Mental health and wellbeing

[Joe Newton]

2 minutes ago, Ian Flatters said:

If anyone's interested it's called heath assured who were with, through peninsula who do our HR and legal stuff. My wifes just told me health assured is the one the NHS use for their own staff so I guess that says it's quite good.

One random thing, I called up about struggling with sleep. I was getting about 1 hour solid then awake for an hour, back to sleep for an hour. I genuinely was convinced it was stress or anxiety that comes with the daily grind of business. Turned out the first thing they told me to do was cut sugar. So I cut sugar down massively (also realising how much sugar I was actually eating and drinking in a day), now I have fantastic sleep compared to before. I get 4 hours straight regularly and I'm edging close to 5 hours, so I hope I'll be onto solid sleep in a few months.

Ps Joe, I know kind of what your going through. My wife struggles horrendously with aniexty after having a major wobble mental a few years back after having to have a full hip replacement and being told that she could never have children naturally or be pregnant as it would put her in a wheel chair for the remainder of her life (it's a pretty hard pill to swallow that one so I can appreciate how she felt as I felt awful too, but life is what it is and we can always adopt I guess). She's much better and off pills, for her yoga in the morning really helped her and counciling with someone better at it than me was worth it too as I'm pretty rubbish at that thing.

Thanks for sharing Ian, that's really shit news for any couple, you have my sympathy. 

 

I struggled to tolerate her anxiety because I fundamentally didn't understand it. I'll admit at points I wasn't as supportive as I could have been. I still don't really understand it because it's something I've never experienced myself, and I think that goes for a lot of people.

 

I was also quite ignorantly against medication thinking that it just masked the symptoms.

 

Bit of an eye opener, and I do also think that terms like depression and anxiety are bandied around a bit. It's a tricky line.

[David Cropper]

49 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

nowadays everyone ( almost ) is encouraged to be sensitive and thoughtful and care about everything and everyone which is mostly positive but makes people easily upset and in a way " soft " ( not a criticism )  

 

Is that a bad thing, being "soft" ? I'd rather that I can now listen to someone who needs to unburden their self than how I was a few years ago. I come from the generation were being sensitive was seen as a fault,  get a grip, man up, don't be a girl etc. That works for some but not everyone. When I was a very young Trooper, we had a lad about my age, 18, hung himself with a towel in the block drying room. That's something I won't forget. I expect he'd been told to "get a grip of yourself ", nobody would ask for help in those days, sign of weakness. It turned out he was working himself into a lather because of the constant patrols , he was basically frightened, couldn't see a way out. Took his own life rather than appear weak. What a waste of a young life. In case some of you think I'm a soft arse, I assure you I'm not. Just finally grown up. The World has changed, hopefully for the better.

Edited July 6, 2021 by David Cropper

[Doug Tait]

57 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

No they shouldn’t, Ian’s doing it because he’s a stand up boss obviously and cares and wants to go one step further for his employees, commendable I’d say.

I'd think that because he is this kind of boss, the employees will look for any opportunity to go one step further for him too. 

[Joe Newton]

20 minutes ago, Doug Tait said:

I'd think that because he is this kind of boss, the employees will look for any opportunity to go one step further for him too. 

Not me, I'd be calling up with anxiety every time I got sent to a hawthorne hedge reduction.  

[Doug Tait]

I'll volunteer for all the jaggy jobs as long as he's nice to me! (hope the boss doesn't read that)

[Lowestoft Firewood]

I think it's a good thing to have for staff and very caring.

 

However I think too many people have got sucked into a false world with social media where there is a huge amount of woke, virtual signalling shite which makes many people who can't see through it extremely sensitive and more likely to feel inadequate or easily offended, leading to issues in their head.

 

There is also a lot of normalisation of awful things like self harm, eating disorders etc which often seem to be some weird attention seeking issue (I have a close family member with both of those issues and have pretty extensive close experience with her). Which seem to make it fashionable to have mental health issues so you can get your own way. 

 

When these people get a knock in the real world its a huge thing for them to cope with and they cave super easily. 

 

And how many people of adult physical age nowadays seem to be absorbed in childish crap like Disney and spend their life trying to seemingly be the best human in the room...always seems to be  one person we somehow manage to employ who in order for us to be "inclusive" we would have to practically have a one eyed black disabled lesbian in every photo with our products. Then they get knocked over by the slightest breeze and claim mental health issues when they actually do need to grow a pair. 

 

All this turn sadly clouds over real mental health issues which come from really tough times such as when running a business or people dying who are close to you etc and those people get less attention as the NHS has endless 4 year olds who think they are toasters rather than the human which was born a girl so therefore needs to stay a girl coming knocking on their door. 

 

My take on things anyway.

[Paddy1000111]

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Personally I think if you’ve really gone mental, you know throwing your own shit at people in the shopping mall, fair enough.

 

If you’re just having a bad day and things are getting on top of you, can’t cope etc. Then have a drink, phone a mate, pull yourself together, life is bloody awful sometimes, get used to it.

 

 

Not often that I disagree with you mate but I have to on this occasion. When I was working in aircraft one of the apprentices was going through a tough time then broke up with his Mrs and topped himself. Whilst I know what you mean, having a "get on with it" opinion stops people who actually need help coming forward. You feel like a burden and then you start on that spiral 👎

[Steve Bullman]

55 minutes ago, Lowestoft Firewood said:

I think it's a good thing to have for staff and very caring.

 

However I think too many people have got sucked into a false world with social media where there is a huge amount of woke, virtual signalling shite which makes many people who can't see through it extremely sensitive and more likely to feel inadequate or easily offended, leading to issues in their head.

 

There is also a lot of normalisation of awful things like self harm, eating disorders etc which often seem to be some weird attention seeking issue (I have a close family member with both of those issues and have pretty extensive close experience with her). Which seem to make it fashionable to have mental health issues so you can get your own way. 

 

When these people get a knock in the real world its a huge thing for them to cope with and they cave super easily. 

 

And how many people of adult physical age nowadays seem to be absorbed in childish crap like Disney and spend their life trying to seemingly be the best human in the room...always seems to be  one person we somehow manage to employ who in order for us to be "inclusive" we would have to practically have a one eyed black disabled lesbian in every photo with our products. Then they get knocked over by the slightest breeze and claim mental health issues when they actually do need to grow a pair. 

 

All this turn sadly clouds over real mental health issues which come from really tough times such as when running a business or people dying who are close to you etc and those people get less attention as the NHS has endless 4 year olds who think they are toasters rather than the human which was born a girl so therefore needs to stay a girl coming knocking on their door. 

 

My take on things anyway.

You make some good points. My partners from Italy and just the other day commented that she’d never heard of so many ‘syndromes’ than she has since living in the uk. From ADHD to anxiety, companion dogs etc etc etc 

[Ratman]

Do you not think a lot of it is down to pressures and our way of a working life here in the uk?

[Paddy1000111]

14 minutes ago, Ratman said:

Do you not think a lot of it is down to pressures and our way of a working life here in the uk?

100%. There's also a stigma about it which isn't often faced. It's also not helped by some people who play the mental health card at every opportunity and never work 🙄