Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Pooh Bear and Mental Health

 


Pooh woke up that morning, and, for reasons that he didn't entirely understand, couldn't stop the tears from coming. He sat there in bed, his little body shaking, and he cried, and cried, and cried.

Amidst his sobs, the phone rang.

It was Piglet.

"Oh Piglet," said Pooh, between sobs, in response to his friend's gentle enquiry as to how he was doing. "I just feel so Sad. So, so, Sad, almost like I might not ever be happy again. And I know that I shouldn't be feeling like this. I know there are so many people who have it worse off than me, and so I really have no right to be crying, with my lovely house, and my lovely garden, and the lovely woods all around me. But oh, Piglet: I am just SO Sad."

Piglet was silent for a while, as Pooh's ragged sobbing filled the space between them. Then, as the sobs turned to gasps, he said, kindly: "You know, it isn't a competition."

"What isn't a competition?" asked a confused sounding Pooh.

"Sadness. Fear. Grief," said Piglet. "It's a mistake we often make, all of us. To think that, because there are people who are worse off than us, that that somehow invalidates how we are feeling. But that simply isn't true. You have as much right to feel unhappy as the next person; and, Pooh - and this is the really important bit - you also have just as much right to get the help that you need."

"Help? What help?" asked Pooh. "I don't need help, Piglet.

"Do I?"

Pooh and Piglet talked for a long time, and Piglet suggested to Pooh some people that he might be able to call to talk to, because when you are feeling sad, one of the most important things is not to let all of the sad become trapped inside you, but instead to make sure that you have someone who can help you, who can talk through with you how the sad is making you feeling, and some of the things that might be able to be done to support you with that.

What's more, Piglet reminded Pooh that this support is there for absolutely everyone, that there isn't a minimum level of sad that you have to be feeling before you qualify to speak to someone.

Finally, Piglet asked Pooh to open his window and look up at the sky, and Pooh did so.

"You see that sky?" Piglet asked his friend. "Do you see the blues and the golds and that big fluffy cloud that looks like a sheep eating a carrot?"

Pooh looked, and he could indeed see the blues and the golds and the big fluffy cloud that looked like a sheep eating a carrot.

"You and I," continued Piglet, "we are both under that same sky. And so, whenever the sad comes, I want you to look up at that sky, and know that, however far apart we might be physically...we are also, at the same time, together. Perhaps, more together than we have ever been before."

"Do you think this will ever end?" asked Pooh in a small voice.

"This too shall pass," confirmed Piglet. "And I promise you, one day, you and I shall once again sit together, close enough to touch, sharing a little smackerel of something...underneath that blue gold sky."

We all need a piglet in our lives.

- Joanne Wellington






* * * * * * * * *


Mental health matters.

I really, really think the secret
to being loved is to love.

And the secret to being interesting
is to be interested.

And the secret to having a friend
is being a friend.


* * * * * * * * *



We all carry a little something...











* * * * * * * * *





 by Jacqueline, May 18, 2018

This was posted on Facebook as part of Mental Health Awareness week. I felt I wanted to share it to help eradicate the stigma which still surrounds mental health issues. - Jacqueline

“Piglet?” said Pooh.

“Yes Pooh?” said Piglet.

“Do you ever have days when everything feels… Not Very Okay At All? And sometimes you don’t even know why you feel Not Very Okay At All, you just know that you do.”

Piglet nodded his head sagely.

“Oh yes,” said Piglet. “I definitely have those days.” 

“Really?” said Pooh in surprise.

“I would never have thought that. You always seem so happy and like you have got everything in life all sorted out."

“Ah,” said Piglet. “Well here’s the thing. There are two things that you need to know, Pooh.

"The first thing is that even those pigs, and bears, and people, who seem to have got everything in life all sorted out… they probably haven’t.

"Actually, everyone has days when they feel Not Very Okay At All. Some people are just better at hiding it than others.

“And the second thing you need to know… is that it’s okay to feel Not Very Okay At All. It can be quite normal, in fact. And all you need to do, on those days when you feel Not Very Okay At All, is come and find me, and tell me. Don’t ever feel like you have to hide the fact you’re feeling Not Very Okay At All. Always come and tell me. Because I will always be there.”

- Jacqueline











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Eeyore and the Damp and Dreary Day


It was a damp and dreary day

and Pooh and Piglet were eager to get back to Piglet's house and warm their feet by the fire .

Nevertheless, the two friends trudged through the carpet of leaves which had begun to cover the ground of the Hundred Acre Wood and decided first to check on Eeyore.

"Hello Eeyore!" said Pooh and Piglet when they came upon him.

"Hello Pooh and Piglet," said Eeyore, in a sad, sorrowful kind of voice.

"Is everything okay, Eeyore?" asked Piglet.

"Oh," said Eeyore. "Well," said Eeyore. "No," said Eeyore .

"Oh Eeyore," said Pooh, looking at the miserable eyes of his friend. "Would you like a hug ? It would make you feel so much better"

"Absolutely not," said Eeyore, taking a step backwards.

"No thank you very much. Physical contact is Very Much Not My Thing." 

"Then how about a different kind of hug ," said Piglet.

"A different kind of hug ?" said Eeyore, intrigued in spite of himself. "Whatever do you mean?"

"A hug , you know," continued Piglet, settling himself down on a pillow of leaves on one side of Eeyore and encouraging Pooh, on the other side, to do the same;

"a hug doesn't have to be about physically touching someone. A hug can be a lovely cup of tea someone has made you;

"or it can be a friend popping in just to see if you are okay; or it can be a silent wish sent heart to heart ;

"or it can be sitting with your two friends, not really saying very much at all, counting the Autumn leaves as they fall from the trees ."

"Oh," said Eeyore. "Oh," he said again. "I had no idea, that a hug could be all of that".

He thought for a while, quite a long while in fact, and then said; “If a leaf is at the top of the tree it will take ages to fall to the ground, won’t it?”.

“I hadn’t thought of that”, said Pooh. “I can imagine we could spend all day looking at leaves falling”.

“Let’s do that”, said Piglet. For a long time there was silence as Pooh and Piglet and Eeyore sat together and counted the leaves as they drifted down, swinging from side to side.

"I think," said Eeyore, after some reflection, "that this is the very nicest hug I have ever had."

We can not hug at the minute but sometimes all it takes is to be kind we are all under one sky, it might mean the world to someone. 


Eeyore - Depression
by Yana Walljasper
Oct 23, 2014

This is a video I made for my Mental Health in the Media class.
I don't own any of the video clips, all rights go to Disney.

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