Powerful video The Power of Okay gets people talking all over the globe.
A video aiming to get people talking about mental health has been viewed over 150,000 and brought people together from all over the world.
The Power of Okay (see below) looks at how people worry about what others think of them when they are struggling with their mental health.
Ian Greenhill, one of the founders of production company Something Something, wrote and performed the poem in the video based on his own experiences, and also directed and produced the video with fellow founder Jordan Laird.
They created it with See Me, Scotland’s charity-backed programme to end mental health discrimination, to help people see the importance of talking, and if you see someone struggling, asking them if they are okay.
Greenhill said: “We just want a discussion about mental health to be started rather than people being scared of saying the wrong thing and not saying anything. The simple start-off point of 'okay' seemed really powerful.
“If we all start out at that base level of human kindness, I think the world would be a lot better.”
Originally posted on YouTube in November the video was shared on social media site reddit on Wednesday resulting in its view count exploding to over 150,000.
People from around the world are coming together to support each other online.
On Twitter, concert pianist James Rhodes said: “God I love you Scotland. Excellent, important mental health awareness ad just launched there.”
Keiran Wales posted: “See Me, Someone posted your ad to reddit and its making people open up all over the world.”
On reddit, hundreds of users were speaking about their mental health and supporting each other after watching the video.
One of the 366 comments said: “It's the power of sympathy and empathy. You just have to acknowledge that you or the other person isn't doing alright right now. Even if it doesn't really help the underlying causes. Nobody wants to be alone.”
Lisa Cohen, See Me programme manager, said: “We wanted the video to help people and get people talking about how they are feeling.
“Having so many people reach out to each other after watching it shows the message is connecting with people in a compelling way. There is real power in asking someone if they are okay.
“Right now people all over the world are talking about mental health, supporting each other and finding out they are not alone in their experiences.”
