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Exercise, mental health & taking on Ride London

Clare blogs about her experience of eating problems and exercise and how taking on Ride London helped her find balance.

I put off fundraising at first. I didn’t want to let people down if I decided it wouldn’t be healthy to ride. But when I put up my fundraising page the support was amazing. Mind do brilliant things for so many people – and they helped me stay in work when I was having a really difficult time coming off Sertraline earlier this year.

Riding for Mind has helped me find a gentler joy in cycling again. I was proud to wear their logo on Sunday. And I’m doing my very best to make sure I eat and rest properly afterwards too.

David lives with bipolar 1 disorder and has been a presenter with the Black Dog Institute for almost a decade

He delivers a range of talks to workplaces, including ‘Mental health is everybody’s business’. He had a successful career in the advertising industry for more than 30 years and now focuses solely on his work as a mental health speaker and trainer.

I started working as a presenter with the Black Dog Institute nearly 10 years ago. The presentations I do are a really great starting point for workplaces. People get to understand a bit about depression, anxiety, the prevalence of mental health issues and hear some interesting insights from someone with lived experience.

What I hope people take from my presentations is some practical tips on how to reach out to someone if you think they need help, and how to reach out yourself if you’re not feeling well. I hope I give them that bit of knowledge and confidence to go, ‘This is not as scary as I thought.’

How schizophrenia changed the whole course of my life

Alice Evans was at university when she developed schizophrenia. She didn’t leave her parents’ house for the next ten years.

Alice Evans is a filmmaker and photographer based in London. You can see her work here.

I started making artwork in the form of photographs and films that expressed in some ways how I was feeling. I could communicate more through those mediums how I was feeling than I ever could in words.

I started volunteering for a local mental health charity which helped me get more skills and experience. They pointed me towards some proper talking therapy which became instrumental in my recovery. Sadly, the organisation had a lot of its funding cut and the branch I was working in was closed, to much dismay from the staff and service users.

I was very lucky though. Before they closed, they helped me apply for an MA at the Royal College of Art and I began to take on some teaching work so that I could enable others to develop their own creative skills. I am now pursuing a PhD.

Wayne’s career has taken him from the rugby field to working for the Black Dog Institute as a speaker and an educator

Eventually, at Black Dog Institute, I was diagnosed with melancholia which is a very severe type of depression and not always easy to diagnose. This correct diagnosis meant I was prescribed medication that gradually helped, but I also learned to be disciplined.

Later I began volunteering for Black Dog Institute doing presentations to community groups and schools about my own lived experience. Mainly I tried to explain that depression is an illness and once people realise that, they discover there’s a way out of it and that’s a huge relief. Giving back and sharing my story has really helped.

A lot of people think mental illness makes them weak, but that is so wrong. They’re the toughest people in the world.

Schizophrenia: ‘I felt like I’d been given a life sentence’

A diagnosis of schizophrenia has turned film-maker Jonny Benjamin into a poster boy for young people’s mental health.

Benjamin first began hearing voices at 10 and subsequently went on to suffer frequent deep bouts of depression from 16. He was diagnosed in his early 20s with schizoaffective disorder – a combination of schizophrenia and depression.

Three years ago, Benjamin set up a YouTube channel to reach out to others with mental health difficulties, and has since created a catalogue of videos online – usually of him talking to camera but also short films – as well as offering support and a forum for discussion about the issues most affecting young people.

This year, Benjamin presented a full-length documentary, Failed by the NHS, for BBC3 as part of the channel’s much-praised mental health season.

Fighting shame and stigma

Nicole blogs about how she learnt to embrace her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and build her self-worth.

n 2004, I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1. The diagnosis was long overdue. Years of struggling with crippling depression and anxiety had taken their toll. Afterwards, I sought to improve my sense of self-worth by becoming an advocate for others who struggle with a mental health disorder.

Three years after my diagnosis, I attempted to play an active role in breaking the stigma by creating a website, poolsofblessing.com. Where I began to share personal stories about what it was like to live with a mental health disorder. Though my intent was to shine a light on why mental health is health, this mission became a trap in and of itself. It felt that this was my way of apologising to the world at large for my diagnosis. If I made myself useful, it would make up for my shortcomings and failures. What I didn’t realise back then is that I had nothing to apologise or make up for.

I am proud to say that I am no longer ashamed of my diagnosis or the fact that I struggle to find my balance point. I choose to view myself as a warrior rather than a wounded victim. If you have a diagnosis of bipolar or any other mental health problem, it may help to choose to see yourself for the fighter you are.

“Please, don’t be quiet. Talk.” – Vinnie’s story

For Time to Talk Day, Vinnie tells us about his journey, from childhood up to the present day. After experiencing anxiety and depression for most of his life, creating art and volunteering with our charity gave him hope. He now works as a Mental Health Recovery Worker for Rethink Mental Illness, using his lived experience to support others in similar situations.

I completed a Fine Art degree at university. I didn’t care about doing anything with the degree, but it symbolised my recovery; how I found a positive way to manage my mental health. I went back to Rethink as a volunteer, to help run the art group.

Before long, I fell into another depression. I wanted to escape my troubles, so I got a job working in Kuwait and India. I remember thinking: I’ve just jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, what have I done? But I stuck it out and came back to the UK to continue volunteering.

I was happy creating art, helping others and keeping my brain distracted. I eventually applied for a Mental Health Recovery Worker role and have been supporting people for ten years now. I still have bad days, but I pick myself up by remembering where I’ve been and where I am now.

Surviving Suicidal Ideation and Finding Recovery

I was seven years old when I first struggled with suicidal ideation. Of course, back then I had no idea that’s what it was called. But that pain continued in the form of severe depression and anxiety throughout my childhood. I learned to mask my depression for many years, but I found it harder to mask the panic attacks I started dealing with in my late teen years.

Now, 20 years after first experiencing suicidal ideation, I have found recovery and my passion. I am a certified recreation therapist. I have worked in psychiatric hospitals and currently work as a case manager for more than 35 people. I see it as a privilege that each day, I get the opportunity to help others through their struggles with mental health.

EastEnders: ‘I was ignorant about my schizophrenia’

When Antonio Ferreira was a teenager, he spent two years in a mental health facility because of his schizophrenia.

Now aged 23, the Londoner is using his experience to advise EastEnders on a storyline about schizophrenia focused on the character of Isaac Baptiste – a black man grappling with the physical and social issues associated with the condition.

He says people with poor mental health are often depicted in media and films as violent, spontaneous and gruesome. That’s how I pictured it, too, so I kept saying that I wasn’t supposed to be there and that I was fine. But I wasn’t well of course. I attempted to take my own life and was hearing voices.

Antonio feels the storyline in EastEnders is crucial to breaking down barriers for black people and hopes it provides “openness, empathy and understanding”.

During my mid-teens I lost interest in pretty much everything. I just thought I had turned into a lazy, moody, unpleasant teenager

I lived in relative silence and shame for many, many years. Too scared to open up and always worried about how others would perceive me.

I was first treated for depression and anxiety in my early 20’s, but it wasn’t until another 15 years later that I became more open and started to heal. It was good to know that I was feeling the way I did because of a medical reason. There was a reason, and there was hope.

In 2014 my family was spending Christmas in Mildura. We were walking to go out for dinner and my 6-year-old daughter stopped and asked “Dad, how long would it take to walk back home to Bannockburn?” I decided I would find her the answer by walking the 520kms myself. I did some planning and decided I wanted to raise money and awareness for mental health along the way.

After lots of research I decided to contact Black Dog Institute. I loved the work they did and knew I had to be part of it. They suggested I undergo some training and become a community presenter. We raised almost $15,000 along the way and always connected with the small communities we passed through and spoke about what we were doing and why. We started many conversations about mental health and On October 2, 2015 I was able to tell my daughter that it takes 13 days to walk from Mildura to Bannockburn.