Went to see a psychiatrist this morning, and will go back to see them again on Monday.
Did help me abit, whilst talking it surprised me how "ignorant" some people are when it comes to Mental Health, but what really shocked me was the fact that it does affect more people than I realised.
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http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/ "What are mental health problems?
We all have mental health, like we all have physical health. Both change throughout our lives. And, like our bodies, our minds can become unwell.
Mental health problems might actually be more common than you think. One in four of us will be affected by mental illness in any year. The effects are as real as a broken arm, even though there isn’t a sling or plaster cast to show for it."
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http://www.sane.org.uk/"About Mental Illness
One in four of us will be affected by mental illness at some point in our lives. This may include anxiety, addiction, obsession, phobia, depression, bipolar disorder, personality disorder, schizophrenia or an eating disorder.
These conditions can lead to profound emotions of despair and thoughts of suicide. People's experiences can often be further complicated by alcohol or drug addiction.
Mental illness touches virtually every person in society. As a result most, if not all of us, will be impacted in
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Please, if you feel can add anything to help out anyone going through their MH problems please post it on here.
Also, can we behave like adults and not post any attempted "humour" on here ("I must be mental....I support Charlton....haha", etc).
Thank You.
Comments
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/talkday
Can you be a part of Time to Talk Day?
Here are three simple ideas:
Have a cuppa and a chat and order your free tea bag pack. A cuppa is a great conversation starter with a friend, family member or colleague.
Register an activity at work, school, or somewhere else. Again, it could be as simple as having a conversations about mental health over a cup of tea. You can also find out which organisations have already signed up to hold an activity on the day.
Hit Facebook and Twitter to help us spread the word about the day. Use the #TimetoTalk hashtag where you can. (You could even use our sample text and posts if that's useful.)
Free tea bags and more
Once you've let us know what you might do, we give you access to a page where you can order free #TimetoTalk tea bags, badges, tips cards, posters, postcards and more.
The idea behind Time to Talk Day
As part of our national advertising campaign, we want to get more people talking about mental health than ever before. We're aiming to spark one million conversations. And we need your help to get there!
Sometimes it's the little things we do that make a big difference to someone who's experiencing a mental health problem - like having a chat over a cuppa, sending a text or inviting someone out. So, on Time to Talk Day we’re encouraging people to do just that.
Lots of people have already registered activities so you'll be joining individuals, organisations and schools up and down the country. Activities range from distributing Time to Talk tea bags to encourage staff to have conversations about mental health to giving presentations in schools.
To help us make more noise about mental health than ever, we need as many people and organisations as possible to take part. We'd love you to be a part of the big conversation.
I suffer from it to a very slight degree, it's manageable but a complete pain in the arse at times. You'll be amazed that once you talk to friends about it and explain how you're thinking that it becomes much easier and manageable. You'll also realise how many others have similar traits, foibles etc. which you would never had guessed at.
Talk to pals. You won't regret it.
My family has been through an awful lot of sh*t over the last decade. Far too much to list here and not something I really want to dwell on but let me share the short version.
I've said on here before that my brother is a Manic Depressive. The more used term these days is Bipolar. He had a good childhood, got married at 22, divorced 6 months later, spent 3 years working and playing harder but his health was deteriorating. He had a breakdown, ie a manic episode and he spent a couple of months in hospital on a psychiatric ward. Until my brother became ill, I had absolutely no idea about Mental Health. Looking back now, that time was the most sobering experience of my life. Although my brother was younger than me, I used to always look up to him as if he was my bigger brother. He had more balls than me, was better looking, more intelligent, he had the world in his hands. He was just so much better than me but overnight, he had almost everything taken away from him. It was hard to accept.
That was 10 years ago. In that time, I met the ex-wife. A couple of years later, we had a child, sold/bought a house and I started a new job all within 6 months. Just one of them things would have been stressful, let alone all three together. I ended up having a breakdown myself. I just couldnt cope. As a result, my job was on the line and my relationship was on the line. To be fair, the breakdown was probably the beginning of the end for my relationship with the ex-wife. I vividly remember driving down the A2 towards Bexleyheath to drop my daughter off at my parents as my Mum used to babysit for us and all I could think about was ending it and driving into the central-reservation. I felt like I'd come to the end of the line. I ended up on the hard shoulder crying my eyes out for an hour. I've never felt lower.
I managed to get to my parents and broke down in front of them. Its hard admitting you've got a problem and not knowing what it is. It was hard explaining to the GP and it was even harder trying to make the ex-wife understand where I was coming from. I was a man supposed to be looking after and providing for his family and I was literally standing there shaking in my boots. Was she supportive? No, not at all if I'm honest but I'm not sure how I would have handled the situation had it been the other way around. I ended up being off work for around 6 weeks . I was having panic attacks, anxiety issues, all part and parcel of it. I ended up making a full recovery without medication but it seriously rocked my self-confidence for a good few years afterwards. Work didnt react very well at first but when they realised how serious it was, my senior boss was very understanding and was a great help.
I was still suffering from depression around 3 years ago but I've made a conscious effort to get physically fitter and my mental heath had improved as a result. Of course I still have the odd bad day here and there but no where near the times where I could literally spend days in bed not wanting to get out.
Both parents have suffered from depression in recent years too for differing reasons.
So yeah, it has affected 3 people close to me, including myself. The stigma is awful. I've been fortunate to a degree but my brother hasnt. He used to have a huge circle of friends. He's lucky if he gets one email a year off of any of those people he used to knock about with now. He's been blanked in the street by a friend who was an usher at his wedding, blanked by his old flat mates. Not one of them give a sh*t about him. Its taken him a very long time to come to terms with that more than anything else. To his credit, he's restarted his IT career in the City again after rebuilding very slowly, working part-time locally until he felt well enough to go back. One of his consultants actually told him to give up IT and do something less demanding and also suggested he should take the benefits available to him and never work again. My brother is a proud bloke and would never do that. He was desperate to go back to lead a relatively normal life.
Apologies for the essay. Its good to talk. Not a lot of people know what I went through but they will now.
Wish you well.
Know someone having a tough time with their mental health? The little things you do make a big difference http://bit.ly/TTCtalk14 #TimetoTalk
You don’t have to be an expert to talk about mental health.
If your friend had a broken leg, or he or she had just come out of hospital after an operation, you probably wouldn't think twice about asking how they were. Anyone can experience a mental health problem, so being able to talk about it is important to us all.
You don't need to be an expert about mental health though. Sometimes, just doing the little things, like asking someone how they are, is all it takes to let someone know you're still thinking about them and make a big difference to how they're feeling. Our TV advert shows the small things you can do to be there for someone you know.
Our tips are available to help you start your conversation. You could also pass on the message that it’s #TimetoTalk by downloading materials and sharing them online, or by adding your name to our pledge wall.
There are lots of simple, everyday ways you can support someone who has a mental health problem.
If your friend had a broken leg, or he or she had just come out of hospital after an operation, you probably wouldn’t think twice about asking how they were.
"When we got together we didn't talk about the illness, we did normal regular things...it was a little anchor point in the chaos that was going on, it was just a little pocket of normality which was exactly what I needed at the time." (Tim)
There are lots of simple, everyday ways you can support someone who has a mental health problem. Why not read our tips for talking?
You could also start your conversation today by adding your name to our pledge wall.
You don't have to be an expert
The stars of our TV advert talk about the small things their friends, family and colleagues have done to support them when they were going through a difficult time.
Read our supporter update to find out how your contribution helps people and changes lives: http://bit.ly/1b5YvmY #mentalhealth #1in4
http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/30/finding-mike-jonny-benjamin-reunited-with-the-stranger-who-saved-him-from-suicide-bid-4282482/?ITO=facebook
Well done to MOG for raising it and a fantastic post JB, I'm sure it will help others.
Many are so desperately in need of help, they call us thinking that we can help them, but all we can offer is to take them to A&E to speak to someone. We used to be able to take them to the local MH unit (Oxleas mostly) directly, but this was a trail ( which we thought was very sucessful) but stopped. Now its sit for hours in a packed waiting room in A&E to see the oncall duty MH team, and normally get sent home with yet more pills and another refferal which never happens!
Help start a million conversations for #TimetoTalk Day, 6 February http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/talkday pic.twitter.com/UrQWCLxzUs
As part of my bruv's bipolar, his episodes of mania results in him heading to London and walking for hours and days. He's been missing for 4/5 days at a time and he's literally had the whole of the Met Police looking for him. One episode resulted in him going up to a policeman, telling him he had a problem and could he take him to the nearest hospital. Rather than calling for an ambulance, he called for back up and sectioned him despite not being a threat to anybody and was "held" in a secure padded cell in the local MH assessment unit (think it was St George's at Tooting) and it made his condition even worse. They couldnt find a bed for him at any of the MH units in London or the South-East so was ferried by taxi with me at his side to a private hospital somewhere near Sevenoaks (seriously, it was one hell of an amazing place, more like a hotel than a hospital) but we had a police escort all the way there from Tooting. Unbelievable. All because my brother went up to a policeman and asked for help!
Having said all that, I cant fault the care Oxleas have given him over the years. The outreach teams have been excellent. He's got a great relationship with his on-call counsellor if he needs a chat or reassurance at any time and they've been fully supportive of him trying to lead as normal a life as possible (to which he does for the most part!)
Mog, thank you. John Boy, your brother is lucky to have you by his side. The strength and courage that you and others on this thread have shown, I can only aspire to.
I wish you and your loved ones all the best.
If today's a Black Dog day, contact us. Our services are for anyone affected by #mentalillness http://bit.ly/19E8SO5 http://ow.ly/i/4qC0M
Featured this week...
The following article addresses the key findings in the CQC’s annual report on mental health services. It revealed that in 2012/13 there were 50,408 cases of people detained for compulsory treatment under the Mental Health Act. Please take a look and share your views with us.
http://blackdogtribe.com/news-features/concern-over-record-numbers-detained-mental-health-treatment
Although we welcome the CQC’s thorough report, it sadly shows that there has been little improvement in care for people undergoing psychiatric crisis. For more details of our comment, please visit our website: http://www.sane.org.uk/resources/news/show_news/483
http://blackdogtribe.com/news-features/concern-over-record-numbers-detained-mental-health-treatment
Mental health problems are common. It's time to talk about it. Start your conversation on #TimetoTalk day, 6 Feb: http://ow.ly/t418t
Find out what #TimetoTalk Day activities are happening near you on our new map: http://bit.ly/TtTDevents pic.twitter.com/cFsg39Qk21
to me
You lot are amazing!
Thanks to your support, over 10,000 people have signed our petition calling on the Government to make sure mental health services get their fair share of funding.
Mental health services save lives. Right now, they’re needed more than ever and their funding must be protected.
The Government promised to value mental health and physical health equally but mental health services continue to suffer greater cuts.
Excellent mental health services exist and everyone should have access to them.
If you haven't done it already, please share our petition with your friends and family and lets make it 20,000!
http://bit.ly/MindPetition
Thanks a million and all the best
Steve at Mind
I too have it in my family, my mothers father, my mother, me and my sisters eldest daughter and probably one of my two nieces children will probably suffer the same fate, their far too you young at the moment to be able to tell.
I desperately wished my nieces and my nephew ( whose childless right now ) wouldn't have children so that this genetic defect we have would be snuffed out but how much should I have been involved, it is their lives but I did try to impress upon them what they would be inflicting on their kids and would they feel ok about any of them suffering in the way we have. found it hard to understand why they may be ok about that possibility!
as stephen hawking said " it's good to talk " lets make sure we continue to do that.
Glad it coming together for u now