Have you noticed how, these days, we compete to be the person with the most legitimate claims to tiredness? Maybe it's worst among new parents, because I've definitely noticed it more since having a baby. Mothers at playgroup talk of numbing tiredness after six hours of (interrupted) sleep. Then the stakes are raised: "Six hours?! I only got five!" "Five hours is a luxury! I get four hours - and that's on a good night!"

This is a game I can never win. Thankfully my daughter takes after me and loves her sleep - but that’s not the point. The point is that anything that upsets what is 'normal' for you will of course have an impact on how you function. If you're used to eight hours sleep, being forced to get by on six will make you suffer. A bad cold and a sore throat makes you feel ill and unable to function; it doesn't matter that it's not penumonia.

Happiness, or rather the lack of it, is another example. I’m not a big Robbie Williams fan but I never understood the line, peddled in some of the papers, that he's essentially a big crybaby. The argument seems to be that someone with all that money, fame and privilege has no business being emotionally troubled. Whoever knew that bipolar disorder was so disciplined in checking people's bank balance before settling on a life to disrupt?

The Mental Health Foundation knows a thing or two about happiness. Founded in 1949, they provide information, carry out research, campaign and work to improve services for anyone in the UK affected by mental health problems. Their primary aims are to help people survive and recover from mental health problems – and find ways to prevent it in the first place.

They know all too well the scale of the problem and the fact that anyone can suffer at any time from mental illness – whether or not you or I think they 'should'!

The Mental Health Foundation is also one of our newest clients. We've been working on a press campaign, linked to Mental Health Action Week which starts this Sunday (the 8th) and runs until 14th April. This year the week celebrates the value of friendship, and MHF are offering a free booklet to the friends and family of people coping with depression and other mental illness. (Download your copy here.) We’re helping them spread the word.

I’m adding to this my own, one-woman campaign: the next time someone tells you they're tired, ill or depressed, don’t start a private assessment of whether they are justified. Take them at their word. Listen, and try to be sympathetic.

Helen Hamilton