Mum’s vlog tells people ‘not to suffer in silence’
JOANNE TELLS OF TRAGEDY OF LOSING BABY
THE mum of a baby who died after choking at nursery is urging people with mental-health issues not to suffer in silence after sharing details of her own battles since losing her child.
Joanne Thompson’s ninemonth-old daughter Millie died after she was given lunch at a nursery in Cheadle Hulme.
In a video, which Joanne shared as part of this week’s Time to Talk Day, she talks of how she has had therapy and medication since losing Millie in 2012.
Following Millie’s death, Joanne was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety and complex grief.
After a time off medication, she says she’s been struggling again, and has just been prescribed antidepressants.
She used her vlog to highlight how easy it is for depression to go unnoticed by others.
She said: “You can’t see when people have got mental health problems... Would you be able to tell from me talking now - the way I look, the way I’m talking - that right now I’ve got a prescription in my pocket for antidepressants that the doctor gave me.”
In the emotional vlog, made for the day organised by the mental health charity Mind, she describes how she’s come to terms with the need to take them again - for the sake of her children, Leo, two, and 13-week-old Asher.
“These two little people really need their mum right now,” she said.
“And they need me to be as good a mum as I can be.”
Joanne, 32, from Cheadle Hulme, has had a massive response to the video, which has been viewed on Facebook more than 20k times.
She told the M.E.N.: “I wanted to support the #timetotalk awareness campaign as I am a huge advocate of talking about mental health.
“Through my journey I have found that talking is an amazing therapy to remind you that you are not alone in what is happening to you and there are people available to help and people who have been on a similar journey that can guide you through it.
“Talking is an essential part of therapy to help you live a happy and healthy life when you have a mental health problem.
“There shouldn’t be a stigma attached to it anymore and the more people that talk about it, the more that stigma will fade.”
Following Millie’s death Joanne and husband Dan set up charity Millie’s Trust to teach paediatric first aid.
Jo, who also writes her own blog, Same Person, Different Me , said she’d been blown away by the response to her video.
She said: “The post has had an amazing response.
“I’ve already had a message from a lady telling me it helped her to call her doctor yesterday.”
For more information about the Time to Talk campaign visit www. time-to-change.org.uk or see www. mind.org.uk .