Mental Health Awareness Week

Many of you know that we are strong supporters of recovery for any kind of mental illness, we believe it is just as important as any other kind of physical illness and yet it does not get the same kind of acceptance from the public. What very few of you will probably know is that this week is actually Mental Health Awareness Week.

Just like last weeks post, we wanted to hopefully make you feel a little less alone if you do suffer with one. One way to do this is for us to showcase just HOW common it is and maybe even educate you all so that you understand, even briefly, about some of the illnesses. I speak from experience when I say that people very rarely can fully understand just how you feel and so I have found that the more they know about my situation, the better it is for me. People cannot support you if they do not understand what is going on, which is another reason why I am such a big advocate for recovery!

Louise's Story

I remember when I first got my diagnosis' back in 2013 and I had no idea what the heck the doctors were talking about. There was a lot of jargon and I was being labelled under all of these things but it was never actually explained to me what they meant...so I had to do my own research. One of the first places I ended up going to was the site for renowned charity Mind, and what made things even more perfect is that they had classifications for all of the different types of Mental Health problems. It is most likely the one site that you can use to find out pretty much anything about a MHP. 

Emily's Story
I remember always being anxious about such simple social things and I was down all of the time. So I took to the internet and typed in what my symptoms were e.g. Withdrawal from friends, fear of talking to strangers, terrified of eating in public and I soon found out about social anxiety and depression. I didn't need a diagnosis from a doctor to know what was wrong with me. I had depression for many years and still get the odd outburst of it today and I live everyday with Anxiety but I don't stop fighting. As Louise said I ended up on Mind, and that gave me all of the information I needed to know what was wrong and how I could use self therapy to help myself. It is not a thing you can do alone. I thought that with self therapy no one needed o know and I could overcome it by myself. That is not the case. I needed the support of my friends and my wonderful boyfriend to help get me through it. It's important not to face these things alone. People will understand and there will always be someone like you going through the same battle. 

Fast facts:

1. 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in any given year
2. you will probably work with someone facing a MH problem (so no we aren't unable to work...although it may be true in some severe cases)
3. 1 in 10 young people will experience a MH problem
4. 9 in 10 people with a mental illness will experience stigma and discrimination
5. nearly 3 in 4 young people fear the reactions of friends when they talk about their mental health problems 

(TimetoChange.org.uk, 2016)

how common are the illnesses?

Depression: 2.6 in 100 people

Anxiety:4.7 in 100 people

Mixed anxiety and depression:9.7 in 100 people

Phobias: 2.6 in 100 people

OCD: 1.3 in 100 people

Panic disorder: 1.2 in 100 people

Post traumatic stress disorder: 3.0 in 100 people

Eating disorders: 1.6 in 100 people

(Mind, 2016)