Tag Archives: mental wellbeing

Young lady hiding behind her hair

Eating disorder waiting lists are completely overwhelmed

Mental health, , , , ,

The viral pandemic has caused a secondary pandemic. A mental health pandemic is worryingly out of control and record numbers are needing support.

Young people in particular are at risk of eating disorders and psychiatrists believe they’ve been struggling with the following this year:

  • Fear about the virus
  • Worries about family finances
  • Isolation from friends during school closures
  • Exam cancellations leading to uncertainty
  • Loss of extra-curricular activities
  • Quarantining
  • Increased use of social media
Child hiding under cushions on the sofa

When young people are referred to services for help, lack of face-to-face consultations are leading to patients being severely unwell by the time they’re seen.

England, Scotland and Wales have seen an increase in referrals. There were 16,547 admission in 2017/18, compared to 2019/20 there were 21,794 admissions. London hospitals have seen a tripling in referrals since March 2020.

I’ve worked in eating disorders for 40 years and I’ve never known us to be so busy…

Dr Simon Chapman, King’s College Hospital and South London and the Maudsley

An eating disorder is often a coping mechanism when the world around us is out of control. If you notice your child or anyone around you starting to behave differently with food or exercise, it could be a sign of an underlying eating disorder. It’s important people get help earlier as full recovery is more likely the earlier treatment is started.

For years, mental health has been fighting for equality of funding with physical health but in reality this just doesn’t make sense. How do you compare the following funding?

Physical HealthMental Health
An 8 day course of antibiotics for a urinary tract infection4 psycho-educational sessions in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for mild depression or anxiety
Diagnostic investigations e.g. gastroscopy followed by 4-8 week course of proton pump inhibitors e.g. omeprazole, to treat gastric reflux6-12 session of individual Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for common mental health conditions +/- medications such as anxiolytics or SSRIs
Surgery for fractured spine followed by physiotherapy, occupational therapy and house adaptationsOngoing specialist support from psychiatrist, community nurse, psychologist and recovery worker to adjust medication, social support and therapeutic input
Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy for patient with malignant melanomaGroup and individual therapy in a therapeutic community for patient with personality disorder
Life long treatments and surgeries required for a patient with osteogenesis imperfecta Multiple inpatient stays including sectioning under the Mental Health Act and lifelong medications for a patient with schizophrenia
Table showing mental and physical health are beyond compare
Vintage scales weighing apples

The latest statistic show that each cancer patient has £1,571 spent on them in research while each mental health patient has £9.75. I cannot begin to comment on how that makes me feel. Perhaps, next time you’re thinking about which charity you’re going to support, will it be a cancer research charity who can afford to spend money on a lot of marketing in order to attract your attention, or could you consider a mental health charity such as MQ Mental Health, a charity dedicated to mental health research?

Research into mental illnesses will show us:

  • How to prevent mental illnesses
  • How to treat mental illnesses – what treatments work and how
  • How to reduce the impact when someone is chronically unwell
  • How to reduce suicide rates
  • Understanding co-morbidities of mental illnesses

We all have a responsibility to look after those around us. We need to look out for signs of them needing support, enable them to talk if they want to and/or advise them to seek help. There’s all sorts of support out there:

  • Mind (UK) offer information about all sorts of mental health related topics including legal matters and help and support including Side by side, their online community.
  • Beat the UK’s leading eating disorder’s charity offer information about eating disorders and have helplines dedicated to supporting sufferers and carers on the phone, via web-chat or by email.
  • Samaritans (UK) available 24/7 on the phone or via email.Female speaking anonymously on mobile phone
  • National Suicide Prevention Helpline (USA) available in various forms: English, Spanish and relay. Specialist veterans and disaster distress lines available.
  • Get Self Help is a great resource for helping yourself. There are all sorts of ideas for helping yourself, for example mindful breathing and sleep self help.

All mental health charities are under tremendous strain at the moment, please support them if you can.

None of these replace professional support, please speak to your primary care physician (GP) if you or someone you care about is unwell, it’s really important to seek help early.

What is lockdown brain? And what to do about it!

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A survey conducted by the Alzheimer’s Society showed that since being forced to stay isolated and inside their homes, 82% of people with dementia saw a deterioration in symptoms.

Knot on finger "Just a reminder"

But it’s not just those already showing memory problems who’re struggling. Many of us are forgetting to buy milk, to write that email (again…) or that word that’s on the tip of your tongue!

There are different types of memory, research is helping us to understand how the constraint have impacted us.

  • Loneliness has had the biggest impact on people’s mood—feeling depressed is known to have an impact on memory
  • Lack of social interactions—repetition of stories helps consolidate memories of events (episodic memories). Watercooler moments can mean we talk to dozens of people in day, these aren’t happening with people furloughed or working from home. As big events have been cancelled, even when we have chatted with friends and family we’ve had fewer stories to tell meaning we’re not exercising out episodic memory.
  • People have been feeling generally more anxious and there’s more uncertainty. This has been worst for young people, people living on low incomes, people in urban areas and those with children.
  • When there’s less variety in our lives and lack of memory cues—it’s hard to differentiate one day from the next and we simply can’t remember what we’ve done! When all your meetings are in front of the same screen, they’re all the same, there’s no way to tag your memory. In the office you might walk passed the lift where you had a conversation and it reminds you to email someone or you’ll drive by the petrol station on your commute home and it’ll remind you of the milk you need to buy.mum using computer looking tired with children in the background running riot
  • Disturbed sleep due to lack of stimulation and worrying about the pandemic is causing fatigue. The brain, like any organ needs us to be fit and healthy, poor sleep, lack or exercise and poor sleep, and it’s functioning less well.
  • Not going out and about and finding our way around means the size of our hippocampus is decreasing (the seahorse shaped structure in the brain involved in learning and memory)—it’s a use it or lose it scenario! Research has found London cab drivers have an incredibly large hippocampus!

But there is good news—there are things we can do to stimulate our brains again!

  • Go for a walk each day, especially along unfamiliar streets.
  • Turn the videocall into a phone call and go for a walk instead of sitting in front of the computer.
  • Make sure the weekend is different from the weekdays or make sure you have specified rest days that are noticeably different.
  • Do something creative and new and tell someone about it afterwards.
  • Deliberately reflect on your day, even in a diary can help. Remembering what you did and recounting it exercises your brain.
  • Don’t be ashamed of using alarms and alerts on your phone, these are helpful cues for your brain.walking in the countryside
  • If trying to remember a list of items, for example a shopping list, imagine yourself in the aisle in the shop actually picking up the items.
  • To fight fatigue, good sleep hygiene is best for a good night’s sleep—no caffeine or sugar before bed, sleep in a dark cool room and make sure you’ve had fresh air and/or exercise everyday.

If you’re struggling with anxiety or depression, it’s important to get the right support. Contact your GP or speak to a counsellor or therapist. If you’re finding it difficult to cope, talking about it will be the best thing you can do.

How are you, really?

Mental health, , ,

This week (18th May) is Mental Health Awareness Week 2020.

Let’s be honest, 2020 is not going how any of us thought it would! Some of our lives have changed beyond recognition, we had little warning and few of us had much influence over the changes!

How do you really feel about it all?

I have an extensive mental health history of severe depression and anorexia; recently I had anxiety and stress added to this list (stress isn’t a diagnosis but inability to manage it has a profound impact on ones health). I take medication and have had therapy to get me to a good, healthy place but I’ll always have a vulnerability to becoming ill if a number of factors aren’t controlled.

I’ve written various blogs in the past about how to maintain mental well-being. I’ve discussed the importance of being honest and how talking about feelings makes them less scary and more manageable.

As a society, we use the phrase “how’re you?” or “are you alright?” as a salutation and don’t really want the other person to go into detail, however, it’s at times like this (when the world is uncertain), when asking how each other are is of vital importance.

When I say “how’re you?” I always mean it and will always set aside time for the other person if they need to open up.

Unfortunately I have not always had the same afforded to me… I continue to struggle to open up, but knowing how important it is, I try to, then when the other person doesn’t respond or invalidates my feelings, I’m crushed. But when someone does really listen, it means the world to me.

Right now, you might be loving lockdown because you’re being permitted to stay inside and do what you want when you want. On the other hand you might be feeling angry, depressed, anxious or guilty because there’s so much out of your control and you’re being stopped from doing the things you want and need to do.

All feelings are valid and need to be expressed.

A silver lining to come out of this pandemic is the mental health is now on the agenda every day. The year, mental health awareness week is about kindness. Asking how someone is, meaning it and really listening to the answer is the simplest kindness you can offer and what’s great about it is you can do it on the phone, by text, by video chat or in person, socially distanced!

You don’t need a mental health diagnosis to look after your mental health. By being more open about how we’re feeling, it’s a good step towards being able to talk about more issues around mental illness.