Blog: Reflections on Time to Talk Day

Posted by Bridget Dickson, 9 February 2026

5th February 2026, 5am.

I wake up in a cold sweat with one thought in my head. “It’s Time to Talk Day”.

Once again, I am going to put my head above the parapet with my friend and fellow See Me volunteer, Chik. We are going to speak to a roomful of people, many of whom we don’t know, and talk about ourselves, our stories and our experiences. Once again, we have no idea how we will be received.

Will we be ridiculed? Will we be dismissed? Will we be patted on the head and told to go away and take our meds? Will we be ostracised...unclean, unclean?

The reality is that, having done many events for See Me, I know that the people who come along are kind, supportive, understanding and above all, they have had similar experiences.

Why, then, do I still question the reaction we might be receive?

As so often happens, the answer was laid bare in the process of the workshop. We were looking at using the technique of restricting ourselves to six words to express our feelings in specific situations, (check out the See Me guide to a Six Wee Wordies workshop!), and one particular exercise produced some very interesting information.

We were comparing what we may need to what other people are prepared, or want, to give us. For example:

“Empathy, not sympathy; listening, not telling”.

As we wrote our different examples and conversations were sparked, it became increasingly clear that the place where people felt most intensely that they were not getting what they felt they needed, was in a medical setting!

Story after story demonstrated how hard it was for them to be heard, their issues acknowledged and overall, how little they felt seen.

Time is rationed, and it seems patience is too!

However much budgets are cut and pressure is put on medical professionals, we must all be treated as individual human beings.

One size does not fit all, and the textbook used in Year 3 won’t necessarily help with the treatment of A.N.Other’s anxiety.

Despite these worrying findings, it was a successful workshop.

Everyone found some support and solidarity from each other, but sadly, too much of the bonding was over being let down by the very people who are there to help us.