We’re changing the mental health system

Empathic Impalas! Graham here.

This week Honor and I continue to toil away in our new Big Feels headquarters (we have a real office now, and it still feels weird to say to that).

As part of our ongoing mission to make big, scary feelings less scary, we’ve been talking to a number of y’all about life, the universe, and feelings.

Last week we spent 30 hours chatting to card-carrying members (ON THE ACTUAL REAL LIFE TELEPHONE! WHO DOES THAT?). We heard about what makes their big feels tick, and what things they wish existed in the world, to make it all a little easier.

We now wanna hear from other Big Feels Clubbers, as we design our next experiment in collective feelings. So there’s a little wee survey below in case you want to add your two feelings cents to our attempts to figure out what we make next.

There’ll also be the chance to pop down your contact details and potentially chat with us at some point in the next few weeks. But first, some ridiculously fancy news about Honor.

Honor Eastly is on the friggin’ Royal Commission into Mental Health!

What??

First of all, what’s a Royal Commission, you ask?

It’s a thing Australians do when a big social issue has become so thorny that both sides of politics say, ‘I think we’d better have someone else take a look at this’.

Royal Commissions are a chance for the government to seek deep, independent, and thorough enquiry into a particular problem.

The Victorian State Government (the state Melbourne’s in) has initiated a Royal Commission into Mental Health. It will shape policy for mental health in Victoria and beyond for many years to come.

And guess who’s on the expert advisory committee, helping to represent what it’s like to actually go through this stuff and use this mental health system?

My Big Feels co-founder, Honor Eastly.

Shit yeah.

Sooo, what does this mean?

Big, important discussions about mental health are often led by the traditional experts - the mental health professionals. Honor being on the advisory committee as an expert means they’ve recognised the need for adding a different kind of expertise into the mix. The kind of expertise you only get from living through this stuff yourself.

It’s a recognition of Honor’s awesome work in this space for a number of years, continuing to be (as one Big Feels Clubber put it) “a vulnerability superhero”.

We have no idea what will actually come of this Royal Commission (no one does), and it’s just one state in one country in the world. But it feels pretty damn huge from here.

Hit reply if you wanna send Honor some words of encouragement. (Also, since the announcement I have been referring to her as “Your Royal Commission-ness”. I trust you will do the same.)

Felt overwhelmed lately? We wanna hear about it

So while Honor changes the system from the inside, we're continuing to make a whole new way of making sense of big feelings, outside the mental health system entirely. As you may have heard, we’re in the process of building something new. We’re not even sure what it is yet, but when it’s done, this thing we’re making will help sensitive cats like us with our ongoing task of handling big feels when they happen.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been doing a number of experiments over in the Patreon. Think phone calls, polls, online chats. All the messy working it out together stuff. If you're interested in that kind of thing, or you're just a design thinking nerd, or if you're just keen to influence what we make next, come join us here.

Or to just dip a toe, read on.

We’re looking for to hear from people who have had the following specific experience:

In the last month or two, have you felt so overwhelmed by a big feeling that you didn’t know what to do with yourself?

To tell us a bit about that experience, click the button below to fill in our survey. There’s also an option in the survey to leave your contact details, if you want to chat with us directly about your experience and what you find helpful and not-so-helpful when you're overwhelmed. We'll only be able to call a small fraction of people, but you may potentially get a call from us some time over the next couple weeks (which you are welcome to screen!).

*Wee note: this particular survey may stir up feelings. If you don't feel like reflecting on a big overwhelming thing today, *please* go and do something more fun instead, like, say, scrolling down in this email in case there's a new picture of Bodie on his morning walk. You can always do the survey another day, or just sit this one out! x

p.s. Bodie says watch your inbox for a rare bonus newsletter on Monday next week. It'll have info on a very special Big Feels Club event (finally!) happening two weeks from now. Just finalising the venue and the remote listening options for those of y'all outside Melbourne, so can’t quite announce it yet! Ooooo....