Mental Health Awareness Week

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. While you might have heard about mental health at school, on social media, or even on your favourite TV shows, we know that sometimes it can be confusing. So we’ve decided to give you a crash course that will hopefully make things clearer and less overwhelming for you. 

What is mental health?

Let’s start as we mean to go on; at the beginning. Just what is mental health? Mental health is a combination of emotional and mental factors. It is how we think, feel and behave. Good mental health, generally, means that we are able to think, feel and behave in a way that is appropriate for any given situation. For example, being happy on your birthday or doing well at school or an event, or feeling sad at the death of a family member or a pet. Poor mental health means you aren't able to do this. Prolonged periods of poor mental health can be an indication of a mental illness. These illnesses are more common than you might think. An adult you know might have had mental health problems in the past, even if they don’t talk about it  because their attitude to mental health is different to yours. One aspect of mental health and wellbeing that we focus on is mood, especially through our mood mentoring service. All the moods contained here are lower energy and the well-being more negative on the left hand side of the mood map. 

There are many different kinds of mental illnesses - here are some common ones. 

Depression 

Depression is a low mood, low energy emotion as seen on the JCF mood map in blue. 

Everyone is sad sometimes, but depression is a prolonged, almost unshakable feeling of sadness. WWII Prime Minister Winston Churchill described it as “the black dog”. When it is mild, like our office manager, Lisa Kajue has, it can be managed more easily and doesn’t affect day-to-day life too much. But then, if it is more serious, it can lead to things like struggles with school and other everyday activities, struggling to enjoy hobbies, or problems with sleep or appetite. In the worse case scenario, it can lead to suicidal thoughts. 

If you are feeling suicidal, call or text Samaritans for advice if you are in the UK. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact the emergency services. 

Anxiety 

In small doses, anxiety can be a good thing. It is a part of the natural “fight or flight reaction” that all animals have and that humans evolved to have when they realised that they were prey to prehistoric predators. But much like depression, when it is constant and overwhelming, then it can become a problem. You might be suffering from an anxiety disorder if you suffer from frequent panic attacks or you avoid doing certain things due to anxiety surrounding them. There are specific kinds of anxiety, such as social anxiety, where the sufferer can struggle in social situations. Chris Evans, best known for Captain America in the MCU, suffers from social anxiety and has said that while it is easier now thanks to therapy and other interventions, he still finds it difficult to take part in things like film premieres. So if you feel that way, just remember that even Captain America struggles sometimes. Another specific kind of anxiety is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is where an event is so traumatic for someone that it has a long term effect on them mentally; for example, they may have flashbacks or not like certain things because they remind them of the traumatic event. Lady Gaga is very open about her PTSD after being sexually abused when she was younger. 

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

This can be described as a form of anxiety, but this often misunderstood mental illness is more complex because it is made up of two parts: obsessive, often negative, thoughts, and compulsions in order to deal with the anxiety and obsessive thoughts. A common example is when people have overwhelming thoughts about germs and cleanliness and they wash their hands or clean their homes more often than necessary to try and deal with these thoughts. 

Advice and Support 

First of all, we would like to mention the support that we offer. We can offer one-to-one mood mentoring if you feel like you might be struggling with any of the above, or with your mental health generally. These are confidential sessions with trained mood mentors. However, these are not alternatives to medical support if it is needed, nor can we provide a medical diagnosis or treatments. If you think you need medical intervention, get in touch with your GP. 

Depression and anxiety can be managed on a day to day basis. If we refer to the JCF mood map, you can see that that is directly next to the green side where feeling calm and relaxed is. Compare wanting to cry the whole time to a happy sign when you get comfortable in bed. Sometimes all you need to be able to manage it is rest. Curl up with something that makes you laugh - they say laughter is the best medicine after all - or just have a nap. Sometimes you might need a bit more than that. In these situations, think about a hobby that makes you happy and calms your brain down or do a favourite physical activity if you are feeling too “het up” to calm down. This could be as simple as a walk around the block or trying some yoga. 

You can find advice on looking after your mental health online, including in some of our other blog posts. Note: there is a lot of information and advice out there so remember not to take everything at face value. 

We hope this helps you and gives you some more information on mental health and mental illnesses.