Mental Health December 

I think of each of us, when it comes to our mental health, as balls in a Pin Ball Machine, rolling down through life, ricocheting off the pins in a haphazard manner. For the most part we make it through the exit without much trouble, but then life sometimes throws an enormous stress or multiple stressors at us, and the machine screams “TILT!”

The reality is, all of us are at risk of suffering from poor mental health, be it for a short time, a long time or lifelong.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my father passed away. It may not have been the only factor, but I ended up suffering from severe Postnatal Depression. It took me a long time to recover, but during that time, I had some great supports including a mental health nurse that I’ll call Mary.

Mary frequently told me not to feel guilty, that it could happen to anyone. She was very kind and considerate, very knowledgeable about mental health and I believe very competent to help look after me. Some years later after I had recovered, I was working in a special position as part of a team that visited the local psychiatric hospital. The team had the role of doing checks, talking to patients and reporting back to the Department of Health, as a means of ensuring good quality care for the patients.

It was during one of these visits that I was shocked to find Mary in a group of patients - a patient herself. When I approached her and said hello, and asked how she was, she said “See Deb, I told you it could happen to anyone”.

So, what’s the moral of this story? The moral is, it’s so incredibly important to be aware of the risk factors around mental health, that are applicable to you, and the protective factors that are applicable to you at any time in your life.

Many factors are risk factors for everyone when it comes to suffering poor mental health such as a bereavement, and some are very unique to each individual. Protective factors tend to be very individual - what protects one person from mental illness, may not protect the next person.

A simplified plan to keep mentally well, is to minimise risk factors and maximise protective factors. Some risk factors are out of our control for example, a family history of mental illness, our gender, and so on, whilst others we can control. These include things like not using recreational drugs.

Similarly, some protective factors are outside of our control whilst many we can actually put into place ourselves. Some examples include living in a safe and health promoting community, with neighbourhood cohesion and having friends to socialise with.  Some individual protective factors include having effective interpersonal skills and problem-solving skills, and good stress management or relaxation skills - I put Mindfulness at the top of the list here.

Learning Mindfulness will boost your protection enormously.