Suicide is a taboo subject and it has a strong myth that talking about it increases the chances of people dying of suicide. The more you talk about a topic, the more understanding of it is developed.

We had the privilege to listen to some heart warming stories to raise awareness around suicide. Always remember you are not alone.

Our Founder, Ridhima Bhasin candidly shared her journey with her mental health for the mental health awareness week in the UK.

All the videos of her experience are available here:

Medication:

Therapy:

Identifying Triggers:

Support for mental illness:

Importance of food, sleep and exercise:

Welcome @niallhilism_ Niall is an insight consultant by day and bedroom musician by night. He is an advocate for supporting mental health, specifically eating disorders, having lived with Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa throughout his mid to late twenties. #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorderawareness #anorexianervosarecovery #anorexiafighter #bulimiarecovery #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #mentalillness #mentalillnessawareness #mentalwellness

Our Founder, Ridhima Bhasin was interviewed by ITV to join some famous faces for the Britain Get Talking campaign. Ridhima Bhasin says, "it was an absolute unique expereince to interview for ITV and I am glad I was given this opportunity. It is so important to talk about mental health and campaigns like these in important times like Christmas are very helpful."

The link to the full ITV report here: https://www.itv.com/news/central/2021-12-03/famous-faces-join-itvs-latest-britain-get-talking-campaign

We spoke to various senior leaders from financial services, consulting, travel and tourism and social enterprise industry to understand what mental health and mental well-being means at a workplace on a day to day basis.

The full video is available on YouTube to watch below:

Pallavi Khare is the Co-Founder of WeUnlearn - a social enterprise focusing on empowering India’s youth to build their self-efficacy and lead gender-equitable lives. She has 7+ years of work experience at organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Bain & Company. She is a Fulbright India Scholar pursuing Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is an alum of IIT Delhi.

Paul Harlington is the Group Procurement Director for TUI, the world’s number one tourism business. He is a passionate mental health ambassador, raising awareness of mental wellbeing within TUI and externally via company and industry talks, firmly believing that senior leaders should set the example by speaking up about their own mental health experiences to smash the stigma. Paul is an InsideOut LeaderBoard Role Model and Mental Health Campaigner of the Year 2021, the UK & Europe leader of The Stability Network, and a Fellow of the Zinc Academy, supporting young entrepreneurs with mental health digital start-ups. On a personal note, Paul raced superbikes for several years, but has most recently focused more and more on fitness. A seasoned marathon runner and experienced running coach, Paul also completed a full IronMan triathlon to raise money for Mind – the Mental Health charity.

Alka Tripathi is an Associate Partner with KPMG Global Services and a Business Unit Leader for the Financial Services Audit team in the offshore practice. She is also head of the Culture change initiative. She has an overall work experience of 20+ years with Audit Delivery Centre, offshoring practice and CA firms. She is a Qualified Life and Leadership coach and passionate about promoting the wellbeing agenda at work.

Mark Olivier qualified as a chartered accountant at KPMG before joining Goldman Sachs in 2000. Mark is the Chief Risk Officer for Goldman Sachs Asset Management in EMEA.

Our Founder, Ridhima Bhasin, collaborated with MeHeLP and Lyla Freechild to talk about her mental health journey.

Mental Health Literacy Project (MeHeLP) is a collaborative partnership between Indian and UK based scholars and theatre makers to explore and examine the applicability and promotion of mental health literacy (MHL) in urban and rural communities in Kerala using Theatre.

Full video of the event is available below.

Just Another Illness spoke with Finaly Games and Purnima Gupta to understand the overlap of mental illnesses and LGBTQIA Community.

Finlay Games is a transgender gay man and the author of Top to Bottom’ a Memoir and Personal Guide Through Phalloplasty. He is also a YouTuber and blogger, where, drawing from his lived experiences, Finlay shares candidly on topics of gender, sexuality, addiction, and mental health. Finlay also provides education, information, and support, in his work as a public speaker and life coach.

Social Media Links for Finlay Games
• Website & Blog: https://finlaygames.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FinnTheInfinncible
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finlaygames/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinlayGames
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finntheinfinncible/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FinlayGames/

Ms. Purnima Gupta is a practicing Psychologist for past 16 years and a faculty of psychology with Gujarat University and Karnavati University. She has her private practice in Vastrapur and Chandkheda areas of Ahmedabad. Ms. Purnima is also involved with various organisations as their mentor and advisor. She regularly conducts workshops, trainings and certificate programs in psychology.

Social Media Links for Purnima:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Purnima69424295?s=09
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purnimaanahata/   https://www.instagram.com/anahata_mental_health_clinic/

IG: @schizo.chef

Manuel is a chef by profession and passion! Manuel shares his mental health story of living with schizoaffective disorder and inspires us to open up and never give up on asking for help.

IG: Schizophrenic and loving life

Matt Geer (b. 1996) is a composer and organist from Hastings, England. His music engages with philosophical questions around how we experience time and how our consciousness fluctuates during a piece of music. Matt is studying for a PhD in music at Queen's University Belfast under Simon Mawhinney and Piers Hellawell. He completed his undergraduate studies in composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under James Weeks and Laurence Crane where he graduated in July 2020. At the Guildhall, he was composer in association with the City Chamber Choir and had his music performed and workshopped by the likes of the BBC singers, EXAUDI, Line Upon Line, Lakeside Brass, musicians from the LPO, the clarinettist Heather Roche and the contemporary pianist Satoko Inoue. In 2017, Matt wrote an opera Sane and Sound which documented his journey suffering from psychosis and was subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His mental health has immensely impacted his compositional practice, and he often uses composing as a form of therapy. Matt also has an interest in contemporary organ music. He studied organ through the Royal College of Organists at the University of Sussex under James Lloyd Thomas and under Simon Williams at St George's, Hanover Square. He is director of music at St Agnes, Kennington Park and, in his spare time, enjoys playing music written by fellow composers.

Website: www.mattgeer.co.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Geer

IG: RollingJovi

"My name is Pete and I am diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia since August 2010, I have given a few presentations on my mental health journey, I hear voices and this can be somewhat troubling to me as none of these voices are nice and they will often criticise me and lead me to have low self confidence. I am also openly gay and coming to terms with my sexuality has played a big part in my mental health journey, I grew up in an accepting family but the voices I began to hear would make me think otherwise leading me to not accept myself. I hope that people can find inspiration to gain the confidence to speak up about mental health and help other that are from the LGBTQ+ minority group."

Roberta Payne is a gifted writer, artist and leader with degrees from Stanford, UCLA, Harvard and the University of Denver. Roberta has coped with mental conditions since the onset of depression as an undergraduate in college. Twice hospitalized, she says that her paranoid schizophrenia has “tried, but failed, to define” her. Today, she is 40 years sober and her life is what she would have chosen: “work and love.” A successful author, she shares her skills and wisdom teaching creative writing to youth at The Mental Health Center of Denver. You can buy her memoir, ‘Speaking to My Madness: How I Searched for Myself in Schizophrenia’ on Amazon (click here to buy).

We had the honour to speak to her.

By Ridhima Bhasin, Founder Just Another Illness

It all started in Jan 2019. I had just returned from India after witnessing one of my closest loved ones recovering from a mental illness episode. When I left India, my close loved one was recovering and feeling better but I could sense that I was not able to overcome the sadness of seeing them unwell. I was replaying the scenes from their illness in my head over and over again. One fine morning, I was taking the tube to work. I had been teary eyed, low on confidence and very sad for many months prior to this morning. But this morning I had the strong urge to jump in front of the tube and end this pain I was going through. It was hard to articulate myself, to myself, on what I was feeling. I remember I felt a hollowness in my stomach which I was filling with a disturbing amount of junk food. I felt a lot of pain in my abdomen. I saw so many doctors, did several MRIs and ultrasounds yet no one could explain what was causing the pain. I felt alone and hopeless. I wanted to embrace death and bring an end to all of this emotional pain manifesting into physical pain or vice versa, I am not sure. But then my mother's face flashed before my eyes and I thought I can’t do this to her. How will she ever move forward from the fact her younger daughter chose to end her life. Anyway, I boarded that tube and went to work.

That day I was constantly going back and forth from my seat to the toilet to cry my eyes out and then gather the courage to come back to work. After a few hours I decided to speak to a doctor at my workplace. He sensed what the issue was, asked me if I had suicidal thoughts and thoughts of self harm. I said yes and that one yes saved me. I was advised to take time off work and speak to a psychiatrist. It was 8th January 2019, I still remember that day very clearly. I went to see the psychiatrist, he listened to what I felt, what happened and what was going on. He gave a name to the madness going inside me. I was diagnosed with severe depression and PTSD. He mentioned that I should check myself in a psychiatric hospital and take some medication to recover. My fiancé and I outrightly refused to both. Apparently it is easier to take numerous antibiotics for a physical illness but no way was I going to take medicine and seek medical help for the most important organ in my body, my brain! Funny, isn’t it?

After 10 days of suffering alone at home, off work, fighting the urge to self harm and some episodes of psychosis, I finally got an approval from my insurer. I checked into a private psychiatric hospital and started with therapy and medication. The world of therapy was new to me. Being in a hospital for something as trivial as I had was pointless in my head. I felt I was taking up space in group therapy sessions. After several weeks of doing CBT therapy, psycho-education classes, drama and art therapy, I was still hopeless, waiting for death to come. It is painful to live each day when you are not optimistic about the future. Everything in my life at that point was perfect but I was depressed. I was sad, I thought my loved ones would be better off without me. I was pushing my fiancé, my sister, my friends and everyone who loved me away. I had given up hope on life and on myself. I somehow convinced myself to get back to work only to get my first panic attack in a team meeting.

Panic attacks are strange. They make you feel like you are dying. I remember I held onto one of my colleagues hand in the meeting when I was having my panic attack. My mind was constantly telling me that time, “don’t let go of this hand, just don’t!” And I obliged. My psychiatrist was called and I was asked to go back to the psychiatric hospital. But something was different this time. I was more accepting of my mental illness. I believed there was a way out. I was more open to receiving therapy, taking up time in group therapy sessions and actively working on making myself better.

I went to perform on stage for the first time from the hospital. Despite panic attacks just before the performance, I am glad I was able to perform on a stage in Stratford in front of 50+ people. I had learnt to cope with my emotions. I had learnt to challenge my thoughts. I had learnt what depression was and how I needed to face the flashbacks which continued to haunt me. I even learned to survive panic attacks without a human touch.

In June 2019, I went to India again and saw my close loved one doing well. That was a turning point in my life as it helped me to bring closure to my rumination of sadness. I gradually returned to work and started to work full-time from October 2019. When I look back now, I am so glad I checked into the psychiatric hospital, took that medication and attended all the therapy sessions. Self work is bloody hard but if it makes you stay alive, it is worth it.

In January 2020, I finally said to myself I feel like myself again. After almost a year I felt like I knew this Ridhima. I realised it is a journey with no destination. I have a mental condition called depression. I cannot get rid of it, I don’t have anything to fix, I need to learn to manage it and own it rather than it owning me.

In May 2019, I decided to sign up with Time to Change as a Champion. It was a campaign run by Rethink and Mind doing advocacy work for ending discrimination against mental illnesses. Being a Champion involved sharing your journey with strangers. In my first talk I spoke to an audience of more than 50 people with senior partners from various law firms. It was challenging yet empowering. When I got off the stage, people approached me to tell me how my story resonated with them. Some people hugged me and thanked me for being open and honest about my journey. That's when I realised my depression is a blessing in disguise. I had always been someone who loved to talk, loved to be the centre of attention and always wanted to do something to give back. Little did I know all of the struggle I faced had a purpose. It was a ‘been there, done that’ situation and it made me empathetic. I realised this was my calling, my passion and my Seva (a Hindi word which means selfless charity work).

In May 2020 in the middle of the pandemic I found my own mental health awareness campaign called Just Another Illness. Just Another Illness is my passion, my focus and my way of looking back to see how far I have come. It keeps me grounded, it makes me empowered, it gives me a purpose in life and it reminds me that my illness is just a part of me and not the whole me.

This is my story and I hope it has helped you to find hope. There is always light at the end of the tunnel but to get to the light you will have to pass through the tunnel first. Therapy is hard but it is worth it. Medication is harder but trust and question your psychiatrist. Your loved ones want to help you, they just don’t know how. Forgive them and teach them how to help you. Your mind is not your friend. Don’t believe everything it tells you. Believe it or not, you are never alone. Volunteering with Mind, Time to Change and Just Another Illness has made me find my tribe. Find your tribe. Extend that hand for help, show a bit of your vulnerability and you will find several others like you suffering in silence.

By: Vaibhavi Gupta |  IG: @whybhaviwhyy

What is therapy?

Therapy refers to structured meetings between a licensed provider such as psychiatrists, psychologists or counsellors and a client with a goal of improving their life. It is a form of treatment aimed at relieving emotional distress and resolving any other issues impacting mental health.  It involves examining and gaining insight into life choices and difficulties faced by individuals, couples or families.

Why should you go for therapy?

The critical aspect of therapy is that the client or patient works collaboratively with the therapist to identify improvement and positive change over time. There are different types of therapies most of which have been researched and well-tested in the world of psychology and psychiatry. Therapists provide a supportive environment that allows one to talk openly with someone who is objective, neutral and non-judgmental.  They help in resolving problematic behaviours, beliefs, feelings, relationship issues, and/or somatic responses. Through therapy, one can change self-destructive behaviours and habits, resolve painful feelings, improve relationships and learn life changing coping strategies.

Who should go for therapy?

Therapy is for everyone. As you visit a doctor and dentists for regular check-ups of your physical and oral health similarly going for therapy is like a regular check-up of your mental health. Seeking therapy helps in analysing actions, understanding emotions and exploring oneself. With the help of therapy one can learn to regulate their thoughts, emotions, develop resilience, empathy and other positive characteristics.
Therapy can be beneficial in building resilience and provide strategies and tools to handle any challenges that life brings.
We all feel stressed at some point in our lives to different degrees. For some they may mean serious mental illnesses whilst for others it may only have a slight impact on their day to day life. Therapy could help in understanding our thought patterns and learning how to manage this stress on a day to day basis.

So, what do you think?

Therapy is for everyone and anyone and one should not feel ashamed to take therapy. Mental health is just as important as physical health. Emotional challenges and stress are by products of this competitive world we live in. We all have mental health and should take care of ourselves.

By: Anju Asokan

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that falls under psychosis. It is a complicated mental disorder in which the patients have an abnormal interpretation of reality. It affects each person differently. The symptoms might start suddenly, or they could develop gradually. The symptoms are often revealed at some time between the age of 18-35.

Signs of schizophrenia

As per Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-5), the abnormalities could be one or more of the following domains: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking (speech), grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behaviour (including catatonia), and negative symptoms. Let us take a look into the definition of each term:

Delusion – Delusions can be defined as fixed beliefs that do not change even when provided with contradicting proof. For example, a belief that you can control the movement of planets; believing that you are the incarnation of some famous personality. Delusions are of different kinds – persecutory delusion, referential delusion, grandiose delusion, erotomanic delusion, nihilistic delusion, and somatic delusion.

Hallucination – Hallucinations are perception-like experiences that occur without an external stimulus (DSM-5). They are not under voluntary control and can be vivid and clear. Though there are different types of hallucinations, auditory hallucination is the most found in patients with schizophrenia. This means that the patients hear voices that are not really in the outside world. Also, they are perceived as being separate from the patient’s mental processes.

Disorganised thinking – It is also known as formal thought disorder. Patients with disorganised thinking may jump from one topic to another during a conversation, or give answers that are completely unrelated to the question, or it could be incomprehensible.

Grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behaviour – This could manifest in various ways. For example, the patient may show reduced reactivity or resistance to instructions. It could range from childish behaviour to unexpected aggression.

Negative symptoms - Negative symptoms refer to an absence or lack of normal mental function involving thinking, behaviour, and perception (webMD,2020). Patients with schizophrenia often show two negative symptoms – avolition (i.e., decrease in the motivation of self-initiated activities) and diminished emotional expression (e.g.: diminished eye contact, emotional expression)

Types of schizophrenia

Paranoid schizophrenia – Paranoid schizophrenia is the most found one. Often, the onset is at a much later stage than earlier. Hallucinations and/or delusions are the symptoms associated with this kind, but the emotions and speech are mostly not affected.

Hebephrenic schizophrenia – This type of schizophrenia is mostly seen among people of the age group 15-25. It is also known as disorganised schizophrenia. Disorganised behaviour and thoughts are the symptoms, which makes it difficult for others to understand them. They may also have short-term hallucinations or delusions. People with this disorder have diminished emotional expression and flat or inappropriate affect.

Catatonic schizophrenia – Rarest form of schizophrenia in which the person would exhibit limited or sudden movements. Such people might show either catatonic excitement (excessive movement) or catatonic stupor (decreased movement).

Undifferentiated schizophrenia – People with this disorder show various symptoms of paranoid, hebephrenic or catatonic schizophrenia, due to which they can not be categorised into any type.

Residual schizophrenia – When a person has a history of psychosis, shows several symptoms of schizophrenia and experience only negative symptoms, he could be diagnosed as having residual schizophrenia.

Simple schizophrenia – It is the type of schizophrenia in which the negative symptoms are prominent while positive symptoms are not experienced.

Diagnosis

According to DSM-5, a person may be diagnosed with schizophrenia if he shows at least two of the main symptoms, i.e, delusion, hallucination, disorganized thinking, grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behaviour, and negative symptoms. Of these, at least one of the symptoms should be disorganised speech, delusion, or hallucination. The diagnosis will also depend on the duration of the symptoms and whether it has interfered with his work/social life or his ability to take care of himself. The symptoms should last for a certain duration of time, say more than one month.

Treatment

Patients with schizophrenia need lifelong treatment, which includes medication, counselling, and social rehabilitation. Proper treatment can reduce the symptoms.

How to help someone with Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects the thoughts and behaviour of a person. As people with schizophrenia do not have awareness or insight regarding their disorder, it is the responsibility of the family or friends to seek help.

It is important to take your loved ones to the doctor at the earliest. Though it can not be cured completely, the disorder can be tamed with the help of proper treatment.

As a caregiver, read more and build your knowledge on the disorder. This will help you to bust the myths around this disorder and to spread awareness.

Do not challenge or argue when they show symptoms like hallucinations or delusions. Yes, it is painful to watch someone you love go through this, but remember that you are there to help them and that it is their disorder that makes them behave like that and that they did not choose it. Challenging or arguing or trying to make them understand will not help them, because delusions are real for them! Also, do not take it personally.

Encourage them to keep up with the treatment. Taking medications properly is extremely important. Provide ample support as they might not be in a state to follow the treatment plan or make appointments.

Last but not the least, remember to take care of yourself. Keep your social life active and do not hesitate to seek help and support when you find it is too much to bear.

References

https://mentalhealth-uk.org/help-and-information/conditions/schizophrenia/types-of-schizophrenia/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/192770#summary