well being is more than a feeling

Today is part of mental Health awareness week. As part of my day job I attended the signing up of a local Insurance Broker to our Voluntary Mental Health Charter, an action which allows employers to address the scourge of this illness, so often left unspoken.
I was struck by this very personal reflection by one who suffers in silence. So the challenge is to be a buddy and allow the illness to be named and addressed.
A reflection by one who suffers

People assume you aren’t sick
unless they see the sickness on your skin
like scars forming a map of all the ways you’re hurting.

My heart is a prison of Have you tried?s
Have you tried exercising? Have you tried eating better?
Have you tried not being sad, not being sick?
Have you tried being more like me?
Have you tried shutting up?

Yes, I have tried. Yes, I am still trying,
and yes, I am still sick.

Sometimes monsters are invisible, and
sometimes demons attack you from the inside.
Just because you cannot see the claws and the teeth
does not mean they aren’t ripping through me.
Pain does not need to be seen to be felt.

Telling me there is no problem
won’t solve the problem.

This is not how miracles are born.
This is not how sickness works.”
― Emm Roy, The First Step