I've been thinking a lot about mental health recently. I mean, I started this blog as a way for me to document my progress in all things healthy - but when you say to someone the words "fit and healthy" they usually imagine the more physical side. I know I do at times - and that's coming from someone who has battled depression and anxiety since I was a teenager.
There have been a few things recently that I've found thought-provoking. The main one is a mental health blog I've recently started reading (purplepersuasion), with 2 excellent pieces - 1 on ten things not to say to a depressed person, and the 2nd is the upside with ten supportive things people have said. Both are well worth reading, and give a helpful insight for anyone who has perhaps not experienced mental illness themselves.
The others have been mostly incidents I've experienced or witnessed at work. I work at an emergency NHS dental clinic at weekends and evenings, and we generally tend to encounter a lot of patients who would probably be fondly classified by the current government (as they are wont to do) as those who have "fallen through the cracks" - the ones who aren't registered with medical practitioners and are less inclined to look after themselves, for 1 reason or another. And some of these patients suffer from mental illness. I have personally witnessed several of my colleagues change dramatically and start acting "cagey" if a patient has disclosed that they have a mental illness, especially if it is schizophrenia. There was a patient today that we couldn't even see, due to a busy waiting room that would cause unknown amounts of stress to an already anxious person suffering from paranoia. And seeing these things makes me sad - sad that there is still so much stigma and misconceptions about mental illness that even some healthcare workers don't know how to act, and sad that we're not in a position to adapt to help those that so badly need it.
There have been a few things recently that I've found thought-provoking. The main one is a mental health blog I've recently started reading (purplepersuasion), with 2 excellent pieces - 1 on ten things not to say to a depressed person, and the 2nd is the upside with ten supportive things people have said. Both are well worth reading, and give a helpful insight for anyone who has perhaps not experienced mental illness themselves.
The others have been mostly incidents I've experienced or witnessed at work. I work at an emergency NHS dental clinic at weekends and evenings, and we generally tend to encounter a lot of patients who would probably be fondly classified by the current government (as they are wont to do) as those who have "fallen through the cracks" - the ones who aren't registered with medical practitioners and are less inclined to look after themselves, for 1 reason or another. And some of these patients suffer from mental illness. I have personally witnessed several of my colleagues change dramatically and start acting "cagey" if a patient has disclosed that they have a mental illness, especially if it is schizophrenia. There was a patient today that we couldn't even see, due to a busy waiting room that would cause unknown amounts of stress to an already anxious person suffering from paranoia. And seeing these things makes me sad - sad that there is still so much stigma and misconceptions about mental illness that even some healthcare workers don't know how to act, and sad that we're not in a position to adapt to help those that so badly need it.
