Living in interesting times

There is a (perhaps) Chinese curse that states “may you live in interesting times” I’ve mentioned this in a previous article and now I’ve come back around to considering once more as I think about Mental Health Awareness Week this year.

The theme is Anxiety and I’ve been thinking about anxiety a fair bit, perhaps over thinking, but that’s something that I do a lot.? To be fair to me, as I just mentioned, it is the theme of Mental Health Week this year so this time I have an excuse. We, that is Golden Tree CIC , have been working with Let’s Connect and the Tees Wide Training Hub (TWTH) for many years delivering a range of training, starting withMental Health First Aid England’s courses but nowwe deliver the range of FAA accredited and Ofqual regulated First Aid for Mental Health courses along side other training on Suicide Awareness, ASIST, Self-harm, mindfulness and various wellbeing talks. It’s been a pleasure and an honour to be involved with Mind, Let’s Connect and the TWTH and a joy to work with so many people engaged in the discussion and debate around mental health,recognising when support and assistance is needed and helping people get that support. It does make a difference. I’m convinced of that and I know that many people have benefited from ‘early intervention’ approaches.

Alongside Golden Tree CIC I also work in private practice as a therapist. Having trained in Transactional Analysis with TATO the TA Training Organisation and having achieved my Diploma I began to widen my gaze on other ‘modalities’ or ways of working which included Narrative Therapy, Poly Vagal Therapy and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) all of which have profoundly impacted on the way that I work with clients (and how I think about and deliver my training in the training room and online).?

OK, what has this got to do with Anxiety?? Well, I suppose on a personal level I feel anxious at times both in the training room and during some of the therapy sessions I engage in. What is interesting here is how do I frame that experience?? In part this is what some therapy work is about, helping the individual reframe the experience that they are having, challenging some of the negative ways of constructing their experience and being open to other ways of experiencing their experience. Ways that are less judgemental and critical, ways that help the individual process previous experiences, perhaps from childhood. This is, or rather can be really helpful.? These approaches can, perhaps not intentionally place the ‘problem’ within the individual, that there is something ‘wrong’ with them and that they must show the required will and fortitude to resolve the issues that they are experiencing.

But how does that sit with the context in which they are experiencing ‘anxiety’? Given that we can argue that anxiety (as opposed to stress) comes from uncertainty; How do we manage in these ‘interesting times’? Sitting in an anxious or distressed state for a long period of time can lead to feeling low and even to thoughts and feelings of suicide. I saw recently an article in the Nursing Times, which highlighted that nurses are at greater risk of suicide in part due to bully in the workplace, low pay and elements of the job that are continually distressing and impactful (I have seen similar articles citing the same or similar reasons and further reasons around job security, alcohol culture and low pay). Within the comments on these articles there was a call, from many, for the implementation of First Aid for Mental Health or Mental Health First Aid across these industries, perhaps as part of initial training. Now that’s great and I applaud this and it is absolutely needed, whichever course is chosen, they are after all fundamentally the same, however it cannot be the only thing that businesses do.?

We have been very lucky to work with Dr Tracey Leghorn and the Team at SUEZ as we see and have been supporting their broader approach to health and wellbeing in the workplace. Yes they are equipping staff with the understanding around mental illness but also in supporting the continued development of healthy, supportive and compassionate workplaces. The range of support, webinar sessions and training offered to all staff is something that needs to be replicated across many other organisations.??

Our work continues to grow and move beyond solely focusing on ‘mental illness’ or ‘health’ to other areas of safety and wellbeing which is exciting. We’re currently supporting SUEZ with the development of training to challenge negative ‘banter in the workplace’ and ‘microaggressions’, that isn’t saying there is an issue within any part of the business, they just want to keep working on creating better and better places in which to work and thrive.???

In a similar vein the Government must do more to support a healthier and safer country. It needs to move beyond a narrow focus on the bio/medical model of mental health. The calls for courses around mental health training to be made mandatory does not resolve the fundamental causes of uncertainty, paying bills, heating homes, clothing children, having a meal or the absence of feelings of safety and security due to living in a violent or abusive place or working in an environment that is bullying and unsafe. These core issues of inequality, abuse and uncertainty must be factored into any strategy that claims to resolve the mental health crisis that this country faces.?

The debate and discussion around ‘mental health’ or wellbeing must begin to address some of these fundamental issues - the context in which people are living, what is happening (or has happened) to them. Perhaps feelings of anxiety would be lessened if some of the social and economic pressures could be addressed. A refocus not just the biological/medical model of mental health and illness but on the wider bio-psycho-social model of health; Perhaps then we will move away from uncertainty and anxiety where we can live in interesting times that are a blessing not a curse.

Thanks for reading