It's Time To Talk

7 February 2019, 16:22 | Updated: 7 February 2019, 16:23

Do you find yourself sending lots of memes and pictures to friends... but not actually meeting up for a chat?

You're not alone if you do!

Figures released today as part of 'Time To Talk Day' show that the average person in Norwich has 909 friends on social media, yet a third of us say we wouldn't feel able to call upon any of those friends if we were struggling.

The reasearch by mental health anti-stigma campaign Time to Change, also shows that almost half of us in the city feel that social media updates mean we don't need to talk to our friends 'in real life'.

Jo Flack from Ipswich co-founded the ACE project which supports people aged 16 to 24 with mental health difficulties.

She's also a mental health first aid instructor and has struggled with self-harm and OCD herself.

She told Heart likes, follows and shares can stop us having ACTUAL conversations: "I think when it comes to mental health conversations, rather than having those surface level conversation that you have with people on social media it's about having meaningful conversation with people."

"If someone's getting their human need for connectivity and acceptance met by the number of likes on a status, this can leave you very very vulnerable."

Time to Talk Day was established six years ago. Each year it asks the nation to have a conversation about mental health to help break the stigma that can surround mental health problems.