20 Hours of Silence for Youth Mental Health.
I’m taking on the 20 Hours for 20Talk Challenge which will see me sitting in a 2×2 metre square in a warehouse, alongside 400 other participants, with no talking and no technology for 20 hours. All I’ll have are the essentials I bring with me: a chair, sleeping mat, journal, water, and food. No distractions.
This challenge is a small glimpse into the isolation and struggle that someone with mental health challenges might feel every day. I know it will be tough - physically, mentally, and emotionally - but it’s a challenge I’m taking on to stand in solidarity with those navigating these experiences.So why am I doing this?
Anyone who knows me knows that I struggle to sit in silence. I fill every spare moment with noise, conversation, interruptions, and just random sounds. Looking back, that's probably a reflection of my own mental health struggles and a discomfort with being alone with my thoughts. That's why this challenge feels so meaningful to me, and feels like an opportunity to experience something that encourages reflection while raising funds for an incredibly important cause.
I'm taking part to help ensure young people can access the support that I didn't know how to find when I needed it. I'm doing it for the people I know and love who have been placed in situations they never should have had to endure, and who continue to carry those struggles every day. I'm doing it for the people I've lost, and for those who have temporarily lost their spark.
Most of all, I'm doing it for my daughter, and for the hope that by the time her generation grows up, youth mental health is taken more seriously, better understood, and better supported than ever before.
If you ever need to chat, I’m always here.
I love you all and thanks again <3>
