Advice

UNDER PRESSURE

Under pressure: Let there be light

Dark mornings and cold nights can trigger the winter blues, but there’s lots you can do to get through it

For HVAC workers there’s an added challenge as many are not only going to work in darkness but also then working in dark, dirty spaces.

A lack of sunlight can impact on your mental health and some people get seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It’s actually quite common in the Lack of sunlight can adversely affect your mental healthUK. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, about three What can I do? people in every 100 have significant The good news is simple things make winter depressions. a big difference. Some people sit in How do I know I’ve got it? day. The National Institute for Clinical The symptoms are a low mood and a Excellence advises: lack of interest in life, being less active front of specialist light lamps every than normal, sleeping more, changes in • Get as much natural sunlight as appetite and being unable to concentrate. possible – even a brief lunchtime walk can be beneficial What are the causes? • Make your work and home The lack of light is believed to impact environments as light and airy on production of the hormones as possible melatonin and serotonin and disrupt • Sit near windows when you’re indoors the body’s biological clock. • Take plenty of outdoor exercise • Eat a balanced diet. NICE adds: “It can also be helpful to talk to your family and friends, so they understand how your mood changes Nothing is more during the winter.” important to you The CIPHE is also there to help. Membership director Tim Sainty says: than your health “One of the benefits of membership

is a healthcare scheme. This includes free access to a comprehensive range of health and wellbeing services (see page 30), meaning you’ll have access to a team of specialists who are on hand to offer advice and reassurance. “Nothing is more important to you than your health and the health of your family – especially at the moment. Diagnosis and treatment can be dealt with efficiently, helping you to concentrate on getting well.”

Find out more • Mental health charity Mind www.mind.org.uk • The Lighhouse Club is a charity that provides wellbeing support to construction workers and their families www.lighthouseclub.org • About Seasonal Affective Disorder www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/problemsdisorders/seasonal-affective-disorder-(sad)

Mick Iles MCIPHE RP The Surrey branch member plumbs the depths to WW1 shipwrecks and recalls his run in with police about a handgun…

QWhat do you love about your, job? Q Have you got a standout moment?

AI enjoy the engineering side of it; the problem-solving. I also like A Finding a handgun and ammunition under the fl oor of meeting different people. We’ve got a council refurb we were working on. quite a big client base that have stayed There was a hatch and they were in a with us for 27 years. Some of the new tin inside. I took it to the local police technology is pretty good and I like station and they decided to question keeping up with all of that. me for some time. It turned out to be

QHow did you get into Mick enjoys the previous resident had kept. the industry? problem-solving aspects of his work

AI was warned not to by my grandfather, who’d been a plumber but went over to being an electrician. He plumbing. It’s gone reasonably well – we

said it was a dirty job, but I could see it look after two schools and churches. A lot Q What are the being interesting. I worked in a builder’s of it is quite specialist and that’s where benefi ts of a CIPHE merchants before I fi nished school and we better our competitors. membership?

two weeks after that I started as an A It’s run by members for members. apprentice with Marryat Jackson Norris. Q What’s the most interesting thing you’ve The connections and friendships are invaluable. People that don’t get Q How did you get into your current role? A I was self-employed with another engineer and then started another learned along the way? A Try to keep a level head and don’t push too hard. It’s about having the mental capacity to get your head around involved are missing out in a big way. If anybody’s got a problem, they can get on the phone. I’ve got someone on the commercial side where, if I’m stuck, company for seven years doing offi ce a problem, whether it’s engineering or I can make a call. We also know the interiors. I just decided to come back to on the business side. Even I still fi nd it manufacturers. That’s a big help. doing domestic and some commercial hard sometimes. a Webley ex-service revolver that a

QWould you do it all over again?

AAbsolutely. I should have been a bit more ruthless – but that’s not Q Tell us something people don’t know about you me. I like to do a proper job for the right money and not rob anybody. I’ll always A I’ve been diving since I was 14 and I’ve dived all over the world. When you immerse yourself in help somebody out. water, your heart beat slows down – it goes back to Get in touch before you were born. It relaxes me. My favourite is the Would you like to feature here? Scapa Flow off Scotland. It’s my home from home. I wear Contact the editor on a chain with a ‘piece of eight’ from the 1700s that I found pandhengineering@ off the South coast. jamespembrokemedia.co.uk