How to Be a Duck and Not Be a Duck,

I think that the idea of talking about ducks and mental health is quite a nice idea. Maybe I'm wrong, but hear me out (well, read me out, I guess). 

There are two ways I have either heard or used the image of a duck in talking about mental health. 

Duck Number 1

Duck number one is the sort of duck that is very resilient. I'm going to use Daisy Duck as an example, because why not? Daisy Duck let's everything roll off her back. She's a good duck. Everything rolls right off, she rolls with the punches and nothing much really phases her. Being a duck like Daisy is a pretty good place to be, but then you have...

Duck Number 2

Donald Duck. Donald isn't the same stroppy duck he's always been in the cartoons. He's a well turned out duck, a duck that looks well like he's coping. He's bobbing along on the top of the water, and he's looking good, but that's because we're only looking at the surface. Under the surface, Donald's feet are going ten to the dozen to keep him either still or going in the right direction. Donald Duck is struggling and if he keeps going like this he might have a little ducky heart attack and that would be all folks. 

If there was one thing I could say to everyone about mental health it would be, you don't have to be like Donald Duck. It's so tempting. Unfortunately even now there is a big bloody stigma around mental health. It's getting better, but the temptation is still to hide it. We're expending so much energy treading water that we haven't got time to recover, but it's fine because it looks like we're coping. Let me spell this out for you very clearly - THIS IS NOT OKAY! 

A lot of people with mental health issues will feel the need to do a Donald (make as many MAGA jokes as you want right now) but it's worth recognising that the only time that it works is when you can talk to the people around you about it. I'm really lucky - I have a boss that empathises really well, listens to me and tries to help accommodate my needs when I'm struggling. I have a really good group of friends who will try and do everything that they can to support me. I know that some people are not understanding, I know some workplaces don't make accommodations, but you can only be a Donald if something else is happening as well. You can only tread water for so long, especially at that speed.