27th April 2007 : Exploring depression and relaxation

This week was the first week with our new crèche facility provided by Springboard Families Project.

We opened half an hour early so we could have a cuppa and catch up on the weekly gossip.

We delivered the children to Springboard and much to our surprise all the children left us without too much trouble, and we went back to the Allandale and got into our discussion about mental health, depression and relaxation.

7 young mums, youth worker Shelley and health visitor Helen got involved in this weeks group discussions.

Question: What is mental health?
Task: The group were asked to write down positives and negative words around the word “mental health” in small groups.

-VES:
Depression
Isolation
Drunk & drugs
Self – harm
Scary
Weird
Depression
Post natal depression
Anti depressants
Nutter
Nut-nut
Crazy
Sleeping problems
No one understands
Lonliness
Hallucinations
Voices
Drunk
Drugs
Wanting to kill yourself
Anorexia
Keeping things to yourself
Keeping it all bottled up
Suicide
Eating disorder
Loss of concentration

+VES:
People to help
Feeling good about yourself
Coping
Getting help
Taking
Having faith and hope
Believing in yourself
Confidence
Self esteem

The group found it much easier to come up with negative words connected to mental health than positive ones, which is often how life can be and how the general public perceive mental health. Its also the reason that many people struggle to ask for help because they fear what reaction they may get from people.

Depression and postnatal depression is the biggest mental health issue for our young mums group, and we came up with a list of words, which describe what having depression can be like.

Anxious, not eating, self harm, over eating, stressed out, lonely, no one understands, not being able to talk, -ve thoughts all the time, worried, drinking excessively, flat / crap mood, scared, like the world is on top of you, not coping, fed up, confused, sleeping trouble, dwell on how you feel.

The group were then asked to stand up, members were asked to stay standing if they could say that they had honestly never been depressed at some point in their lives. Everyone sat down.

One of the worst parts about depression is feeling alone, and that nobody understands what you are going through. This exercise shows that each one of us in the group knew how it felt to be depressed, an issue that some of the group members are currently struggling with.

More information about depression can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/mental_health/disorders_depression.shtml

Given that everyone had experienced depression at some point the group then had to come up with their “top 3 tips” for someone feeling depressed and their “it would be better if you didn’t do this” whilst you were depressed.

Top 3 Tips

Talk to someone
Do some exercise / get out and about / learn how to relax
Get some help (talk to your GP / counsellor / other agencies)


Would be better if you didn’t:
Drink a lot (it’s a depressive)
Take Drugs (they can mess up your head even more than it already is)
Self Harm
Cope on your own
Try to kill yourself

A useful booklet available (each member of the group got one) http://www.youngminds.org.uk/depression/y1.php

Its really important for a positive mental health that we all learn how to relax, each of us do that in very different ways and we all have to work out what works for us.

To end our group we did a relaxation exercise that people can do in their own homes for 10 mins.

The Big Chill

You will need:
Relaxing music
Scented candles or an oil burner (optional)
Somewhere to relax and get comfy

1. Dim any harsh lights, light your candle or oil burner turn on your relaxing music and get comfy.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Listen to the music, relax into it and breathe slowly from your abdomen not chest.
4. Focus on your breathing, slowly and deeply so that you become aware of the breathing process and you can almost feel the breath in you.
5. Starting with your hands clench parts of your body and hold for 4 – 10 seconds, do this all around your body ending with your feet.
6. By now you should be relaxed into yourself, think of a word or phrase and say it silently as you exhale.
7. Continue this for 3 to 5 mins, push all distracting thoughts out of your mind.
8. Think of yourself on a beach, with warm waves crashing over you, enjoy the sunshine.
9. Do this for as long as you want to or feel comfortable with.
10. Open your eyes gently and stand up slowly. (Your eyes will feel wierd)

It was time for us to pick up children from Springboard, it seems that the children got on well in the crèche despite our worries and “it looks like a good plan came together” for this term!

Young mums returned to the Allandale to continue the chatting where we left off, and have another drink together before going our own separate ways.

This time will always be a good time for people to catch up with Shelley and Helen and have a private chat if they want to.