Gulshun Aytac

Gulshun is taking on the 20-hour challenge to support youth mental health and raise awareness about the importance of prevention.

Why I’m Doing the 20Hours Mental Health Challenge

I’m doing the 20 Hours Mental Health challenge because mental health has shaped my life in ways I don’t always talk about.

There have been days where simply existing felt exhausting. Days where I held everything together for everyone else while quietly falling apart myself. I learned how to function, how to smile, how to be responsible, even when my mind felt heavy and my heart felt tired.

I’ve cried in silence. I’ve questioned my worth. I’ve told myself to be stronger instead of asking for help. And I know I’m not alone in that.

Mental health struggles don’t always look like a breakdown. Sometimes they look like showing up anyway. Like being the one people rely on. Like carrying pain quietly because you don’t want to be a burden.

I’m doing this challenge for the version of me who didn’t know how to speak up. And for everyone who feels like they have to suffer quietly just to keep life moving.

The funds raised through this challenge support mental health services that save lives. Services that sit with people in their darkest moments and remind them that they matter, even when they don’t believe it themselves.

On 28 March, I will be taking part in 20 Hours for Talk. Alongside hundreds of other individuals, I will put all technology away and spend 20 hours in a 2x2 square, completely disconnected from the world as we know it. No phone. No messages. No distractions. Just stillness and time with my own thoughts.

This challenge isn’t about proving strength. It’s about sitting in discomfort and recognising how heavy silence can feel when you’re alone with it. For many people living with mental health challenges, that silence and isolation isn’t a choice. It’s their everyday reality.

Stepping away from technology forces us to slow down and reflect. It strips away the noise and leaves you face to face with yourself. I know this will be confronting. I know it will be uncomfortable. But mental health struggles are uncomfortable too, and avoiding them is not an option if we want real change.

If you can donate, share, or even just pause and check in on someone, it matters. More than you realise. Sometimes knowing someone cares is enough to keep going.

Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for holding space for honesty. And thank you for helping turn pain into something that might help someone else survive.

In order to raise funds for mental health charity 20Talk, I'm going to take on the challenge of sitting in a 2 metre square box for 20 hours with no technology and no talking. This challenge will be a small look into the day of someone struggling with mental health. All I will have is my own thoughts, a journal and a chair to sit on.

So why am I doing this?

We have all been touched in some way or another by the reality of mental health. It can be dark, lonely, and confronting.

Structurally, the statistics are still alarming..

Suicide still remains the leading cause of death for young people aged 15-44.
Only 2% of mental health funding goes towards prevention (Mental Health Commission 2022)

I'm completing the 20 Hours for 20Talk to turn these statistics around. Your contribution goes towards 20Talk's relatable prevention campaigns. They are a mental health charity that makes education cool and accessible, for young people by young people.

Your generous donations go towards:

Every $120 puts a young person through a one day Mental Health Maintenance cours
Expanding 20Talk's online resources and 60,000+ social media community
Running large-scale interactive mental health events

By improving mental health literacy, removing harmful stigma, and encouraging professional help-seeking we are preventing people from getting people into crisis in the first place.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and for donating to the cause. Hopefully this small challenge can help change someone’s life.

If you ever need to chat, I’m always here. Love you all and thanks again!