6th post

Hello and welcome to the sixth TAG (Talkbank Action Group) blog.

I'm Faz. I joined the team two weeks ago and I will be bringing you this weeks entry. What can I tell you about myself? I'm female for a start you may not have been able to tell that from my name. I'm a chocoholic. I first experienced depression in childhood. It wasn't treated and I never fully recovered. Depression is something that has recurred throughout my life. Sometimes I break down and cry in the street. People say,

"What's up with you?"

I explain that I can't help it. I'm depressed. Other times I can walk down the street and burst out laughing. Then people say,

"What's up with you? I thought you were depressed."

People don't understand they think that because I'm often depressed that I must always be miserable. I like messing around and having fun as much as anyone else and that's why I'm here.

We're a friendly bunch of people here and what we all have in common is that we've experienced mental distress or we care for someone who is distressed. We moniter and talk to the media because we want people to understand. We want to eradicate the stigma surrounding mental health and to promote positive images.

If you want to know more about us then feel free to explore our website, join the Mindblogging project or post a comment.

If you live in Stoke-On-Trent you can join theTalkbank. We hold regular Talkbank training courses throughout the year. You could even join the TAG team, like me. At the very least come along to our annual street festival, Sanity Fair and say hello. Come on. What have you got to lose?

A fortnight ago I wrote a letter responding to a newspaper article and last week it was sent off the the paper.

This week we had a very intense and productive meeting. We discussed our on going press campaign. We set deadlines for receiving a reply to letters sent out before chasing them up. We also plan to set up an address database for contacts. We had an editorial meeting for the Talkbank Times. Major changes in layout are ahead which should make Talkbank Times more accessible and reader friendly. Frankly, I'm shattered and all we did was make plans and talk.