I wish I could do more to help raise awareness of mental health to people who need it, i.e. people suffering who don't know where to turn. Fundraising is obviously brilliant, and despite not running the London marathon (26 yards is about my limit, not miles), all the fundraising stuff people do for any charity is great stuff. But there will be people out there, especially young people, who never see these fundraising ideas being exercised, or indeed, have any idea where to turn to get help. It may be that their GP doesn't know either, and consequently, they are suffering in silence.
It may be that they don't even know that they have a problem. I say this with experience - as I've mentioned before, I've had anxiety since I was about 11, and for the first six to seven years of this, I considered my intense panic attacks and fear of eating out (and many other things) as simply 'something I have to put up with,' not understanding that it was something I could try and help myself to control. I was too young to know any different.
Gladly, the charity Mind appreciates this and are beginning to act to try and help young people who have mental health problems. I saw on their Facebook feed recently that they were asking people who had experience of a mental health problem up to and including age 25 to talk to them about their experiences and to gauge an idea of the support that they either got or would like to have got. I put myself forward and I have a telephone interview with them this coming Thursday (I'm quite nervous and excited for some reason).
By way of preparation, I've spent a couple of hours today mapping out what I've experienced and what support I needed and received. I developed a table of 'key events' if you like that depicted (1) when I went for counselling, what for and who with, (2) any medication I have taken and when and (3) the key times in my life when anxiety was particularly severe and, if possible, the cause of it. This historic diary was actually very interesting to compile, but also quite sad. It made me realise just how much of my school and University life was blighted and ravaged by anxiety and panic. There have always been peaks and troughs in the severity of my anxiety (and it's also manifested itself in varying forms), and it was nice re-living some of those peaks (or troughs, whichever way you look at it!), but by the end of this exercise I was feeling a bit light-headed.
And it turns out, I could have done with a hell of a lot more support. I was confused and so were my parents, who of course were my main support source. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I had a good upbringing; friends, loving parents, money was never an issue, capable if not spectacular academically... so what was wrong? I would wager that this confusion and these questions generated even more anxiety and so the trend continued.
We never had, as far as I remember, any support or education at school about mental health. I appreciate this is difficult, e.g. what age is suitable to talk about it and how. These are issues beyond my understanding. But from my experience, I know that if we'd have had some social lessons on mental health later on in high school, for example, I would have learnt about my issues sooner and got help quicker. I would envisage something along the lines of sex education in terms of delivery and frequency of lessons.
Of course, such a module would probably have to be taught by a professional. Expecting a teacher who had not experienced mental health to teach students about it would be a dangerous business.
Certainly come University, there is real potential to establish campaigns and awareness around mental health; students, on the whole, are an open-minded bunch and I recently read an article in the i newspaper about how many undergraduates experience mental health problems.
Going back to school age, targeting parents would also be a good idea, in my opinion. If, like my parents, they didn't really understand what was 'wrong' with me, perhaps awareness about the subject of mental health would have allowed them to get me the help that I needed at a young age.
However, perhaps to contradict what I've previously said, four of the five counselling spells that I have undertaken in my life (one at 11, one at 19, one at 20, one at 22 and one at 23; I'm now 25), only one of them - the latest - really had any beneficial effect. This was the Anxiety UK referral that I have no doubt mentioned in previous blogs. Again, guidance on getting the right support would have also been a God send, rather than wasting my time (to put it bluntly) on therapy that simply wasn't helpful.
I will be interested to see what Mind come up with from this research. If the result of it means that they are able to provide more and better support to young people who really need it, then great. I will gladly be a part of that. Let's try and reduce the number of young people who have their lives dominated by mental health problems and let them flourish and develop their youth into something that allows them to be successful and happy.
Best wishes
Al
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