Mental Health issues associated with bullying and work related stress

We all have mental health, and it is defined through our emotional, psychological and social aspects play a part in who we are and how we respond to the world around us. Our mental health affects how we think, feel and act.

The WHO (World Health Organisation) defines mental health as not just being the absence of infirmity or disease. They then go on to say that mental health is: “A state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities can cope with the normal stresses of life can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”.

Research conducted by the Government Department of Health indicates that 1 in 4 of us will experience mental illness at some point in our life. They describe mental health as: "The emotional and spiritual resilience which enables enjoyment of life, the ability to survive pain, disappointment and sadness.  It is a positive sense of well-being and an underlying belief in ourselves and others.”

Mental well-being includes aspects such as feeling loved and valued, having a purpose and direction, having basic life needs met (food, clothing and shelter), the ability to be social and included in society, feeling healthy, the ability to identify own needs, feeling satisfied with life and having supportive relationships. Looking through that list, it would be easy to identify examples of when someone may feel the opposite and feel un-valued or socially isolated. For example, an employer may deliberately arrange meetings at a time they know a specific individual can’t attend due to childcare; which is indirect discrimination and could lead to feelings of being bullied and excluded. Or perhaps a child at school starts stealing money from another pupil who would feel victimised and bullied while also being left feeling hungry and scared to tell anyone because of the threat of physical recrimination.

If bullying is not addressed mental illness can result through the repetition of negative experiences emotions, thinking patterns and behaviours. It is essential to understand that by the time mental illness is visible (through outward behaviour), a person will have gone through a sustained period of upset, confusion, internal negative emotions and negative thinking patterns; all of which take time (perhaps months or years) to process, understand and move on from. If something takes a long time to affect someone it stands to reason that it may take some time to recover from.

No-one will continuously feel good and always have positive mental health because it naturally fluctuates with life’s pressures and events. For example, someone may feel a ‘bit down’ or suffer from stress or anxiety around the time of a big work presentation or exam at school. They may feel overwhelmed, be easily upset or suffer from disrupted sleep for a little while, but the event passes with no long-term effects and without the need to seek support outside their usual friends and family. The person has ‘bounced back’ and in these examples had the resilience to recover.

Clinical diagnoses of longer-term mental health issues include;  depression, post-natal depression, stress, anxiety, phobias, personality disorder, bipolar, schizophrenia, ADHD, dementia, eating disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders. It is essential not only to recognise that mental illness can occur, as a reaction to bullying, in an individual with no history of mental illness. But to also be aware of the implications on an individual with a pre-existing mental health condition as they may have lower resilience and struggle with symptoms sooner or with more severity due to past their past experiences or current symptoms.

I have a personality disorder, dissociative disorder and an eating disorder alongside physical issues including kyphoscoliosis, lordosis, spinal rod insertion and an acquired brain injury; however, I also have a husband, two children a crazy cat, called Oliver, plus a generally positive and sunny outlook! The type of personality disorder I have been diagnosed with was (until recent years) a diagnosis of exclusion, and there was very little help and support other than copious amounts of medication. So I feel that in the past the very people who were supposed to help me, rejected me which reinforced my childhood feelings resulting in many hospital admissions, being sectioned and at one point being ‘inside’ for six months whilst being offered ECT (electric shock treatment) which I was thankfully talked out of by my loving husband.

Since my ‘dark’ days (as I call them), the NHS has included my diagnosis and offered ground-breaking and recently studied therapies which help the lives of many and helped me to understand who I am and that’s it’s OK to talk.  Yes, it’s OK to talk, and it’s OK to talk about mental health.  I am no longer afraid, and I no longer reject myself; I accept myself and with that comes freedom from the prison cell I had unknowingly put myself in for so many years.

As you can probably tell, I am passionate about breaking down the prejudice, discrimination and ignorance that mental health symptoms and diagnoses face through raising positive public and professional opinion of mental health, and I have been encouraged by the many campaigns and brave voices speaking publicly in recent years. I am excited and encouraged by this opportunity to write about mental health, however, have identified that it brings its own challenges as my inner voices of condemnation start telling me I cannot do this or that no-one will like what I am saying. However, I will exercise self-care and challenge negative thinking to fulfil my aim of delivering information that is helpful and encouraging to others.

I believe in the compliments and complaints people make in response to the care they have received and have seen these comments change the NHS from within, providing a higher standard of care going forward. Our voices need to be heard, and while I feel we have come a long way since the old days of institutions, there is still a way to go, and I am hopeful for a future where true equality exists between physical and mental illness, and a complete holistic approach is adopted in all areas of healthcare.

Currently, I am working within mental health on an NHS volunteer programme in local boardroom settings educating professionals, and raising awareness, about personality disorder and at an area level as part of a steering group looking to ensure the service user’s voice is heard in the writing of new policies and pathways.  I have written a course to be delivered on local wards around self-esteem and actualisation, am involved in other ventures and am an avid writer of poetry over the years chronicling my feelings about and experiences of mental illness. I am KUF trained and have completed my level 2 in Mental Health and Counselling.