Tag Archives: depression

Caring for someone with Depression or Anxiety

10177241_747738765268892_5890142387668348507_nWelcome back to another one of my collaborating on raising mental health awareness. This time I am collaborating with mental health survivor Psycopathic_ sociopath. That is the name of her Youtube channel. You may wish to check out some of her stuff, although she has just begun to do more videos on mental health.

Since my link from the states has suffered through Depression and Anxiety, we decided to base our latest video on caring/supporting someone going through both mental health illnesses. She spoke about what she feels would help someone going through depression and anxiety, plus I also did the same.

If you wish to watch the video, please click on the video below.

Supporting someone with depression

On my section, I spoke in depth about supporting or caring for someone suffering through depression. Most of my tips were fairly basic and quite common. Mainly being there for someone going through such a hard time. Being there for someone can help them no matter whatever mental health problem the person is experiencing.

You may also want to ask how they are from time to time. It always helps to check as it shows you care. My link from the states mentioned that if you are going to use comforting words, then try be sincere about it. People can often tell when someone is not honest about how they care for someone.

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One more tip I placed in the video was When the person talks, it is important that you listen and do this actively. Not always an easy thing to do, but it does pay off in the end.

The last section of the video covers anxiety. I hope you get time to watch the video and I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog post. See you next time and have a good healthy mental health journey.

Time To Talk day 2015

As of this blog post. It is Time to Talk day  over in the UK, which falls on the 5th of February. It has been a while since my last blog post and to be honest, I have been fairly busy with work and mental health involvement, but going back to the subject at hand. What is “Time To Talk” day all about?

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Time To Talk day focuses on the point that we should at least try to spend 5 minutes of that day talking to someone about our health, especially mental health. In fact I would go so far to state we should try to open up a bit more about ourselves, especially with a close friend or someone you trust.

Time To Talk day is support by Time To Change, who are Led by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness which is England’s biggest programme to challenge mental health stigma and discrimination.

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You see the problem is mental health discrimination and stigma are still prevalent in today’s society. There are so many cases of people falling into mental ill health, because they do not get the support. Some who develop mental health problems might have stigma or shame about their symptoms and may often refuse to talk about it or refuse to seek help. For those who do not open up about what is bothering them, this situation can be risky because if they do not talk about their health or seek help, then its highly likely their mental health situation may get worse.

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There can be a large number of mental health cases that could be reduced if we all took the step to at least phone a friend. The emphasis need not be on the sufferer, but we as friends, helpers or carers can phone others who we are worried about.

Unfortunately so many of us know deep down that someone is developing a mental health issue or are struggling.  It could be stress, depression, compulsive disorder or many others mental health problems.

The sad thing is that people often sit back and feel it is not their problem to check up on someone. Perhaps the person feels that they are being nosey or are imposing themselves on others. Maybe a lot of us do not have time to check up on others, but the situation is that if we do not check up on those who might be suffering in silence, then its quite likely someone may deteriorate in their mental health.

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It is so important to talk to others on what is worrying or brother in us, but also on the other hand it can be important to check up with our friends on how they are feeling. Its not like we have to say much, but at least listen to them.

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Being a carer myself of someone using the services, I know only too well what other carers may go through. Over the 12 years of caring, I have spoken and listened to so many carers in carers groups, networks, forums and events. I hear time and time again how carers have been isolated and brought to their wits end, because they had no one to turn to or no one acknowledge their situation. We carers need to step up and support not only ourselves, but each other.

The thing is mental ill health does not discriminate, if you are a carer or support of someone who unfortunately has developed mental ill health, I am sure at times that  you have been upset, depressed, anxious, worried and guilty. Taking these feelings to the next level, there is always a risk that carers themselves can develop mental health problems if not supported or listened to.

To counter act such problems, its important carers talk to those who we trust about how we are coping. A carer does not always need someone to wave a magic wand to solve our problems. A carer can just have someone acknowledge what carers have or still are going through.

 

So I hope that I have pointed out some of the reasons I think “Time To Talk” day is important. We need to push back on a society that feels that its good to be busy. As a society its good to take time out and spend it with a friend. It is good as a society we open up about mental health issues and combat the stigma and discrimination. As a society we need to change and there is no better time than to do this now.

Its Time to change!! Its Time to Talk.

Happy Time to Talk Day.

Review of “The Anatomy of Melancholy”

Its about time I did another review, however this one is different. Usually I attend events, conferences, engagement events and awareness days. On the 23rd of October 2014 I decided to pop over to to the Battersea over in the borough of Wandsworth to watch an opera performed at Testbed1 which is a 7,000 sq ft creative events space located in Battersea.. Now I am usually just the person to go to the Cinema and yes I know that seems boring, but I thought why not check out this new opera called “The Anatomy of Melancholy”.

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As you can guess Melancholy is a state of low mood or we could say Depression, so since this is a blog is about caring and mental health, I felt it was worth my time to view this Opera performance.

While I was travelling to the show, I kept thinking at the back of my mind how will this Opera performance describe the form of depression, but before I continue with the review, I think its important to describe a bit about depression.

Depression can affect us all, some get depression worse than others. If someone suffers chronic depression then this can be a serious mental health condition where the person begins to become very sad, hopeless, and unimportant and often is unable to live in a normal way. The person experiences

  • Loss of interest
  • Slowness of movement and thinking
  • Thoughts about hopelessness, suicide and death
  • Tiredness and lack of energy

In the UK Depression affects 1 in 5 older people. You can get more information about depression from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Going back to the Opera performance, as I entered to gain a seat around the stage, I was impressed with the use of lighting, which set the scene very well. I especially admired the use of shadows around the stage. The lighting was done by Joshua Pharo who has done many works across theatre, dance and opera.

The play was written and directed by Finn Beames who is also the founder of bodycorps. We also had OPUS2014 finalist Benjamin Tassie who composed the music for the play and the co-designer being Mayou Tikerioti who has designed many productions in the UK and Greece. The conductor of the play was Tim Murray who has already conducted a series of operas at the Gran Teatro del luceu, Royal Opera House and more.

The Opera centered on the old medical belief of the four humors: disease or ailment being caused by an imbalance in one or other of the four basic bodily liquids, or humors. These being Yellow, Phlegm, Black bile and blood. The Opera singers included

John Lattimore whose new work for autumn 2014 will cover John Adams at ENO.

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We also had actors Mark Beesley who sung as a principal solo singer at many major opera houses. We also had Janet Henfrey who has been performing over the last 50 years in many theatres.

Other members of the cast were Donna Lennard who has performed in many opera roles one being alice in Airborne, Dario Dugandzic whose credits include The Dark. Anna Harvey with her roles being “Daughter of the sea” and Maud Millar who made her debut Oliver Knussen’s Trumpets with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The style of the opera kept my interest going as I looked for references on how depression affects someone. The actors carried their characters well enough that you at least cared about what happens to them in the play. The opera highlighted not only the difficultly of living with depression, but how it affects families and carers, which was well performed by the Grandmother (Janet Henfrey) and the Profather (Mark Beesley).

Janet Henfrey

The Opera also centered on the use of genetics and renaissance medicine, there was quite a lot to learn about the study into Melancholy.

John Lattimore

The performance was also very creative in using different scenes and equipment where inventiveness raised my curiosity about depression, especially with the use of film and equipment where I began to almost focus on several things going on at once.

The music played throughout the opera lent itself to the performance with its eerie sounds, frightening scores and gloomy moods. I must admit I am not one for opera performances and some parts of the play I couldnt understand in one sitting, but nevertheless I really enjoyed the show and would certainly see it again if I have the chance.

You can find out more about “The Anatomy of Melancholy” from their site http://www.bodycorps.org/