Mental health
What is mental health?
Mental health problems affect around one in four people in Britain and can affect the way you think, feel and behave. They range from common mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, to more rare problems such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A mental health problem can feel just as bad, or worse, as any other physical illness – only you cannot see it. There are a lot of different approaches to how mental health problems should be diagnosed, what causes them and which treatments are most effective. However, despite these challenges, it is possible to recover from a mental health problem and live a productive and fulfilling life.
What barriers do people with poor mental health face?
Depression
Depression is a feeling of low mood that lasts for a long time and affects your everyday life. It can make you feel hopeless, despairing, guilty, worthless, unmotivated and exhausted. It can affect your self-esteem, sleep, appetite, sex drive and, sometimes, your physical health. In its mildest form, depression doesn’t stop you leading a normal life, but it makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile. At its most severe, depression can make you feel suicidal, and be life-threatening.
Anxiety
Anxiety refers to strong feelings of unease, worry and fear. Because occasional anxiety is a normal human experience, it's sometimes hard to know when it's becoming a mental health problem – but if your feelings of anxiety are very strong, or last for a long time, they can be overwhelming. You might experience constant worrying about things that are a regular part of everyday life, or about things that aren’t likely to happen.
Self-harm
Self-harm is when you hurt yourself on purpose. You usually do it because something else feels wrong. It seems like the only way to let those feelings out.
If you self-harm it is usually as a result of another problem. It can happen if you are feeling anxious, depressed, stressed or bullied and feel you don’t have any other way of dealing with these issues.
Sometimes it feels like no-one understands why you self-harm but lots more people today know about what the condition really means, and there is plenty of support available.
Case study
“I was initially referred by my teacher to the support coach team because I had a panic attack in class. I was extremely distressed initially. I had previously been seen for support around depression by my GP and was feeling extremely low when I first came in to college.
“I had self-harmed in the past occasionally but in the lead up to me starting college had been doing it more often. This was mainly because I found out that my birth mother had died and found it very difficult to deal with. I had been moved out of my mum’s care by social services when seven-years-old and was subsequently adopted. My mum’s death meant I felt both cheated and guilty that I would no longer be able to get in touch with her in the future and reconcile our relationship. I never knew who my real dad was as my mum never wanted to talk about him when I was younger. My relationship with my adoptive mum and dad was volatile and I felt very isolated when I first started college. All this meant I was very confused, stressed and carrying around a lot of anger. I was very emotional and did not want to make friends or let anyone else in to my world because I was frightened of losing them like I had my mum. At first I tended to overreact to situations and found it hard to control my temper which got me in to trouble both at home and college.
“The support coach team supported me on a weekly basis and occasionally more. They arranged immediate counselling intervention for me and I had six sessions of therapeutic counselling. During this time I knew I could go and see them at any time if I needed to offload. My confidence and trust in people grew on a weekly basis and I was able to get my life back on track and build more positive relationships both at home and at college. My self-harming reduced although I still sometimes struggle with it but I know where I can get help or just talk to someone.”
Top five tips
- 1Connecting with others
Connect with the people around you: family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Think of these relationships as the cornerstones of your life and spend time developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.
- 2Being active
Walking, running, cycling, gardening or dancing. Any form of exercise makes you feel good. Discover a physical activity that you enjoy and suits your level of mobility and fitness.
- 3Taking notice
Be observant, look for something beautiful or remark on something unusual. Savour the moment, whether you are on a bus or in a taxi, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.
- 4Keep learning
Don’t be afraid to try something new, rediscover an old hobby or sign up for a course. Take on a different responsibility, fix a bike, learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set challenges you will enjoy. Learning new things will make you more confident, as well as being fun to do.
- 5Be mindful
Do something nice for a friend or stranger, thank someone, smile, volunteer your time or consider joining a community group. Look out as well as in. Seeing yourself and your happiness linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and will create connections with the people around you.
Useful links