Celebrity good mental health!

I wore sports shorts and crop tops, so there are not that many places you can hide visible scars, but sometimes I’d just cover them with make up or I’d lie. When you’re a runner, you’re going in brambles and getting scratched all the time.

Col Dame Kelly Holmes on Self Harming

Over the past few years I’ve seen a significant and positive change in the way mental health is perceived in the general population. We’re now getting to the point where it’s actually okay to talk about feeling down, it’s okay to break down and cry after a shitty day at work, it’s okay to talk about your anxiety before a big social event or even a small social event.

In the UK it is estimated that approximately 16.5 Million people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year, in England, 11 Million people report experiencing a common mental health problem (such as anxiety and depression) in any given week. Let’s just pause here and put that into perspective, that’s one in four of us that will experience a mental health problem every year and one in six of us experiencing mental health problems every week – I’d appreciate a collective wow at this point please!

There are tons of statistics out there that suggest that mental health problems are on the increase, in 1993, the number of people with severe mental health symptoms was just below 7% of the UK population, in 2014 it was 9.5%, personally I don’t think that’s the case. As some of you know, I work in healthcare, I’ve been working with and dealing with problems associated with mental health problems pretty much all my working life and I can tell you – it’s always been there, the difference is, we’re now much more open about mental health issues and doctors, especially general practitioners are much better at spotting the signs and symptoms.

We’ve still got a long way to go however, things like suicide rates are in decline, in 1985 the suicide rate in women in the UK was 10 per 100,000 population, in 2016 it has literally halved. With understanding comes tolerance, in a survey in 2009 57% of people questioned stated they would be happy to live with someone with mental health issues, in 2016 72% stated they would be happy to live with someone with mental health issues – things are definitely getting better.

I believe the stigma surrounding mental health is diminishing to a certain extent thanks to the profile it has been given by people in the public eye. From Prince William, Prince Harry, The Duchess of Cambridge and The Duchess of Sussex, (that’s Kate and Meghan to you and I!), helping found and acting as Patrons to the mental health charity “Heads Together” openly and actively talking about mental health issues, to Stephen Fry, who has openly talked about his own demons, as part of his role as the President of the charity “Mind”.

Like or loath the concept of celebrity, in this instance it has brought a world of change to attitudes surrounding mental health. This week I came across two celebrities from the world of sport who are helping change attitudes, both of which I have tremendous admiration for.

Dame Kelly Holmes is a real heroine of mine, an ex-soldier who after watching Sebastien Coe win gold at the Los Angeles Olympics was determined to become an Olympic champion herself. Now, after winning both the 800 and 1500 meter gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics she dedicates a great deal of her time to highlighting mental health issues. Having inspired millions of people, girls and boys alike, to reach for the stars through her sporting endeavours, she has changed countless young lives through the Dame Kelly Homes Trust and by openly talking about her own demons, she willingly talks about the years spent behind closed doors in the grip of anxiety, depression and self-harm. Now, she’s using her experience to reach others, with a series of celebrity interviews for her podcast, What Do I Do?

In the podcast she talks to; TV presenter Davina McCall; journalists Jon Ronson and Alastair Campbell; author Philip Pullman; comedians Catherine Bohart, Eddie Izzard, Felicity Ward and Rory Bremner; transgender rights activist Munroe Bergdorf; musician Amanda Palmer; and mental health experts Dr David Crepaz-Keay and Owen O'Kane.

The podcast is an amazing roller coaster of emotions, at one point I’m crying with sadness, two minutes later I’m crying with laughter, from the image of her perching on the toilet seat in Alistair Campbells bathroom whilst he squeezed a tune out of his bagpipes, to chatting to Davina McCall, (another heroine of mine!), on a spin bike talking about her struggles with heroin addiction, the narrative is both deeply personal, profoundly emotional but equally compassionate and hugely supportive.

It’s available through Audible and is £19.99 which may sound a little pricey however, it includes all ten episodes, it’s over four hours long and I believe most of the proceeds will go to mental health charities. Personally, it’s on of the best £20 I’ve ever spent and I’d do it again tomorrow, it’s simply brilliant!

Also, this week I read another very moving article by Rebecca Adlington, another Olympic champion with demons in the closet. I don’t know why but some celebrities get a really raw deal, Rebecca Adlington is such a celebrity. After years of taunts and cruel jibes about the size of her nose, (let me tell you they were totally unjustified!), she went and had a nose job. Frankly, if it’s something she wanted, something she felt would boost her confidence well good on her! But that wasn’t everyone’s response, she was subjected to a tirade of abuse from the woman that invented the phrase, Resting Bitch Face – RBF, Katie Hopkins. I’m not going to get into the cruel name calling game but she has got the face of a bulldog chewing a hornet.

This week Rebecca reveals she is receiving therapy for panic attacks and hopes "talking about it more" will put a stop to the "big stigma" around mental health. She admits it has taken six months for her to get help for her anxiety, precious little wonder when the government has its collective head up its Brexit areshole.

She goes onto talk about historically, when she was competing at the highest level, she may suffer maybe one or two anxiety attacks a year, it wasn’t really a problem however, following the death of her grandfather last year, the attacks have come fast and furious;

"Since then it's just been every single day, every single week just really, really intensified. And I thought, hold on - if you're having them once or twice a year that's manageable, but when you are having them week in and week out it's just debilitating to be honest.”

"When you live on your own, when you're a single parent, I'm just so focused on putting my daughter to bed and then I'm just left on my own and that's when my mind starts over-thinking. I start ticking and I get all worked up and panicky about it."

The whole interview can be found on the BBC website here. It’s well worth a read, it highlights that mental illness can strike any of us at any time, mental illness does not discriminate and has no mercy.

A longish post this week however, as you can probably glean, mental health is something very close to my heart and I wanted to highlight the hero’s that are brave enough to admit they have problems, a bravery that helps us all.

What’s on this week?