For the day that’s in it, I have this important message to share with you.
It really is ok not to be ok.
I have written here or more than a few occasions what it is like to be periodically struck down with depression.
In the middle of it, you think that it will never end.
However, it does, and you reach the end of the illness much better if you have help.
This is a particularly awful time for anyone to be struggling with a mental a health problem.
The Covid19 pandemic has inflicted an incalculable amount of collateral damage to our mental wellbeing.
This global crisis has created anxiety from the possibility of contracting the virus, the trauma of a job loss and the appalling vista of continued social isolation until there is a widely available vaccine.
Much of the non-pharmacological interventions that assist people with a mental health problem involve combatting social isolation.
Clearly, during a lockdown, this exacerbates the issue.
Sadly, societal factors often complicate what a person is going through.
Society had long held to prejudicial attitudes to anyone who has a mental health problem.
Those narrow-minded views make the actual illness worse.
You don’t have to be a mental health professional to be part of the solution.
It is also important to note that something like a reactive depression to bereavement is a very time-limited ailment.
Some researchers believe it could be a part of a natural healing process.
Whatever the scientific reality is that I can plot several depressive episodes over my last four decades as an adult.
They always were connected to some loss, usually a bereavement.
In the end, they departed as surely as they arrived.
IT can happen to pretty much anyone at any time.
If society is open and accepting of that, then there should be no more stigma to a depressive illness than there is to seasonal flu.
Of course, it is all very well stating that, but you have to step up yourself and be an agent of change
A decade ago, I did my bit here in a publicity campaign.
Of course, as I suspected, my participation handed a weapon to those who wished to smear me and denigrate my journalism.
As ever, they constantly authorise all of my harshest assessments of them.
Still, if my open advocacy helped ONE person, even a member of the Ibrox klanbase, then it was worth the tsunami of ad hominem abuse that I have received since then.
If you’re struggling, then reach out.
Help is there.
A mental health problem isn’t a sign that you are weak, rather that you’ve been strong for too long.
Mind yourself and those around you.
This is a job for all of us.
Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.
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The scariest part of any depression/acute anxiety or indeed any mental health issue is as you say Phil -the fact that the sufferer thinks it will always be this bad and that things will never get better but they always do and will with a little help. That to me is the most important message to anyone not feeling their best and struggling. I’d add as well that whilst it may seem strange to say this -but I’m now Kinda glad I went through my really tough time as it’s made me a stronger and better person I think. Keep up the good work on this folks!
Reminds me of the old song which was popular in the 70,s
“We’re crazy, we’re mental, we’re aff our f**kin hesds”
I can’t believe the vile comments about you regarding your depression which you have been open about Phil. Empathy is anathema to the klanbase. Stay well. HH
Excellent Phil hear,hear… nah!! Hail! Hail!🍀🇮🇪
No one gets free pass on this,it can happen to anyone of us.It did with me and I thought something like that would never happen to me! I’m wasn’t alone in believing that scenario according to my doctor,like you say Phil,the first sentence will be the most difficult but,please speak up and take that first step.
Every man ( and woman) has their breaking point, for those who haven’t reached theirs yet be grateful, for those that have and recovered be thankful , for those still suffering speak up and ask for help there are more people willing to help than you realise. Well said Phil, not enough of us will admit or acknowledge our frailties , I’ve not met a perfect human yet.