Pen Friend Scheme
Do you prefer to write ‘real’ letters, with pen and paper rather than a computer? Do you not live near one of our self-help groups, or maybe you’re just not a ‘groups’ person and prefer to communicate by letter? Maybe you find it difficult to get out? If so, you may want to join our members-only pen friend scheme.
We can put you in touch another DA member or volunteer who has had some experience of depression themselves. Writing letters can be relaxing and therapeutic, and allows you to communicate with someone at your own pace and in your own time. A letter can be set aside and picked up when you are ready; it doesn’t demand that you pick up the phone or answer an email right now; it can be read and re-read when you are feeling low.
The penfriend service is open to all Depression Alliance members, so for details of how to join up please click here or for more details please email us at information@depressionalliance.org or write to us at Penfriend Service, Depression Alliance, 20 Great Dover Street, London SE1 4LX.
What some of our members have said about the penfriend scheme:
‘I look forward to getting my letters, it makes my day when I get one. It’s helpful to tell X how I’m feeling and I find that just writing it down makes me feel better. She always tells me a bit about herself too and I enjoy hearing about her little son and what he gets up to. She’s had depression herself so she understands’.
‘I find it quite hard to express myself in person and I get tongue-tied and shy. I find that writing down my thoughts and feelings, and my successes and failures, helps me to express myself. I feel that X really cares and we have quite a lot in common so sometimes we just write about our hobbies, or tell some little story about our day. It makes you feel more ‘normal’, talking about the things people usually talk about. You get out of all that when you suffer from depression; you feel outside of things and isolated’.
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