 Hi, this is Pookey and Buddy who's going to try his best to distract us today. I wanted to take a minute or two today to talk about duvet days. I got some feedback on the video I posted about ways to manage difficult days when you're struggling with depression the other day that really made me think and it went a little something like this. I found the video really helpful, not just for the practical tips, but even more for the validation that comes from seeing someone whom I consider successful and inspirational, admitting to duvet days and talking openly about what depression really means. I think quite often I see depression self-help resources and they talk about lacking motivation, but they don't actually name the action of staying in bed all day. So I come away feeling like I must be beyond help or hope because it is my own inadequacy that makes my bad days ones from which I basically don't move from the bed unless I need the loo. And I just thought it was really important to kind of pick that up and talk to you about it briefly because duvet days are something that can leave us feeling massively guilty and they're not something that we talk about a huge amount and the fact that it kind of came as a surprise to this person who is someone I consider a friend made me realise that I've probably not been honest enough about the toll that my depression and my anxiety takes on me and if I'm not being honest about it and I'm known for being outspoken about my mental health then there's probably quite a bit more work to do here. So yeah, I just wanted to pick up duvet days and name them and say you know what, sometimes depression is so emotionally painful. It's so zapping of your motivation, so zapping of your energy and leaves you feeling so broken that just some days it is literally impossible to do anything and that's not nice but it is okay and we looked in the other video about some of the ways that we can try to overcome that, how we can try and build in a routine, how we can try and take small steps to get us away from the bed but some days we don't succeed or maybe we spend more time in bed than we might like to and whilst it's not a fantastic coping mechanism, sometimes it's better than the alternatives. So for me, some days being in bed means that I'm not making plans for suicide, it means that I'm not self harming it means I'm keeping myself safe from the many many intrusive thoughts and feelings that I have around self harm and suicide and so sometimes it's the lesser of two evils. It's horrible, it's crippling and if it's something that you struggle with yourself then you will understand the huge range of emotions or sometimes even worse the complete numbness and blankness that come with those days when you can't find your way out of your room but if it's not something you've experienced then I would beg of you to please try and be a bit kind and understanding of friends or family members who might experience that. The other thing just to remember with this is that there will be a lot more people in your life than you realise who have these kind of days it's just that there is quite a stigma that goes with it and so we tend not always to talk about it we might instead take a day off work because we're ill and we won't necessarily name that illness as depression or anxiety that's crippling us or perhaps instead say we have flu or a head cold. So duvet days, out there I have them, I don't like them they don't make me feel good but sometimes they're the only way that I can manage and I'm pretty sure I'm very far from alone in this. If you feel brave enough please leave a comment to share your kind of experience of this. Thanks for watching and yeah don't forget to subscribe I'm getting the hang of the whole subscribe thing now and I'll be back soon.