Today we are answering some questions about 'Do I need to see a therapist?'; What are the signs of low mood or anxiety; tips on helping with these signs; etc.
These podcasts are all about mental health, encouraging people to talk and giving people information about different therapies, coping skills and answering your questions and comments.
Today we are answering some questions about 'Do I need to see a therapist?'; What are the signs of low mood or anxiety; tips on helping with these signs; etc.
These podcasts are all about mental health, encouraging people to talk and giving people information about different therapies, coping skills and answering your questions and comments.
Hi, and welcome back to the therapy Guy.
First, I like to say thanks for tuning in and
for listening to our podcast here again, we've got some
great episodes coming up and today, today we're going to
be talking about some questions and feedback that we received
discussing who our clients are, why do we leave everything
to the last minute when we talk about mental health
and what are the everyday signs?
I'm also going to end with a few tips at the
end of how you can deal with your low mood, anxiety,
those sort of things to help you guys out.
So first, just a quick introduction to me again, my
name is Alan, I recorded as a Therapy Guy.
I have a couple of businesses here in Plymouth
in the UK and both my businesses are really
busy and we work in the mental health sector.
And at the moment we're seeing on
average about 500 clients people each month.
So, getting back to the feedback and questions that
we received from our last podcast, one of the
questions we asked was who are our clients?
Are they predominantly women or men, et cetera?
Where do they come from?
It's always a difficult question for us to answer
this when people do ask me, and you'd be
surprised how often I do get asked this question.
So, for example, marketing people, all sorts of
people ask me who my target audience are,
all those sort of cliche questions.
Well, the answer really is really varied and broad.
We see children all the way up to senior citizens.
There is no age limit for people
experiencing issues with their mental health.
There's no gender divide really, either.
Very classically and in a cliche way.
When I first started as a therapist, most of
my clients were sort of women because they are
more able to talk about their feelings and emotions.
They're actively encouraged to where men of certain
age and generationally are sort of encouraged to
sort of man up and get on with
it, to be the strong, silent type.
I'm happy to report that is definitely changing.
More and more men are coming forward, more
and more men are recognising the importance of
looking after their own mental health.
And there's a lot of things, a lot of
services out there, actively encouraging people to enter into
services or seek the support that they need.
So to recap the age group is
anything from children to senior citizens.
And we see, on average, a near enough
50 50 split of clients between males and
females entering into our service at any point.
Totally different with what sort of job
and career paths they come from.
They could be coming from people from manual
handling backgrounds, from service industries, right up to
people who are managing directors, people with their
own businesses, all this sort of thing.
So, again, there's no cliche or classic ideal client.
It's you. You and me.
People like you and me can enter in
and experience any sort of mental health and
need to seek support at any moment.
And I would actively encourage you, of course, to
speak to someone to try to get some support
if you a friend or colleagues or family members
are experiencing any sort of difficulties.
The second question was, how long should I leave it
before I seek sort of support from services like yours?
Well, unfortunately, people tend to leave it too long.
People tend to be and I'm generalising, of course,
with a lot of these things, but they generalised
and they tend to leave it to the very
last minute or when they're in crisis, to actually
seek support and encouragement at that time.
So it really has to be the last possible
thing that they do that is starting to change.
And I'm pleased to hear that the media, social media,
do play a part in that and it's great to
actively encourage people, but I still think we're a long
way away from people seeking the support they need early.
If you think about it, if there's something wrong
with you medically, and you tend to go to
the doctors quite quickly if you've got some sort
of injury or anything else, you tend to seek
help from specialists like physiotherapists or sports therapists to
help you get back to playing your sport or
doing your activity that you want to be.
There's no real difference with your mental health.
The earlier that you seek support, the easier it is for
those people to guide you back to where you want to
be when you leave it to the last minute.
When we're in crisis, of course it's going to take longer,
it may seem more difficult and it does seem harder for
people to actually cut back to where they want to be
and experience the life that they really deserve.
So, come on, guys.
If you're seeing someone, if you know of someone
who's struggling, just talk to them, encourage them, let
them know that you're there to help and support
them, but also encourage them to seek the support
that they need at that time, wherever it's from,
whether that's from you, other friends, family members or
the local GP or doctors.
And again, services like ours, who will be able
to support people in that sort of environment.
The last question I got was basically around what
are the everyday signs that they should look out
for somebody experiencing some sort of mental health?
So, once again, unfortunately, sorry about this, but it
is very generalised because the effects and symptoms, signs
and symptoms, that people can get very greatly depending
on the stress that they're under, the anxiety that
they feel, but also the type of person that
they are and their support network around them.
But I'll give you a couple and then
that will help you start to recognise maybe
in yourself or in someone that you know.
So one of the first things
is sleep or appetite changes.
Sleep plays a big importance in our health and,
wellbeing, it's not rocket science really, but we all
feel better after a good night's sleep.
Someone who's feeling low or anxious may
start to struggle with that sleep pattern.
Their sleep pattern might change and that eventually will
have an effect on their emotional well being.
They may be less inclined to eat or drink.
Yes, and again, all of these
things affect our emotional health.
You might see someone who changes mood quite rapidly.
One moment they're quite angry or frustrated,
or they'll be withdrawn or quiet.
When they're normally outgoing, they may be a bit more
snappy or just quick to judge those sort of things.
So again, it's important to look out for these
small, important signs that will help you start to
offer support when they need it most.
It could be a case of engagement.
So whatever they're doing, if they're working, if
someone's always working hard or something, that
output can start to decrease as their enthusiasm
and energy levels start to tire.
They may have problems thinking or solving
just normal, everyday things like adding up
their finances or doing simple tasks like
going out, going shopping, meeting new people.
So it can be really sort of telling when
somebody's struggling to engage in their usual behaviour.
So in reality, what you're doing is looking out for
any changes in a person's behaviour from the norm.
And if it starts to go on for a period of
time and it was out of character for that person, talk
to them, see if there's anything that they need help with,
see if there's anything that you can do.
See if there's any support that they might need.
Whether you're a friend, an employee, a family
member, colleague, doesn't matter, talk to this person.
It's what you and I would want
if it was the other way around.
So the thing I want to close with, and one of
the things I'd like to leave you with, is some tips
for just helping around that people with stress and anxiety.
Now again, lots of different things can obviously
help different people at different times and it
depends on your personality, et cetera.
But if I want to give you a few which will
hopefully help you, or help encourage other people to limit the
damage that their mental health is affecting them, one of the
things we can do is take time out.
We tend to be overworked, under
a lot of pressure, okay?
And we seem to forget about taking those breaks,
even if it is only for 5 10 minutes.
Stepping away from the problems,
letting yourselves clear the head.
If you enjoy a cup of coffee or a drink like
that in a cafe, go in, take that ten minutes away
from your desk or away from the environment that's starting this.
Try to limit the alcohol that you're taking in.
Can be quite easy to have a drink and forget, but
again, it just leads to further issues down the line.
Trying to sleep or relax, although this can be difficult
if we are feeling stressed or anxious, trying to recognise
or record how much sleep we're getting will give you
an indication of what's going on for you.
There are easy steps.
There's lots of things that's available on the Internet,
and I'll be telling you different ways as we
go through these podcasts in the future.
Some different things that you
can do around your breathing.
So taking those deep breaths, counting to
ten, slowly just to slow your breathing
down, and relaxing and repeating, if necessary,
trying to pull back from seeking perfection.
Nobody's perfect.
We can never be perfect all of the
time, but we put an incredible amount of
pressure on ourselves to be perfect.
One of the big things that I talk to
people about when they come to see me is
about what they can and can't control.
We are encouraged to think and feel that
we're in control of everything and we should
be in control of our lives.
When we think about it, we're
in control of very little.
So look at what you actually can control.
You may not be able to control the amount of
work your employer or your boss is giving you.
You may not be able to control the financial situation
or different things that are happening in the world.
So none of that is your responsibility.
Look for, maybe record or talk to other people.
I can't stress that enough.
The earlier you talk to someone, the easier it will be.
And the easier it will be to get back to where you
want to be and actually find the support that you need.
I hope some of these things have helped you.
And if you've got any questions or you would
like to let me know your comments and feedback
of anything I've said, please do so.
Part of those things I have to do is generalise a lot.
Yes, because I've said everything and
every person reacts in different ways.
So different things work for different people.
So if one thing doesn't work
for you, please try something else.
Fire away with your questions.
I can answer you personally or I can answer
you through the podcasts, because if you're thinking of
that question, I'm sure somebody else is.
We're looking forward to the next episode.
It's going to be based around
possibly in a couple of episodes.
I'm sorry, we might get a child therapist in.
He's going to be in talking
about his work with young people. All right.
And the next episode will be coming out next week,
and I look forward to you tuning in then.
But just for the moment, you take care of yourselves.
And this is a therapy guy just signing off. Thank you.
Bye.