It was World Mental Health Day yesterday. It’s likely you’ll have known about it because there were plenty of stories about it in the news and on social media. The intention of awareness days like these are to do just that, raise awareness. What happened yesterday was a great example of a profile lifted and narrative expanded.

And then, today there isn’t anything.

Organisations will have arranged activity and events yesterday and will be able to prove they ‘did something’. But today might be when people will want help.

I’ve mentioned before I have anxiety; it comes and goes and gets better and worse. What it doesn’t do is plan to be there on a specific date and time. That’s the difference between worry and anxiety – worry comes from planned events, while anxiety just appears – usually without a trigger – and without a specific reason to be there . Worry comes and goes but anxiety is always there, occasionally magnifying itself to immense proportions before disappearing again.

Awareness days for issues like mental health aren’t just something you can count on just by attendance and engagement. As I say in Proving Impact, look at the power of 10; after 10 days, so what?

After 10 weeks, now what?

After 10 months, and what?

Take care of your health.