91Èȱ¬

Yesterday morning, The Thick of it actress Rebecca Front tweeted the following: "Hey well known Twitterers. Fancy taking the stigma out of mental illness? I'll start: I'm Rebecca Front & I've had panic attacks.#whatstigma".

Noone could have anticipated the impact this post would have on the world of Twitter.

Within a few short hours, had become one of the UK's top trending hashtags and as Rebecca had hoped, other well-known tweeters, like Alistair Campbell and Caitlyn Moran had added their voice. Timelines were filled with a steady stream of messages from celebs and regulars alike, as they shared their mental health stories.

Comedian Sue Perkins admitted: "I regularly get bitten by the black dog"

Someone called Lisa from London let her hundreds of followers know that she has; "Chronic depression, anxiety and mostly-recovered-from agoraphobia. Life sometimes a challenge, but never, ever dull."

Yesterday was also the day that the coalition government launched it's mental health strategy

The charity was quick to get a news story on their website drawing attention to both. In it, their campaign director Sue Baker, said of the tweets:

"This just shows how many people are affected by a mental health problem. It is fantastic that Rebecca Front's leadership and the viral power of Twitter has helped encourage thousands more people to talk openly about this issue."

The #whatstigma hashtag is still active, with new 140 character-long mental health stories being posted every minute. Why not add yours?

• A hashtag, for those of you who don't do Twitter, is a set of words preceded by a # symbol. When used widely, hashtags make it easy to find Tweets on a specific topic, like stigma.