Question: Have you ever had a very bad type of mental health

Laura Fisk answered on 10 Jun 2019:

For me, ‘mental health problems’ is a big term to describe human distress. We all have life experiences and things that happen to us that cause us distress. Sometimes we end up getting a diagnosis of an ‘official’ mental health problem, and sometimes we don’t – but we all know what it’s like to suffer, and have to find ways of getting through that distress – sometimes this help comes from professionals, and sometimes it doesn’t have to.

Like all human beings I’ve experienced stress, and some of the methods I have used in the past to try to cope with that stress wouldn’t be ways I’d choose to use in the long term. I was given a mental health diagnosis then. I learned to notice what was causing me to suffer, and what I was doing in response (to cope) and to work out if these ways were helping or not (often they weren’t) and to find new ways that might work better.

So that’s what I see as a big part of my job – helping people find ways of coping with stuff that let them live a life worth living, and which dob’t get in the way of their goals.

I found the methods I first used as a teenager (staying away from people, not eating enough) were not massively effective in the long term because they stopped me doing the things I loved (didn’t have enough energy to do social interactions, I didn’t get the practice in working with people), and so I eventually (with a but of help) worked out ways that were more effective for me (talking with people close to me, thinking ‘this will pass’, making sure I manage my expectations for what I can expect to achieve etc etc). We’re all doing our best to work out how to live in the world, and have different challenges that make things harder or easier. Being able and willing to understand one another is a massive help to people 🙂