Staring at the Sun

So as usual I’ll start with a quick explanation of my title -  Staring at the Sun is a song by Rooster, which (I think!) is about losing out or getting hurt due to being ‘blinded’ by someone – “I’m tired of staring at the sun; can’t stand the way you burn my eyes so I can’t see… You took everything, while I was staring at the sun”.  Anyway, I think it’s quite a clever little lyric and is relevant to today’s blog post, which is partially about society being blinded to certain things.  It also, I realise as I write, gives me a good excuse to sneak in a little picture that captures the literal blinding sunlight phenomenon, which I took on a beach in Ireland a couple of years ago!  Hope you like it.

Anyway, I digress!  The inspiration for this post comes from a recent Mayor’s Debate with Young People in my local area, which I was reading the report for last night (yes that’s right; I read reports about Mayor’s debates in my spare time!).  There were three motions passed that evening, one of which related to mental health and wellbeing in young people.  Specifically ‘there should be more effective and integrated mental health services for young people and their families’.  According to the report, the person supporting this motion drew listeners’ attention to a lack of mental health services tailored directly at young people, to the mental health problems caused by the pressures of growing up on today’s society, and to an overlooking of these as a result of adolescence being viewed as a carefree time.  The opposition, on the other hand, noted that there are already good, well integrated services for young people, but that in fact there should be more investment in health, exercise, youth clubs and general wellbeing for young people.

Now, I’m all for improving mental health services and there do need to be services specifically for young people, but I’m inclined to agree with the latter approach.  We need to invest in preventative strategies to help stop young people developing mental health problems in the first place.  If you haven’t already, by the way, this would be a good time to take a look at my previous post, which is all about simple ways to improve wellbeing and mood.  And from first-hand experience, they really work.  If we can get young people engaging in exercise, in positive social experiences, in healthy eating (NOT dieting!), then I strongly believe we can get young people out of mental health problems.  And in fact I think these strategies would also help to treat the symptoms for some people that have already developed mental health problems, such as mild depression.  As noted in my previous post, evidence suggests that simply doing things is an effective treatment for depression.  Furthermore, using this approach will help young people to avoid the stigma associated with getting therapy or taking medication.  That said, it is also important that we work towards reducing and ultimately eliminating the stigma associated with mental illness.

This brings me nicely on to my next point, which is that in my view there is an urgent need to increase the awareness of mental health problems in society.  This is really where the title for this post becomes relevant, because I feel that society is largely blind to mental health and mental illness.  Ok, so that is a somewhat bold and exaggerated statement, but some serious work needs to be done to open people’s eyes to it.  How many of you were taught about mental health at school?  I would be interested to hear from you if you did, as I certainly didn’t.  Well, I did, but only because I chose to study psychology at A level.  By the way, I’ll just mention that I like to refer to mental health as well as mental illness, because it’s important to see it as a positive thing and not just an uncomfortable topic to avoid. 

Anyway, I think it should be a requirement that mental health and illness is taught to people from a fairly young age, just as physical health and illness are taught in science, P.E., PSHE.  Depression is just as much an illness as cancer, so why shouldn’t people have an awareness that it exists, what it is and how it might be treated?  Please correct me if I’ve got the wrong end of the stick here but as far as I can see, schools aren’t really teaching this sort of thing in this country.  It doesn’t even seem to be on the education agenda; I did a search on the TES website last night to find that the last mention of mental health in any of their publications was July 2011 – nearly a year ago!  I’m kind of incredulous that it’s not being talked about more to be honest.  I also read in a publication by YoungMinds that “The Ofsted report on PSHE (2010) found that mental health and emotional wellbeing is a neglected aspect of the curriculum”.  By the way, I’ve included a link to this report at the end of the post so feel free to take a look for more detail.

I strongly believe that simply raising awareness of mental health and mental health provision can go a long way towards preventing mental illness and making treatment of it more efficient.  Yes, we need effective mental health treatment provision, but what use is it if people do not know it’s there?  And what use is knowing it’s there if people don’t recognise the symptoms and therefore don’t know when they or someone they know is experiencing mental illness?  If we simply start helping young people to develop some kind of knowledge base in this field, then we can better equip them to recognise when there is a problem, in some cases to take steps to prevent the problem becoming more severe, and to know when, where and how to seek help.  Further, if mental health and illness becomes part of the syllabus that young people are taught, just as physical and sexual health and illness are, it will become a less uncomfortable topic, more widely understood, and the stigma surrounding it will be reduced (the YoungMinds report I mentioned earlier provides some evidence to support this notion).  More importantly, I really do believe that an increase in awareness would better enable people to take steps to avoid mental health problems developing in the first place or becoming more severe.

So, to summarise, it is my view that mental health should be a compulsory topic in PSHE education and that work needs to be done to increase awareness of mental health and illness in society from a young age.  It is also important to improve provision of strategies such as exercise and general wellbeing, in order to prevent mental illness and decrease the prevalence of this, not just in young people but in society as a whole.  I would be interested to hear about other people’s opinions on this so please do leave a comment if you have any thoughts.  

As always, I’d like to say thank you for taking the time to visit my page and read my blog.  I hope you’ll agree that this is an extremely important issue that impacts on the whole of society and so I’d really appreciate it if you could share this and ask others to share it to really get the message out there.  Thanks again and please do come back in two weeks for my next instalment! 

Links:

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/assets/0000/1410/YoungMinds_response_to_the_PSHE_Review.pdf 

You Could Be Happy

Ok, so as usual I’ll start by explaining the title of my blog: basically, now that I’ve started using song titles & lyrics as blog post names, I’ve set myself an irresistible challenge of naming every post in this fashion!  For those of you who don’t know, You Could Be Happy is a lovely little Snow Patrol song, which I first heard when I watched the second series of Gavin & Stacey.  The couple were going through a rocky patch in their relationship in which Stacey had moved back to Barry while Gavin Stayed in Essex, leaving them miles apart and unsure of their future (ooh check me out getting all dramatic!).  The episode in question ends with each of them on nights out in their respective locations, wondering whether to call each other or not, to the backdrop of Snow Patrol singing “You could be happy, and I won’t know…”  

Anyway, I digress!

The purpose of this post is to sort of sequel my previous post and put together some tips on how to improve your mental wellbeing and become, hopefully, a happier person.  In a way I’m kind of cheating as there are lots of websites out there which list ways to boost serotonin levels, etc., but I like to think I can bring together some bits and bobs from different sources and put my own spin on them to create what I think is the perfect 'recipe for happiness'.

I’ll start by doing the sciencey bit and explaining a little bit about serotonin, for those who don’t know; not because I want to get all scientific on you but because a lot of ways you can improve mood work by boosting serotonin levels, and I think it makes sense to understand why you’re doing things rather than doing them because somebody said it might help improve your mood.  So, serotonin is a neurotransmitter.  A neurotransmitter is basically a cell that transmits signals in the brain.  Serotonin is involved in various functions in the body, one of which is mood regulation.  Hence, boosting serotonin levels in the brain can help improve mood.  With that in mind, here’s a list of some serotonin-boosting tips:

1)    Do stuff!  No matter what it is, just make sure you do things.  Behavioural Activation is a psychological therapy for depression with quite a good evidence base, and it simply involves getting patients doing things.  Typically, this will start with small tasks like housework and build up to something like a dinner out with friends one hasn’t seen in a long time.  Now obviously this post isn’t about treating depression, but if you’re feeling down and want to improve your mental wellbeing then I hope this is a good example to encourage you to get out and about, because it really will help. 

 2)    Eat a healthy, balanced diet.  Firstly, this definitely doesn’t mean calorie count and don’t ever eat treats!  I don’t worry too much about calories and I eat something unhealthy every single day, but it’s just about getting the right balance.  High levels of protein are good, as protein contains tryptophan, which basically converts to serotonin in the brain.  This will work best if you consume a small amount of carbohydrate together with the protein.  The way I understand it is that protein essentially helps to boost the levels of serotonin, whilst carbs help to release it.  I’ve also read that it is good to eat a high protein meal followed by a carbohydrate snack two hours later.  Try to eat wholegrain carbs and avoid white ones, as this is much better for digestion and helps prevent the sluggish feeling you sometimes get after eating.  Some good tryptophan-rich foods are oily fish, eggs, poultry, nuts and cottage cheese.  Also, try not to consume too much caffeine.  I limit myself to 2, or 3 at absolute tops, cups a day, and I find I feel more anxious if I consume too much.  Also, remember alcohol is a depressant!

  

3)     EXERCISE!  I cannot emphasise this enough.  Exercise is great for releasing serotonin and another “happy hormone”, dopamine (also a neurotransmitter).  There has also been research to suggest that it is as effective a treatment for depression as antidepressant medication.  I try to exercise most days and I absolutely love it.  Once you get the bug, it really is addictive!  I definitely think that people should see exercise as a way of being healthy and happy rather than a way of losing weight.  Of course, if you get a good balance between exercise and healthy diet you’re going to maintain a healthy weight anyway.  Once you find your sport and learn to love exercise you won’t need to worry so much about your weight and what you’re eating, which is great.  I rarely weigh myself as I know I have a fairly healthy lifestyle, I feel good and I’m happy with how I look.  Even if I’m feeling really tired, sometimes I’ll really make an effort to get on the cross trainer or something for a bit, and I’m always feeling better and more awake afterwards.  It’s amazing!  And exercise doesn’t have to be intense; you could just go for a walk or something.  I also read somewhere that being around nature can improve psychological wellbeing, so going for a walk in the country or on the beach could be the perfect mood-boosting plan.  Also, according to the brain-training website Lumosity, brain performance peaks at three workouts a week, so exercise has a multitude of benefits.

4)   Be with people.  Just appreciate the people around you and spend time with family and friends.  I heard once that a hug a day decreases stress levels!  I also think there’s a lot to be said for really being able to enjoy your own company sometimes, but if you are feeling down then enjoying others’ company is a good place to start!  If I’m feeling down I find being with other people inevitably helps.

5)   Get out in the sun!  The old classic: everyone’s happier when it’s sunny.  That’s because sunlight supresses the production of melatonin, and melatonin supresses serotonin production. Therefore, we want to get as much sunlight as possible to boost serotonin levels (but don’t forget your sunscreen!).  One of the websites I’ve linked below suggests getting out in the sun for at least half an hour in the morning and two hours throughout the day, if possible.  

6)   Be 'mindful'.  Mindfulness is a difficult art to master but it can have amazing effects.  Mindfulness is used as a treatment to prevent depression relapse (it’s very new but has an excellent evidence base so far!), but it’s also great for reducing stress and generally improving mental wellbeing.  It involves focusing on the self and the present moment, in a non-judgemental way.  Importantly, it also involves acknowledging (NOT supressing!), but not elaborating on, thoughts.  Personally, I plan to start attending some mindfulness sessions to improve my ability to manage stress.  I’m no expert on it at the moment but would definitely recommend to anyone looking into it and possibly learning some mindfulness techniques.

So, if you’ve got this far, as always I’d like to thank you for reading.  I’ve said all this not just for the sake of putting a list of things together that are supposedly good for improving wellbeing, but because they’re all things I include (or endeavour to include!) in my own lifestyle and feel really good for it.  I would urge anyone to try and follow at least one or two of these tips to help make you feel good, both physically and mentally.  I truly believe that if you do, “you could be happy”!

Relevant Links: 

Lumosity: http://www.lumosity.com/app/v4/personalization

Wikipedia - serotonin:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin

Wikipedia - neurotransmitter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotransmitter

Serotonin-boosting tips: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/serotonin-boosters/#axzz1tpWPm6Di

http://www.ei-resource.org/articles/mental-and-emotional-problem-articles/easy-and-natural-ways-to-raise-low-serotonin-levels/

http://www.naturalnews.com/020611.html