Mental Health Awareness

Monday 5 October to Sunday 11 October 2009 is Mental Health Awareness Week. The theme for 2009 is Winning Ways to Wellbeing. This takes on special significance for me this year. Having witnessed the consequences of someone not reaching out for help first hand this year, this post is more than just rhetoric.


I much prefer to think of the phrase society uses "mentally ill" in the positive and look for ways to protect our mental health. So I am all in favour of the key message of this year's campaign which is to look after your mental health and has been broken down into five key points:
- Be Active
- Connect
- Give
- Learn
- Take Notice


To learn more about these five points, head to the 2009 Promotion Page on the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand website.


Mental Health and Mental Illness encompass a huge range of afflictions, from the moodiness of PMT through to the severity of schizophrenia or the prolonged awfulness of alzheimers. From having a blue day to battling bi-polar or feeling suicidal. The most important thing to know for sufferers is that you are not alone and that help is available. You may choose to come by that help through family, friends, professional help or sometimes you just need to take the first step and doing some reading to find out why you are feeling like you do and what you can do to help yourself.

Resources in the Rodney Libraries such as Living with a Black Dog (Matthew and Ainsley Johnstone), Positively Me (Marjorie Manthei) or Phobias and how to Overcome them (Gardner and Bell) help both sufferers and their family. To feel less alone, it can also help to read about others who have suffered and are prepared to open up about their experiences. John Kirwan has been one of the most high profile of these, but more recently adventure athlete Steve Gurney has added his name to those who have talked about how depression affected him. Other high profile New Zealanders who have shared their lives include Tracey Richardson, Murray Deaker, Janet Frame and Denise L'Estrange-Corbet.

And if you are suffering, whether it is a down day or something more serious (or if you think someone you know is battling), please please - talk to someone.