2.5 Lionheart Talks... How talking beats the stigma

5 LionHeart Talks… How talking beats the stigma

[Trigger warning: this episode contains references to suicide and suicide prevention]

The fear of admitting you’re feeling vulnerable can magnify problems no end. Worst case scenario, bottling things up can even make you ill.

In this episode to mark Time to Talk Day, LionHeart host Melissa Gough-Rundle is joined by our long-time ambassador Steve Lees to talk about how opening up and having conversations can be life-changing – and that if we were all a bit more honest about the challenges we face (even in the workplace) we’d all probably be happier and healthier.

We talk about:

• Steve’s own past experience of work ‘consuming’ him – to the point he was stressed and anxious
• The ‘sliding doors’ moment of being told he had cancer
• How that diagnosis turned out to be one of the things that saved his mental health
• Changing attitudes to mental health in surveying
• How stories in the public eye can help people open up

Useful links:

Read Steve’s blogs, ‘Cancer wasn’t meant to happen to us’ and Starting the conversation around suicide

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Watch our recorded Time to Talk Day panel discussion, The Positives of Conversation, here

Find out more about LionHeart’s mental health support