Every week, for the past month, he has moved into Leeds station in England, standing in the middle of the hall, holding a white sign on which he wrote: “JMy name is Ben and sometimes I get depressed. Sentence accompanied by the hashtag #itsOKtotalk, which can be translated as “Oui, we can talk about itBen Odgen is 23 years old, he grew up in Skipton, Yorkshire, in a middle class family, with no particular history. He had life ahead of him. And then his parents divorced, and the Covid happened, and the confinements followed one after another. “And it’s there, he said to the BBC, that I realized that I was feeling extremely sad, that it was not fatigue, but deep sadness, I went days without going out, I didn’t want to see anyone, I didn’t even want to tap my phone, I didn’t want to do anything anymore, and above all, I thought I was going through something that no one could understand.“
Ben wants more people to talk about their mental health – and he’s doing something inspirational to encourage them ❤️ pic.twitter.com/P9Sj3z96gp
– BBC Yorkshire (@BBCLookNorth) November 15, 2021
And then he came across a statistic that shocked him: one in four people say they have already gone through an episode of depression. “In other words, explains Ben to Yorkshire Evening Post, in the square for four of the trains, there is a person touched. “Or how to understand that what seems exceptional is actually quite shared, especially because of the confinements, but taboo, hidden, you. He talks about it to one of his friends Matt, and discovers that he too is in the same state. . Talking is good for them, the conversation changes their lives. They therefore create a YouTube channel to raise awareness on the subject and above all, last month, Ben decides to invest Leeds station with his sign to call out to passers-by every week, in real life, without a screen interposed, and it works.
“We still have this injunction to always appear strong and insensitive, especially us men, when it is impossible, it is inhuman. We are in 2021, and it is high time to speak about it.”
Ben Ogden, 23at the BBC
People stop, some take him in their arms, others start a conversation, women, men, young people, seniors. All thank him, encourage him, and now the story goes far beyond the small station in Leeds since Monday, November 15 was the most shared article on the website of the BBC. “We are in 2021, and it is high time to talk about it. Anyway, now that I’ve done it, he concludes, for the first time in a long time, I am happy.“