Mental Health Awareness Week is a special week-long event designed to raise awareness of mental health and mental health problems and to inspire action to promote the message of good mental health for all.

The theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, set by the Mental Health Foundation, is the experience of loneliness, its effect on our mental health and how we can all play a part in reducing loneliness in our communities.

It is important that we raise awareness of the impact of loneliness on our mental wellbeing and the practical steps we can take to address it.  Reducing loneliness is a major step towards a mentally healthy society. Loneliness affects millions of people in the UK every year and is a key driver of poor mental health.

The Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health in the Pandemic research has found that loneliness has been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. The Foundation has been tracking loneliness levels in the UK during the pandemic and found the experience has been much higher with devastating impact. Loneliness has been an important factor contributing to higher levels of distress, resulting from people’s sense of isolation and reduced ability to connect with others.  Further polling also found that loneliness was one of the leading issues that the public felt needed to be addressed.

Mark Rowland Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation said:

“We hope this year’s theme of loneliness will strike a chord with many of us who felt lonely and struggled throughout the Covid pandemic. 

Millions of us experience loneliness from time to time. We know that some people are at higher risk of experiencing loneliness and the evidence shows the longer we feel lonely, the more we are at risk of mental health problems.”

David Babington Chief Executive of Action Mental Health added:

“Action Mental Health warmly welcomes this year’s focus on combating loneliness to help aid better mental health. For many years Action Mental Health’s services, across Northern Ireland, have provided a constant source of support to our clients, many of whom have told us that they would otherwise face isolation.

The impact of the pandemic has undoubtedly increased challenges for people right across society, with many people cut off from their traditional support networks. I am delighted that Action Mental Health has been able to maintain support  and contact, right throughout the pandemic for our clients.”

Throughout the week, AMH will offer a comprehensive package of tips, advice and help to those experiencing loneliness, so that they can help to support their mental health and wellbeing.

Together we can tackle loneliness.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week

Action Mental Health’s specialist eating disorder service, AMH everyBODY, is looking inward, aiming to steer attention to its clients’ voices – and their own personal experiences. To highlight Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2022, one of AMH everyBODY’s clients, shares their own thoughts on eating disorder recovery.

“I think the biggest misconceptions connected to eating disorders (ED) are that it is attention-seeking behaviours and that they can be diagnosed/recognised based on physical appearance alone.  This downgrades the experiences of those living with ED. 

My ED thoughts and behaviours started around 11 years of age.  I first saw a professional in school when I was 12. It is now that I’m older (28) that I can observe the grip of those false dark thoughts and behaviours have significantly loosened.  I remember reading or seeing things promoting speaking out when I was younger and thinking; no way could anyone understand any of this. I was so controlled by the thoughts inside my head.  It wasn’t easy starting to let go of something that has lived with me for so long.

But trust me, there are people out there that want to, will and can help.  Maybe we don’t exactly need someone to understand per sae, but when things are verbalised they become less intrusive and talking becomes a stepping stone to freedom.  There are people out there who are equipped to help us recognise and reframe our ED thoughts, feelings and behaviours.   We deserve to be empowered and to make that empowerment much stronger than the voices in our heads. 

To me recovery means the road to becoming free from the internal dialogue that lives inside.  We cannot do this alone; it is easier when we are provided with a toolkit for dealing with and overcoming ED.  Realise that we deserve to be free and we are worthy of help and support.  It is remembering, no matter how long it may take if we continue to fight we can start to release the control ED has over us.  We can start to realise that it is not us, we become observant rather than obsessed.”

“ED can erode relationships with ourselves and others.  The internal dialogues that come from ED will tell you are ok the way you are, but seeking help can help release us from that headspace that traps us.  This ED brain may convince you that you don’t need help from the outside and/or you can survive without support.  Yes, we are all individual but we need to move away from that internal individualistic dialogue and mindset that ED creates.  Seeking external support can enhance internal wellbeing. Sometimes it feels impossible or too scary to reach out but as long as the fight continues, talking and seeking help can make a huge difference in how you see and experience all that comes with living with ED.

If we can bring ourselves to view thoughts and behaviours as a product of the ED brain and not our rational brain, this can provide a more true and rational understanding of what is going on.  The ED brain can be toxic and fill us with contempt and crippling false narratives.  We do not like the thoughts and behaviours it produces, especially when they are left to ruminate and can become trapped and spark off other negative thoughts.  They can erode the real YOU.

When stuff gets trapped inside our heads, it feels so true but having someone to verbalise things to without judgement can help rationalise how true they really are. Openness is key.  Recovery is a struggle but it is worth it.  It is nothing compared to the struggle we go through when we live with ED alone.“