Archive December 2018

‘If I can do it’…

If you have been reading my recent blog posts, you will have gathered that I am keen to raise awareness of good mental health. Furthermore, how important it is that people feel comfortable to reach out when they need help. As such I was full of admiration for Tyson Fury and his message during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2018, which you can read about here.

Boxers are viewed as the hard men of sport. Tyson Fury is no exception, especially because he stands at six foot nine and eighteen stone. However, he has had the courage to speak out about his personal issues, at an important public event.

Whatever your views of boxing and sports in general, it cannot be argued that Fury makes a good point. The BBC quote him as saying that [sports] ‘people are still living in darkness and are too afraid to come out and speak about it’. However, I believe that this extends far further than sports and into the general population. Therefore, when a celebrity comments publicly about their own mental health, bravery is a word that comes to mind. For many of us, asking for help with mental health is a big and scary step to take. Tyson Fury has helped to normalise this feeling. He is evidence that improvements can be successfully be made to ones own mental health.

…’anybody can’

Fury goes on to say ‘no matter what you’re going through, you must always continue to get back up and keep going forward and fight back’. Clearly, he is referring to a boxing match. However, this struck me as a valid metaphor for life in general. As we live our lives, there are constant setbacks and obstacles to overcome. Our ability to deal with these and manage their successful navigation is an indication of our mental health. If the obstacles that knock us down or out become too frequent or too large, things may seem too dark, foreboding or overwhelming.

This is the when counselling can help. It is OK and normal for this to happen. It is OK to ask for help. Even the big tough guys are doing it, without shame or worry about the impact on their image.

Please get in touch if you would like to find out about counselling in Bristol or read more about me.

Changing Mental Health Awareness

Yesterday the BBC wrote about changing mental health awareness – have a read here. They published a kind of ‘top ten’ chart outlining the current view of the problem. One of the headline statistics is that one in six of the population have a ‘mental health problem’. This seems to be part of the issue to me. The problem being that if we are seen to have mental health issues, we are labelled in a different category to the rest of the population. The fact of the matter is that we all have mental health. Furthermore, it varies day-by-day and even during the day. It is OK that the quality of our mental health changes. That is part of being a human being.

Severe Mental Health Issues on the Rise

Looking at those with ‘severe’ mental health issues, it does appear that cases are on the rise over the last 20 years. However, it is acknowledged that with a greater awareness of mental health, will come a greater reporting of the problems. Nevertheless, modern life is also quoted as having a responsibility in the increase of mental health issues. It seems, young people are especially vulnerable (read my post here) and many mental health problems become well established in youth.

As I have also written about here, male suicide is a major issue. It is perhaps the culmination of many years of severe mental health issues. Astonishingly, there are 6000 suicides in the UK each year. This high number can surely be reduced by raising the importance of discussing mental health and thereby reducing the associated stigma.

What is the Solution?

The BBC also report that antidepressant prescriptions are higher than ever. Furthermore, people are being left on the drugs for long periods of time. Subsequently, it is extremely hard to come off even to assess how the individual is feeling. Of course, prescriptions are far cheaper than the talking therapies but what good is being done in the longer term? That remains to be seen. As I mention here, diet and lifestyle are now being touted as effective in the treatment of depression. Also, I am a great advocate of physical exercise wherever possible.

Of course, being a counsellor I genuinely believe that talking (or counselling creatively) about our problems goes a long way to feeling better about ourselves. A positive knock-on is the changing mental health awareness within the client. Counselling may not always be the easiest route but often it can be the most effective and permanent solution. One aim of counselling is to help supply the individual with a set of tools that they can apply to life. Therefore managing most things that are thrown at that person is a matter of adapting the right ‘tool’, thought or action. Many times these become so instinctive they happen even without a second thought.

Please contact me if you would like to find out about having counselling sessions in Fishponds, Bristol.