Mental health is an issue, not an identity
"Mental Health needs a great deal of attention. It's the final taboo and it needs to be dealt with"
This week I was going to put an article on some underrated sporting achievements but something else came up that I wanted to talk about. Snorkels on though because this blog will get very deep very quickly.
Now I'm lucky. I've have a good family, good friends, a beautiful girlfriend and live a contented life. However, today I wanted to talk about something I stumbled across recently. A situation that panicked me a bit.
I was walking home from a fitness session on Friday evening. Heavy legged to say the least. Just walking home over a railway bridge in Southampton with just one lad walking ahead of me. Here comes the bit where I panicked. A young teenage girl came sprinting up the bridge steps, clearly distressed and attempted to jump off the bridge in the way of a oncoming train. She was suicidal.
I panicked at what I was witnessing because you don't prepare yourself for situations like these. The lad in front of me somehow managed to stop the girl who began screaming and lashing out. I ran over and with the help of this lad managed to talk this girl down and sit her on the floor. At this point the girl is shaking, crying, rocking and is in a real bad way. I was tense and nervous. As the other lad rang the emergency services I sat down and tried talking to this girl. It became apparent quickly that she has mental health problems and has previously tried to commit suicide.
This struck a chord in me.
After sitting on the bridge re-assuring this girl fro a good hour, we eventually made our way into a coffee shop where she was collected by her mother.
Just want to make the point that we were on that bridge for a hour and there was no sight of the emergency services at all.
To give you a short insight as to actually what Mental Health actually affects people... Below is a short video from Mind. A mental health charity dedicated to supporting peoples health and respect. Their president is Stephen Fry who notoriously experienced mental health problems himself.
So, I wanted to share a few words about mental health. It's well documented that one in four people suffer from mental health problems in their lifetime. It's not a theory but a fact that mental health isn't talked about enough. It's something you could never comprehend or fully understand unless you have experienced it yourself. It's a well known statistic that 1 in 4 people suffer from some mental health illness throughout their lifetime. Yes, I say illness. That stat also means that the chances of us knowing someone who has suffered from a mental illness are high.
There is a stigma attached to mental health. It's often said that dealing with a mental health disorder is often easier then talking about it in the first place. The reason this is such a monumental issue is down to society. This stigma in society makes mental health issues so much harder to talk about. Often impossible to talk about. Mental Health constitutes disorders such as Depression, Anxiety, Anorexia, Borderline Personality disorder, OCD, Schizophrenia, Bulimia amongst many others. Now it's 2016 then Mental Health issues are becoming are publicised more and more. An increasing amount of cures are constantly being discovered but there is still work that needs to be done.
If you don't know anyone then there is a good chance they simply haven't spoken about it. This is due to it being something that is perceived as uncharted territory in terms of illnesses that we talk about.
My view is that the brain is a organ. Just like our heart, lungs etc... So why don't we treat it the same?
To help this ring true, I'd like to inform you of a few statistics from the Mental Health Foundation including:
If you're worried about someone who may be suffering from mental illness or simply want to know more then visit http://www.mind.org.uk/
Thank you for reading
Twitter - +ChippKG
Instagram - ChippKG
This week I was going to put an article on some underrated sporting achievements but something else came up that I wanted to talk about. Snorkels on though because this blog will get very deep very quickly.
Now I'm lucky. I've have a good family, good friends, a beautiful girlfriend and live a contented life. However, today I wanted to talk about something I stumbled across recently. A situation that panicked me a bit.
I was walking home from a fitness session on Friday evening. Heavy legged to say the least. Just walking home over a railway bridge in Southampton with just one lad walking ahead of me. Here comes the bit where I panicked. A young teenage girl came sprinting up the bridge steps, clearly distressed and attempted to jump off the bridge in the way of a oncoming train. She was suicidal.
I panicked at what I was witnessing because you don't prepare yourself for situations like these. The lad in front of me somehow managed to stop the girl who began screaming and lashing out. I ran over and with the help of this lad managed to talk this girl down and sit her on the floor. At this point the girl is shaking, crying, rocking and is in a real bad way. I was tense and nervous. As the other lad rang the emergency services I sat down and tried talking to this girl. It became apparent quickly that she has mental health problems and has previously tried to commit suicide.
This struck a chord in me.
After sitting on the bridge re-assuring this girl fro a good hour, we eventually made our way into a coffee shop where she was collected by her mother.
Just want to make the point that we were on that bridge for a hour and there was no sight of the emergency services at all.
To give you a short insight as to actually what Mental Health actually affects people... Below is a short video from Mind. A mental health charity dedicated to supporting peoples health and respect. Their president is Stephen Fry who notoriously experienced mental health problems himself.
So, I wanted to share a few words about mental health. It's well documented that one in four people suffer from mental health problems in their lifetime. It's not a theory but a fact that mental health isn't talked about enough. It's something you could never comprehend or fully understand unless you have experienced it yourself. It's a well known statistic that 1 in 4 people suffer from some mental health illness throughout their lifetime. Yes, I say illness. That stat also means that the chances of us knowing someone who has suffered from a mental illness are high.
There is a stigma attached to mental health. It's often said that dealing with a mental health disorder is often easier then talking about it in the first place. The reason this is such a monumental issue is down to society. This stigma in society makes mental health issues so much harder to talk about. Often impossible to talk about. Mental Health constitutes disorders such as Depression, Anxiety, Anorexia, Borderline Personality disorder, OCD, Schizophrenia, Bulimia amongst many others. Now it's 2016 then Mental Health issues are becoming are publicised more and more. An increasing amount of cures are constantly being discovered but there is still work that needs to be done.
If you don't know anyone then there is a good chance they simply haven't spoken about it. This is due to it being something that is perceived as uncharted territory in terms of illnesses that we talk about.
My view is that the brain is a organ. Just like our heart, lungs etc... So why don't we treat it the same?
To help this ring true, I'd like to inform you of a few statistics from the Mental Health Foundation including:
- 20% of teens might experience a mental health problem in any given year
- 50% of mental health issues are recognised by age 14 and 75% by age 24
- In England, More women than men to have a common mental health problems and are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders
- Throughout 2013, 6,233 suicides were recorded in the UK for people aged 15 and older. Of these, 78% were male and 22% were female.
- 10% of mothers and 6% of fathers in the UK have mental health problems at any given time
If you're worried about someone who may be suffering from mental illness or simply want to know more then visit http://www.mind.org.uk/
Thank you for reading
Twitter - +ChippKG
Instagram - ChippKG
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