Hello everyone!
Firstly, thank you for being interested enough to click on my thread
This thread is to mark Time to Talk Day 2016 (Thursday 4th February). If you haven't heard of Time to Talk Day before, it's an initiative by the Time to Change mental health campaign (
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/ ) run by the mental health charities Mind (
http://www.mind.org.uk/ ) and Rethink Mental Illness (
https://www.rethink.org/home ). The point behind Time to Talk Day, which happens each spring, is to encourage open dialogue about mental health and mental health conditions, in order to challenge stigma and misconceptions.
As someone who is a passionate champion of mental health stigma-busting on TSR, I would like to invite you to follow this thread (which hopefully covers some useful information and signposts to various organisations) and to ask any questions, share any thoughts or experiences that you or friends/loved ones have had, or just to say hi!
So what is this thread for/about?ITT (In this thread), I will talk about some general practices that we can
all incorporate into our everyday lives, to help with our mental wellbeing. They are not difficult in themselves, and hopefully you will be encouraged by how easy it can be to do little things to enable your mental wellbeing to remain safe, stable and relatively calm. If relevant, I will draw upon my own experiences of mental illness (specifically, schizoaffective disorder, which affects 0.5% of the British population) to illustrate points or get conversations going.
This thread is NOT an AMA, though you are welcome to ask relevant, sensible questions about my own lived experiences of mental health, and my work as a Youth Wellbeing Trainer with the Mindkit project being trialled in 5 London boroughs (
http://mindkit.org.uk/ ).
Trolling or using offensive, derogatory terminology is NOT acceptable and WILL be reported to the CT immediately.Why do we need this thread on TSR? I don't have a mental health problem...Did you know that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their life, and that 1 in 10 school-aged students have a mental health diagnosis? If you are school-aged that means three people in every form class (give or take) have a diagnosed mental health problem. This means they have gone to a doctor and received a diagnosis; this statistic does NOT account for those who are suffering in silence and - for whatever reason - have not seen their GP. This implies that there may be even more people with mental health problems than is currently realised/known about
Equally, the demand for university counselling services and the long waiting lists for NHS and university interventions (e.g. therapy or counselling, or even just to see someone for an initial assessment) proves that poor mental health/mental health problems are rife in the UK.
You personally may not have a mental health problem (yet). That is not, however, to say that this will always be the case. Mental health problems can affect everyone, whether it be you; your loved ones; your friends; your enemies; your teachers; your co-workers, or even celebrities you admire!
In any case, the term "mental wellbeing" does not just refer to mental health problems specifically: it is an umbrella term to talk about anything that may affect our mood, thoughts, feelings, or the way we see the world or interact with others. Mental wellbeing is something EVERYONE has and that EVERYONE needs to take care of.
What should I do if I suspect that I or someone I know could be suffering from a mental health problem?If you have noticed something amiss with either yourself or someone you know and you suspect you/that person may be suffering from a mental health problem, it is important to address is straightaway. In the same way that a malignant cancerous tumour will not go away if you ignore it but only gets bigger, worse and less treatable, your mental health is exactly the same. The quicker the interventions, the better the overall prognosis for your mental health (as a general rule of thumb).
In the majority of cases, the first port of call would be visiting your GP practice
Whilst the Internet can be useful in terms of contextualising symptoms you may be experiencing, it is important that you do not self-diagnose or attempt to self-medicate. GPs are well-versed in dealing with those with mental health problems, either themselves or by referring them on to specialist teams with more knowledge and greater resources. It is worth noting that there are waiting lists for counselling services, therapy interventions and referrals to psychiatry, so the sooner you see your GP, the better.
I/the person I know am/is too scared to approach my GP. What should I/they do?Whilst you will inevitably need to see a doctor at some point, there are various other places you can turn to for immediate/interim support:
The Site:
http://www.thesite.org/mental-health Childline (school-age):
https://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx The NSPCC (under 16):
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/ Get Connected (under 25s):
http://www.getconnected.org.uk/ Off the Record Youth Counselling: various websites across England for young people to seek counselling services/counsellors. Google for your local area!
Young Minds:
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/ Sane Helpline:
http://www.sane.org.uk/what_we_do/support/helpline The Samaritans:
http://www.samaritans.org/ On TSR, there is a Mental Health Support Society in the Mental Health forum
***Please note this is by no means an exhaustive list and is not a substitute for medical intervention. If you or someone you know is at risk/in immediate danger, please go straight to A&E or call an ambulance***
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I think that's enough to get going with. I will be adding to this thread over the next few days and invite open, honest but RESPECTFUL conversation from all members of TSR. Those who have lived mental health experiences themselves or are a carer for someone are most welcome to write at length in here: this is not TLG's thread, this is a Time to Talk thread.
Please be sensible when contributing: if you are talking about something particularly sensitive, that may upset or trigger others, please SPOILER IT. If in doubt, ask how to do spoilers on TSR. PLEASE DO NOT POST GRAPHIC CONTENT OR METHODS, EVEN IN A SPOILER!So let's get talking, peeps!