We Are 1 in 4

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Thank you. To everyone who has read, liked, shared, followed, commented, contributed, agreed, disagreed or done anything other than show apathy. Thank you.

I started 1in4 back in the summer, with the aim of chipping away at the stigma around mental health and showing people that they are not alone, and one key way to do that is to start the conversation and be more open about who we are. The name ‘I am 1in4’ is designed to show how many of us there are, and that there is no shame in it. It’s designed to allow people to open up and to share their story, their thoughts, their feelings in a safe and accepting way.

I’ve learnt a lot in this time. I’ve made some mistakes alone the way but I like to think I’ve gotten more right than wrong. Seeing the reaction and love from some of you proves to me that we are doing good.

Example – a post from earlier today had someone stating they wished they had been successful in their suicide attempt earlier this year – the reaction from many of you, offering her help, an ear to talk to etc was an amazing display of how incredible so many of you are.

My dream of having a community where we help each other, offer support to each other and show people who are at the deepest depths of despair, that they are loved and cared for, that they aren’t alone is beginning to take shape. For that I am so very grateful to all of you. However, I still see this as just an early first couple of tentative (yet vital) baby steps for what we can achieve with 1in4.

We’ve had thousands of people take the pledge to not perpetuate the stigma around mental health (see image below).

Mental Health Pledge — Our ‘DO NOTHING’ no judgement pledge.

We’ve had an ever increasing number of people share their stories, with an even larger number of people express gratitude, understanding and love back in return.

And we have a social media base in the thousands across 3 platforms (so far) – small numbers in comparison to some, but you have to start somewhere!

2016 has been an amazing experience in terms of this site, but as I say, we are just getting started. I have many plans (too many to be realistic but I’ll 80/20 that list), but at its core I just hope you all continue to find some help, peace, inspiration or anything even slightly beneficial from this.

It is vital to me that ‘I am 1in4’, feels more like ‘We are 1in4’ – if it only has my ideas, my perspective it will be stale and limited in its scope. I need your contributions, I need your ideas, I need you to pull me back on track if it seems I’ve lost site of the main goal. So thank you all for being part of it so far, and let’s see what we can achieve in 2017 together,

Thank you

Tom

About Post Author

Tom Wavre

Toms background is within the construction sector having worked at a senior management level with global names such as Würth, Rawlplug and most recently Fortune 200 company ITW. Tom sees the importance of mental health in the workplace from two angles, both as a senior manager needing to get the highest productivity from his team and from his own lived experience of mental illness. In the past 2 years, Tom has worked worked as a volunteer, advocate and change maker around mental health. He is founder and driving force behind www.iam1in4.com a site and social media campaign that is followed by over 70,000 globally. Tom has driven change and a new approach to mental health in organisations in the UK and across Europe. He is passionate about helping make this change as widely and meaningfully as possible.