Mental Health Awareness week 18th – 24th May
The theme for this year’s awareness week hosted by the Mental Health Foundation is “Kindness Matters”
Mental health comes in so many different forms and quite often only behind closed doors, make up and humour can mask a lot.
My 10-year-old daughter suffers with anxieties and this comes out in many ways and we don’t always recognise these which makes it very hard. Trying to support her throughout the lockdown (and before) has been hard as we have all been very stressed and worried, sleepless nights, we have shouted, cried, hugged, laughed and thrown things (not at each other!) but we are getting through it, each day at a time but we are still a tight unit and will remain this way together by supporting each other, we are lucky as we have each other, some don’t.
Some of the ways that we have ‘got through’ this have been:
1: communicate, regular chats, meal times together
2: exercise, daily walk, run, bike ride, yoga, badminton in the garden and jumping on the trampoline
3: hugs, so simple but a hug can alleviate a lot of stress and upset and just make you feel secure
4: write feelings down and put them in jar, show them to each other if you feel like you can/want to
4: play games, quizzes, colouring
5: Be spontaneous, life’s too short, sleep under the stars, dye your hair (mines going pink on Friday eek), bake something you haven’t before, learn something new……
If this pandemic has taught me anything its smile, say hello, stop judging and slow down. We don’t know what is going on in people lives, the gentleman I smiled at crossing the road may not have seen another face in a few days, that smile could have made his day, he may have been up all night crying, worrying, scared but that smile may just have given him a little hope that the day may get better. These small steps can help mental health.
Mental health is a serious issue and one that affects millions of people in different ways, there is no quick fix, you can’t just ‘get over it’ or ‘cheer up’, please if this can teach us anything let’s just be kind to each other, smile often, laugh, cry but keep in touch with people who care. There is a lot of help out there when you are ready to access it, you are not alone even when life makes you feel like you are.
Thankyou Linda for sharing your personal insights.
Post written by Linda Meekhams.