think Ireland is changing. People are beginning to speak up, things aren't being swept under the carpet anymore. They handed out a questionnaire as we went in: questions such as 'did you ever experience a mental health issue?' Did a family member? Did a close friend?. My answers were YES YES YES. Then when I came home on the train, I just happened to sit behind two girls. They were both beautiful and dressed up, coming home from a night out. One of the girls was talking about how she had just been told she had borderline personality disorder, and how she was trying to come to terms with that and all it entailed. The other girl, rather than being embarrassed or awkward, asked her one question after another, genuinely curious. Both spoke with ease and awareness. It was really amazing. It really seems that we are all on a continuum of mental health - with no fixed point as 'sane' and another as 'insanity'. I think we are all somewhere in between, shifting at different periods in our lives...