Visit by shadow minister for mental health

Rebecca Blake, Mary Jones and Luciana Berger.

Last week Luciana Berger, who's the shadow minister for public health which includes mental health, was invited down by our vice chair Rebecca to meet Neil Ordish from Headgym, one of the leaders on the mentoring project, and Mary Jones and the support group down at The Space in Winyates.

We also had the chance to talk to Luciana about how MHAG started and the kinds of things we've been doing in the last 18 months. Although Rebecca is obviously a politician, MHAG is not a political group and we welcome support from anyone! However it's great to be able to highlight the work we do and the great community we have in Redditch on a national platform and to have interest from people outside the area.

I've written a story about the visit for the Standard so to save repeating myself on here, click here to read more.

Pledging to do better

I was absolutely delighted when Ian Dipple, the editor of the Redditch Standard (where I work alongside running MHAG), came to me and told me his idea about doing some extensive coverage of mental health to mark World Mental Health Day. As well as telling my own story, we managed to get mayor Pat Witherspoon, council chief exec Kevin Dicks, Dr Tim Lee and various others involved to speak up about the topic. It makes me very proud to work for the paper and to live in the town to see people supporting mental health! As part of the edition, we launched a pledge - we're asking residents and organisations to sign it. One voice is not often heard but if we can get enough voices (and names) then maybe together we can affect the change which is so desperately needed.

To take part, I can e-mail you a copy of the pledge (call me on 07788 379389 or e-mail redditchmhag@gmail.com) or simply save the copy below and send it back to me c/o Redditch Standard, Webb House, Church Green East, Redditch, B98 8RA.

Harriet

Rhyming for a good reason

This week saw us host our second ever Wellbeing Week in Redditch, something we're keen to do every October to mark World Mental Health Day. The first event was a poetry evening at the Redi Centre - we wanted to demonstrate how getting creative can boost your mental health and also show how much talent we have in this town!

 

 

A huge ten people were lined up on the bill to share either their own poems or someone else's - some were on the theme of mental health and some weren't, but the majority were actually written by a Redditch resident. Thanks to our readers: Mark, Rebecca, Ismat, Vanessa, Lyn, Andy, Natalie, Shayan and Pat (the tenth was myself in case you're keeping count!)

 

 

A few extra thanks to Pat Witherspoon, the mayor, for her support of the event, Ray and Margaret for agreeing to host the event in their building, Jan and Andy for their help with organising (Jan and Margaret also made the most delicious cakes which everyone enjoyed), Boon for compering for us, Sally for playing the dulcimer and anyone else who helped in any way.

 

 

It was a hugely enjoyable night, we had at least half a dozen extra readers in the open mic part of the evening and hopefully everyone went away as content and full of cake as I did! We also raised £150 which will go towards mental health projects in the borough.

 

Keep an eye out on Facebook/Twitter in the coming weeks as I'll be posting up some of the poems.

 

Harriet.

What we've done and what's coming up!

Fear not, things with MHAG have been carrying on with our monthly meetings continuing and many great chats about mental health. This blog however I have let slide a little due to not being very well and a brief stay in hospital. I am back on track now and more focused than ever to push MHAG as far as we can and affect change in Redditch. It is desperately needed and wanted!

So some of the things which have been going on:
- We were made the mayor's charity! Pat Witherspoon picked MHAG and Redditch Friends Together as her two charities to help highlight mental health and dementia within the town. Thanks Pat! She's in office until May so plenty of exciting events will be coming up.
- We laughed! Pat hosted a comedy night called Ship Of Fools which was absolutely brilliant. There were five comedians plus compere Ant Hill (thanks to Ant for all his work to make it a success!). Lots of money raised and lots of laughs too.
- We talked! We've spoken to Dr Tim Lee, who's the lead for mental health on Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group's governing body, about their plans for the future as well as Helen Broughton from the strategic partnership about the work their mental health committee is doing and Homestart about their services to help people with postnatal depression.
- We visited! We went to events including the Bandstand Festival and Astwood Bank Carnival. It's great to bring mental health to the masses at places like that.

Wellbeing Week:
- Our first event is a poetry evening next Tuesday (October 7) at 7.30pm at the Redi Centre. We're hoping to highlight how getting creative and either reading or creating poetry can help with your mental health. Come along and join us - it's free but donations are welcome!

- Advice shop. As with last year we'll be hosting a two-day advice shop in the Kingfisher Centre. We're outside Primark (by the escalators) all day next Friday and Saturday (October 10 and 11) and we've got plenty of activities, crafts, puzzles, food making etc! Do pop along.

There are also lots of exciting projects in the pipeline and next week with the help of the Redditch Standard (my day job!) we'll be marking World Mental Health Day with the launch of a new pledge for the town.

Harriet.

MHAG is turning one!

You are invited to join us as we celebrate a year of the Redditch Mental Health Action Group.
The meeting on May 29 at 7pm will include the formal AGM where we will elect a chair and vice-chair for the upcoming year but then we want to celebrate all we've achieved so far and look forward to what we can aim to have done by May 2015. Please share this post and invite anyone with an interest in mental health to the meeting.

Living with anxiety

Today marks the first day of Mental Health Awareness Week. Run by the Mental Health Foundation, this year it has the theme of anxiety. It's not often I choose to open up on the internet about my own mental health issues but if chairing MHAG has taught me anything, it's that I need to be as open as I can be about it to ensure we move forward. If people don't speak up about their experiences, how will we ever change anything? As anxiety has been a theme in my life for a long time, this week seemed like the perfect time to share. So here goes:

I’ve never had an imaginary friend but I imagine the reactions you’d get if you told people you had one are similar to the reactions if you reveal you have anxiety. Some people would also have had an imaginary friend or would know someone who has or would generally be empathetic and understand what you meant. Others would simply refuse to believe you had an imaginary friend, it’s not something they can see, feel or hear so why would they ever try and comprehend it? Some might tell you how ridiculous they thought you were, that you should stop pretending and start living in the real world.

I think the real problem with anxiety is a lack of understanding about what it actually means. A lot of people seem to confuse having anxiety with being anxious. Everyone gets anxious, it’s a normal part of life. Things like job interviews, driving tests and first dates are supposed to scare us and get adrenalin pumping around our body. Things like getting out of bed in the morning, going into a shop or talking to our friends, however, shouldn’t have the same effect.

For as long as I can remember, I have been aware some of the thoughts in my head are simply not rational. On good days, in good weeks or during good months most of the thoughts I have are fairly logical, I seek practical solutions to problems and I try and approach challenges with good spirit. On bad days, I lie in bed and convince myself everyone hates me and I’d be better off dead. It sounds dramatic but one small thought can spiral into a deep pit of despair where I’m almost paralysed by fear about the simplest of tasks. It can take me six hours to convince myself to walk into the next room, even if no one is in the house except me. I can stop eating because I can’t face going outside and having to interact with another human being, I can ignore calls from my friends and family and convince myself they’re better off without me.

This is without considering the physical effects of anxiety – the breathlessness, the shaking, the panic attacks, nausea and restlessness. Simple sounds such as someone tapping their foot or talking can feel as though they are explosions in my head, it can be painful to open my eyes and music is out of the question unless it has a very quiet beat which won’t set my heart racing.

My ‘tale of woe’ isn’t intended to be that. Probably 80 per cent of the time no one but my very nearest and dearest would suspect I was anything but a completely functioning person. I have had some fantastically high moments in the 14 years mental health has been an issue for me. I have fabulous friends and family, I live comfortably and safely and there are a thousand things I give thanks for every day. One of the worst reactions to anxiety is telling the person they should be grateful for what they have. It’s not about gratitude, it’s about a million thoughts racing around your brain at once, it’s about not being in control of your own thought processes, it’s about being unable to face some days, it’s about the painful process of putting yourself back together again every time you drop below that level of functioning you’ve managed to achieve.

If anxiety could be cured by sheer will – a want to get better, by care and compassion from your loved ones or simply by being too exhausted to carry on fighting it, I definitely wouldn’t be chopping and changing medication trying to find a magic pill which will stabilise me. I definitely wouldn’t have to duck out of some of my commitments when it’s a bad day. But equally I wouldn’t have started MHAG, I wouldn’t have met some of the best people I have in my life and I wouldn’t have such an acute feeling of being extremely fortunate. I’m not going to say I’m grateful to have anxiety because that would simply be a lie, but the journey it’s taken me on has made me start to accept it is part of me. I’m not wholly comfortable with that yet but maybe one day I will be. No one should be judged for having a mental health issue and the more accepting I am of my ‘imaginary friend’, the more I can stand up for others who maybe can’t shout as loud as I’m willing to.

Harriet.

Malvern Hills - Three Peaks practice

Yet again we made the decision not to walk up Snowdon due to the bad weather conditions there in the early part of last week but we opted to walk the Malvern Hills instead so we could still get some walking practice in. Alongside some representatives from the TA based in Redditch who are hoping to join in with the challenge this summer, we walked over nine miles on Sunday on what thankfully proved to be a lovely day.

We have now delayed our Snowdon walk until April when hopefully the weather will have brightened up and we will be able to safely get up (and down!). We are also aiming to have climbed Scafell Pike as part of our practice which means by the time the actual Three Peaks challenge comes around in August we will have tackled two of the three mountains.

There is plenty of time for people to get on board - call 07788 379389 or e-mail redditchmhag@gmail.com for more information.