Tag: Rachael Newham

Mental Health Awareness Week

It is Mental Heath Awareness Week and I just couldn’t let the week go by without posting. I want to firstly acknowledge that I have struggled with my mental health in the past. And, due to a mixture of grief, stress and perimenopause, know I am again now. While there is much less stigma surrounding this issue, I am heartbroken to see how stretched the services trying to support people’s mental health are. I am particularly aware of how much the pandemic has affected the mental health of our young people.

Being community

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is loneliness. With a teenager about to embark on GCSEs, I understand how the isolation of being home-based, studying, can cause feelings of loneliness. Young people need our prayers for their mental, emotional and physical wellbeing during this season.

There are so many others who face loneliness on a daily basis. As my husband takes time today to make some pastoral visits, I am reminded of how vital it is that we are in community. I realise it is more difficult with the fragmented, busy lives so many of us live in 21st-century cities. But the benefits far outweigh the costs – for all involved. Let’s pray for those, like our pastors, street pastors, food shop volunteers and other community workers as they reach out to the lonely. Let’s also think about ways that we can too.

It’s OK to ask for help

I know that when you are struggling it is natural to want to hide. It takes huge courage to reach out – and yet it is as we do so that we make human connection, which is so good for our wellbeing. We need to make it as easy as possible in our communities and churches for people to share their needs. Let’s work hard to cultivate safe spaces where people understand it is OK not to be OK – where no one feels judged but rather heard and supported.

Useful links for mental health awareness week

There have been some really helpful articles and posts during Mental Health Awareness Week. Here are a few useful links:

https://www.facebook.com/mindandsouluk The Mind and Soul Foundation have been posting really helpful advice on their Facebook page this week.

https://www.eauk.org/news-and-views/what-could-a-mental-health-friendly-church-look-like?fbclid=IwAR2ONmQJHnuGcf-Z_QaRkzLRT0QP9QyMDMfHwamAe2Wz2dnEhziecEcr_68 Rachael Newham from brilliant mental health charity Kintsugi Hope on how churches can be more supportive.

https://www.facebook.com/KintsugiHope Kintsugi Hope have also been posting tips for loneliness. Also included is a video from founder Patrick Regan on his own struggles, how he felt such shame to begin with but has come to understand that people with anxiety are some of the most courageous and faith-filled.

You can also find some links to helpful books here.

World mental health day

A drawing my daughter did this week for ‘Inktober’, which I felt beautifully encapsulated how fragile we can sometimes feel.

Today is World Mental Health Awareness day. It is great that we have such important issues flagged up on special days, but of course, whether they are dealing with short-term or severe, long-term mental ill-health, many face difficult realities day in, day out. They are the heroes. The ones who have to be brave each and every day – just to get out of bed at times. And not only do they have to face their own inner critic, but, sadly, there is still so much stigma surrounding mental health issues. That is why anything that raises awareness is to be welcomed.

As I was doing research for a piece on Christian fiction for Premier Christianity magazine, which is due to be published in November’s issue, I was, for example, surprised and extremely pleased to learn that there are a number of novelists out there tackling this subject in a sensitive manner in their work.

There has been a plethora of blogs and comments via social media today, much of it more eloquent than I could probably be. So I decided that today I would let a few of those authors speak on this subject themselves, as they seek to provide deeper understanding amongst us all, as well as championing those who are facing this reality each day. 

May I encourage you to take time to learn more about mental ill-health, as I can assure you that you will know people who are struggling right now – perhaps you are yourself. Take time to read – either the fiction the authors below have written or some of the helpful non-fiction that Christian writers and counsellors have put together. I’ve suggested a few of each at the end of this blog.

Firstly, Sharon Garlough Brown has written the hugely successful Sensible Shoes series, which I have mentioned many times here. Her latest book is about Wren, a social worker and person of faith who has her own struggles with mental ill-health. Here is what Sharon told me about why she wanted to write about this subject: “With so many people suffering from mental health issues, I wanted to explore with deep compassion the struggles, heartaches and sense of isolation experienced not only by those afflicted with depression and anxiety, but by those who love them and often feel powerless to help.” 

Angela Hobday (writing as Annie Try) centres her novels around characters living with or overcoming mental health problems – and usually solving a mystery too! With her background as a clinical psychologist she has “worked with clients whose lives are destroyed partly by their mental illness but also by the attitudes of those around them. In my eyes, those who find every day a struggle yet still achieve their goals, or even attempt to, are heroes. I want them to be viewed as such by my readership.”

Fiction:

Shades of Light by Sharon Garlough Brown

Red Cabbage Blue by Annie Try

Non-fiction:

Honesty Over Silence by Patrick Regan

Learning to Breathe by Rachael Newham

The Power of Belonging by Will van der Hart and Rob Waller

The Insight Guides are incredibly helpful on all sorts of subjects, many connected with mental health issues. Here are three that I have had the privilege of working with experts on:

An Insight into Self-acceptance
An Insight into Shame
Insight into Burnout