mind journey - mental health zine

MENTAL HEALTH

MATTERS

grow THROUGH through WHAT what YOU you GOgo THROUGH through GROW

Depression is a low mood that lasts for a long time, and affects your everyday life.

In its mildest form, depression can mean just being in low spirits. It doesn't stop you leading your normal life but makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile.

At its most severe, depression can be life-threatening because it can make you feel suicidal.

every thought is a battle, e v e r y b r e a t h i s a w a r, a n d I d o n’t t h i n k i ’m w i n n i n g a n y m o r e

MEN DON’T GET DEPRESSED YOU’RE JUST SAD

STOP BEING SO NEGATIVE

YOU’RE WEAK

LOW SELF ESTEEM

SLEEPING PROBLEMS

CAN BE COMBINED WITH ANXIETY

FEELING SUICIDAL

COMMON SIGNS...

FINDING NO PLEASURE IN THINGS YOU ENJOY

HAVING NO APPETITE

UNHAPPINESS

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life. For example, you may feel worried and anxious about sitting an exam, or having a medical test or job interview.

DONT SAY THAT NOT GOOD ENOUGH

USELESS

THEY WILL JUDGE YOU

INSANE

UNWORTHY

NO ONE CARES

DELUSIONAL

There are many types of anxiety disorders, which are common for everyone to experience some point in there lives.

Remember, everyone’s experience of anxiety is different, so not everyone will experience the same symptoms.

Generalised Anxiety Disorder is common; the main symptom is over worrying about different situations, which may feel out of control. You may feel anxious, ‘on edge’ and alert to your surroundings. This can affect your daily life and ability to work, travel, leaving the house. You may get tired easily, have trouble sleeping or concentrating.

Panic Disorder is where you have regular panic attacks with no particular trigger. They may happen suddenly and can feel intense or frightening. Main symptoms are usually an overwhelming sense of dread or fear, sweating, hot flushes, chills or shivering. A dry mouth, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, feeling that you might be dying or having a heart attack.

Social Anxiety is where you may worry about social situations, usually having an intense fear or dread of social or performance situations. You may be worried that you will do something or act in a way that is embarrassing. You might feel aware of the physical signs such as sweating, fast heartbeat, shaky voice, blushing, worrying that others will notice this or judge you, leading to avoid certain situations.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is where you will usually have obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. An obsessive thought is a thought or image that repeatedly comes into your head. These thoughts are unwanted and you can’t control them. They can be upsetting, hard to ignore, making you feel distressed, anxious or guilty. Compulsions are things you think about or do repeatedly to relieve the anxiety from your obsessive thoughts.

You might believe that something bad will happen if you don’t do these things and realise that your thinking and behaviour isn’t logical but still find it difficult to stop.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is developed after a stressful or distressing event or if you have experienced trauma over a long period of time. Some symptoms are reliving the experience through flashbacks, dreams or nightmares, not being able to feel emotions, dissociation (disconnecting from yourself or others), negative self-perception such as feeling worthless or defeated, avoidance. This could mean that you try to distract your thought from thinking about the trauma. Or you avoid situations that remind you of your trauma.

It’s like this voice in my mind, constantly judging every thought and decision that I make

BIPOLAR RALOPIB bipolar is a mood disorder, in which causes your mood to swing from an extreme high to an extreme low. Formerly known as manic depression, where manic symptoms include increased energy, excitement, impulsive behaviour and agitation. There are also depressive symptoms such as lack of energy, feeling worthless, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts. You can also have psychotic symptoms in which you can see and hear things that feel real but they don’t exist. During severe episodes, you may experience psychosis such as hallucinations, which means you may hear, see or feel things that are not there and also delusions, in which you believe things that are not true. Other people will usually find these beliefs to be unusual.

schizophrenia is a complicated mental health problem related to psychosis. this severe long-term condition relates to the person being unable to distinguish their own thoughts and ideas from reality.

i t s th e v oices

YOU ARE NOTHING

YOU ARE NOTHING

YOU ARE NOTHING

inability to look after yourself hallucinations less enjoyment in life

paranoid HEARING VOICES delusions lack of interest

risk of suicide disorganised thinking

helplines Anxiety UK Charity providing support if you have been diagnosed with an anxiety condition.

Phone: 03444 775 774 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5.30pm) Website: www.anxietyuk.org.uk

Bipolar UK A charity helping people living with manic depression or bipolar disorder.

Website: www.bipolaruk.org.uk

CALM CALM is the Campaign Against Living Miserably. A charity providing a mental health helpline and webchat.

Phone: 0800 58 58 58 (daily, 5pm to midnight) Website: www.thecalmzone.net

Men’s Health Forum 24/7 stress support for men by text, chat and email.

Website: www.menshealthforum.org.uk

OCD UK A charity run by people with OCD, for people with OCD. Includes facts, news and treatments.

Phone: 0333 212 7890 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) Website: www.ocduk.org

PAPYRUS Young suicide prevention society.

Phone: HOPElineUK 0800 068 4141 (9am to midnight, every day of the year) Website: www.papyrus-uk.org

Rethink Mental Illness Support and advice for people living with mental illness.

Phone: 0300 5000 927 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4pm) Website: www.rethink.org

Samaritans Confidential support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair.

Phone: 116 123 (free 24-hour helpline) Website: www.samaritans.org.uk

SANE Emotional support, information and guidance for people affected by mental illness, their families and carers.

Textcare: comfort and care via text message, sent when the person needs it most: www.sane.org.uk/textcare Peer support forum: www.sane.org.uk/supportforum Website: www.sane.org.uk/support

YoungMinds Information on child and adolescent mental health. Services for parents and professionals.

Phone: Parents’ helpline 0808 802 5544 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4pm) Website: www.youngminds.org.uk