Who doesn’t
love cake? Cake brings people together, who ever ate a whole cake to themselves?
No celebration would be complete without a cake. So why would anyone be
interested in The Depressed Cake Shop, the pop up bakeries opening across the
UK this weekend?
I, for one,
think it’s a brilliant idea and am not only going along to eat some tasty
treats but have volunteered to make something too. The Depressed Cake Shop is a
charity project aimed at raising awareness of mental health issues and getting
people talking. If this project can do anything to help quash the social stigma
around mental illness, whilst eating cake, then I see that only as a good
thing.
I’ve
debated whether to do this, but since I think it is really important that we
all start talking, I wanted to tell you a little bit about my personal story
and why this is something close to my heart.
When I was
just nineteen years old, my world fell apart. I became miserable, I stopped
eating, lost my ability to enjoy anything, I couldn’t concentrate at all which
caused me to fail my second year of university. It was like I had so many
negative thoughts in my head there was no room for anything else. I started to
sleep for as long as possible as being awake was so unbearable. I had no idea
why I felt like this but I truly believed that I was over and would be better
off dead. This was my first depressive episode.
Over the
last ten years I have had depression on and off and have developed a much
greater understanding of the illness. I have learnt coping strategies, one of
the most effective ones being distraction. When depressed your mind is full of
negative thoughts but if you can distract it with something else, a simple
activity like baking then you can give your brain a rest. What could be simpler
than weighing flour, whisking eggs?
A serious
bought of depression two years ago really fuelled my love of baking. I realised
that not only was the act of baking a great distraction but the sense of pride
at having made something delicious helped lift my spirits a little. Then of
course I wouldn’t eat it all to myself so I would share my cake and get another
boost from seeing everyone else enjoy it too.
And I am
not the only one who has had this experience, the author Marian Keyes wrote her
own recipe book Saved by Cake after a
bout of depression, John Whaite from the Great British Bake Off talks about it
in his book Recipes for Every Day and Every Mood and even Mary Berry has said she thinks baking can help mend a
broken heart.
Please don’t
get me wrong, baking is not an alternative therapy and can’t “fix” depression
but it has been a great help for me during difficult times.
Now, back
to the Depressed Cake Shop. The idea is for anyone who wants to get involved
can either set up a shop in their local area or they can bake for the shop and
all of the cakes, biscuits, macarons etc will all be grey. I have been
following the discussions about the shop on facebook and it's great to
see is how it has brought people together.
For me by taking part I feel like I
am doing something proactive and knowing there is a whole community of people
who have also suffered with this horrible illness taking part too makes it feel
like a positive social movement. I said at the beginning that cake is all about
bringing people together and no celebration would be complete without it and
this is no different, I think we can start to celebrate the fact that the
social stigma around mental illness is on its way out.
You can find out more here or on Twitter #DepressedCakes.
