Living, Working and Being Open About Mental Health
As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Joe shares a personal reflection on his own experiences with mental health, the challenges that can come with it, and the support that has helped him along the way.
Mental health is often misunderstood. Like physical health, you can have good or bad mental health, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have a mental disorder.
Mental health is an essential part of overall wellbeing, influencing how people think, feel, cope with stress, and build relationships. While everyone experiences periods of sadness, anxiety, or stress, mental disorders are more persistent and can significantly affect daily life, work, education, and relationships. Common disorders include depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and eating disorders.
Mental disorders are becoming more prevalent in the UK, with 1 in 4 adults experiencing a diagnosable condition each year, and 12% living with severe symptoms. Prevalence is higher in young people, females, and individuals from deprived areas. I know we all like to quantify things, so the economic cost to the UK is around £300 billion per year.
There are plenty of statistics and definitions out there, but I thought it would be more useful to share a real-life example.
My story
I’m part of the statistics. I’m 1 of those 1 in 4. While it hasn’t always been easy to be open about it, I’ve come to see it for what it is - a common health issue that many people face. Society is becoming more understanding, which has helped me feel more comfortable with my own challenges.
I was officially diagnosed with depression at 24, although I’d likely had it for some time before. I couldn’t understand why I felt so detached and low. Even when doing things I enjoyed, I felt no real pleasure, a numbness sometimes referred to as anhedonia. It affected my mood, weight, motivation, relationships, and occasionally my work.
Anxiety came later, during COVID-19. When things began to open up again, I experienced panic attacks in everyday situations, busy places, restaurants, concerts. That’s continued to some extent. One of my symptoms when anxious is being overly chatty. Life is already complex enough without these extra challenges.
Over the past decade I’ve tried many things, counselling, medication, running, even cold-water therapy (which I quickly learned wasn’t for me!). Running has been especially helpful for me, but it could be anything, weightlifting, gardening, anything that keeps you active. I can’t stress enough how important that’s been, and I know that’s true for many others too.
A counsellor once put it simply “to feel happier, you need to do things that make you happy.” Life pressures, work, weddings, house moves, kids, can make that difficult. I experienced all of those within three years at SSE and didn’t stay on top of it, which led to me struggling again.
SSE has been a genuinely supportive place to work. I’ve had access to counselling through Onebright and flexible working has helped me make time for it. NINO (a programme of local events organised by colleagues for colleagues all year round) has given me goals and motivation, like commitment month in October where I set running targets. I regularly attend Wellbeing Cafés - UnCovering any topic, which are always insightful, and I’ve used the health hub Toolkits to better understand and support both myself and others.
More recently, I’ve joined the Man’s Club (SSE Men Talk), which has helped me be more proactive. It’s an open space to talk about how we feel and what works for us. I’ve also benefited from social events, and for some, these may be their main social interactions in the year.
There are so many opportunities across SSE to get involved, build connections, and feel part of a community. I’ve got my eye on the Wednesday running club in Glasgow that has been launched by one of my colleagues and have heard great things about the Perth Friday midday runners and apparently I need to visit Eurocentral’s book club.
But more than anything, what’s helped most is the support from colleagues when I’ve shared my experiences. Talking is more powerful than we often realise. A colleague recently told me that vulnerability is a strength - it helps build real connections.
