Download Mental Health Awareness

Mental Health Awareness
Fighting the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Depression
Anxiety
Self Harm
Schizophrenia
Bi-Polar disorder
Depression
 Overwhelming negative feelings about yourself and the world around
you.
 Those feelings will stop you from doing things you would normally enjoy.
 Loss of interest in friends family and hobbies.
 Overwhelming feelings of worthlessness.
 Suicidal thoughts and actions .
 Feeling isolated from everyone and everything.
Anxiety
 An attack can occur without any reason, usually caused by over thinking
about a situation or problem that may not even have happened yet.
 More than feeling a bit nervous or anxious about a new or unknown
situation.
 Feeling sick, dizzy, fast breathing, panic attacks, overthinking, obsessively
worrying about something and being consumed with constant negative
thoughts.
 Anxiety can lead to a lack of confidence, angry outbursts, avoiding
situations and withdrawal from friends and family.
Self Harm
 Not about committing suicide.
 A way of releasing negative feelings like guilt, anger or isolation that
a person finds hard to express another way.
 It’s not just about cutting or scratching; behaviour like drinking to
excess, drug taking and other risky behaviour can be considered a
type of self harm too.
Schizophrenia
 It’s not simply ‘hearing voices’, during an episode sufferers will hear, see,
smell and even taste things that aren’t there.
 Feelings of paranoia, fear you are being controlled by someone or
something else or even that you can control others.
 Strong beliefs in unusual ideas, e.g. conspiracy theories.
 Become withdrawn from society.
 Poor memory.
 Lack of emotion and motivation.
Bi Polar Disorder
 Extremes of depression and manic behaviour.
 In depressive state the low feelings are physically and mentally
crippling.
 Symptoms of depressive state include: social withdrawal,
depression, suicidal thoughts and actions.
 In a manic state sufferers will act out of character, they may be
over confident, lose inhibitions, make poor decisions both personally
and financially putting themselves and possibly others at risk.
Who has mental health problems?
The reality is mental health issues can
effect anyone at any time.
 1 in 4 British people will experience a mental health problem in any one year.
 450 million people worldwide have a mental health problem.
 1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 - 16 suffer from a diagnosable mental
health disorder - that is around three children in every class.
 Around 1 in every 12 children and young people deliberately self-harm.
 There has been a big increase in the number of young people being admitted to
hospital because of self harm. Over the last ten years this figure has increased by
68%.
 More than half of all adults with mental health problems were diagnosed in
childhood. Less than half were treated appropriately at the time.
 Nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer from severe depression
 95% of imprisoned young offenders have a mental health disorder. Many of them are
struggling with more than one disorder.
Famous successful and living with
mental illness…
What do you do if you feel you are
struggling with your mental or emotional
health?
 Speak to your friends, family, mentor, anyone in the support department or your teachers,
asking for help is the first step to feeling better.
 Make time for yourself, get outside have walk, watch your favourite film do things that
make you happy.
 Know that it’s ok to not be ok sometimes.
 Come along to drop in sessions in GR4 at break on Tuesdays for a chat and to get some
practical tips on managing your mental and emotional health.
 Access websites such as ‘Young Minds’
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people
What can you do to help?
 Understand that having mental health issues can be a lonely and isolating
place, many people don’t admit to having mental illness because they are
scared of how other people may judge them; so be kind, think before you
speak, are you really ‘depressed’ or just having a bad day they are very
different things!
 Educate yourself about mental illness, know the signs and symptoms, it
could help you or someone you care about one day.
 Try not to use derogatory terms to describe peoples behaviour or illness.
 Fill in the pledge forms that will be sent to Mentor Groups pledging to not
use offensive and derogatory terms and to do one thing that will help
improve your mental and emotional health and help end the stigma
surrounding mental health issues.
 Change how you speak to, about and react to people that may have
mental illness and encourage other people to do the same.