What is available for Mental Health in the UK?

* Originally Posted May 15 2018 *

Its National Mental Health Awareness Week! So today i want to focus on what is available to us in the UK to help deal with Mental Health issues. Some of these may seem obvious, but there may be some things in this list that you may not know about!

Your GP

Okay so first of all, whenever I am talking to someone who has issues with their mental health – I will always suggest going to their GP for advice. They can do tests and ask questions – to figure out the best way to help you. There are free NHS services that they can provide you with, and even look into it on a physical aspect. There are no “one fix” for mental health problems. But they can definitely give you a good base to start on – and can look into whether your depression is copable in the short term, or whether there may be underlying issues that need looking in to.

BONUS: Its not always easy to figure out the best way to explain how you are feeling, but MIND have recently started a new campaign called Find The Words – it offers advice and print offs to help you have that initial discussion with your GP. You can find this campaign here: https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/campaigns/find-the-words/

Mental Health Charities

There are many mental health charities in the UK, that offer advice and help. Places like Mind, Young Minds, Time To Change and Anxiety UK are fantastic and offer so much help to people who need it.

Counselling Services

As I mentioned earlier, there is no “One fix” for depression and anxiety. For instance, I spent many years on Anti-Depressants, but they never really worked for me. Other people I know – have had great success with anti-depressants. What worked the most for me was Counselling. There are many ways to get access to a counsellor;

• The NHS offer this service (but in most areas there is a tremendous waiting list of 18 months to 2 years! But I highly recommend asking your GP about this),

• Private Counselling – these can be quite pricey, but i would suggest looking around your area to see what is available to you.

• Counselling through Work or School – Many schools and bigger organisations offer in-house counselling or external counselling through an Occupational Health service. The Occupational Health route normally involves 3-5 paid for sessions with an external private counsellor.

Online support

There are many services online to help with your mental health. CBT guides (a self taught therapy that looks at changing the way you think and behave, to help train your brain) can be found through the NHS or via places like MIND.

Mindfulness

Similar to CBT – Mindfullness is a blanket term for training your brain to look after itself. This can be done through looking at what triggers your issues and looking at how to control that reaction, and how to defend yourself against it. You can access many great mindfullness guides online, through books, and through apps.

BONUS: Mindfulness takes a lot of its ideas from Buddhism, and I found books that teach Buddhism to be better than most Mindfulness books!