Mind

Hot weather reminder ⚠️

With more hot days ahead, please share this. Not everyone knows how medication can impact our body’s ability to keep cool.

Check the information leaflet on your medication for side effects and risks.

If you’re on antidepressants or antipsychotics your body may not regulate heat as well. If you take lithium, be sure to monitor your fluid levels and know the signs of lithium toxicity.

Try and stay cool in the heat by hydrating and finding shade.

If you have concerns, speak to a GP or pharmacist. They can advise you more on your own medication.

If you ever compare your mental health journey to others, or if you ever get frustrated at where you’re at now vs where you want to be. This is for you.

Something we want you to remember ⤵️

Remember this:

Everyone experiences poor mental health differently. Self-care, support, and treatment may also look different for each person.

It’s about what works for you at this stage of your journey. And it’s okay if that changes in the future. Remember healing is not linear. And there is someone else who has felt the same as you. You’re not alone.

We’re proud to support Celebration Day - a day to take a moment to celebrate the lives of those who shaped us.

Share your fond memories of those you want to remember today below 🩵

If you’re struggling with grief, you deserve support. Our bereavement information has suggestions for coping and getting help.

The Government is trialling some changes to the ‘Fit Note’ system.

In four local pilots, people will be offered more targeted support if they are unwell and struggling to work, rather than just being signed off work by a GP.

When people seek a Fit Note because of poor mental health, it rarely leads to them being offered the wider support they need. Giving people the chance to have detailed conversations about the challenges they face and the support they need is a positive step.

These pilots could mark the start of real improvements to the Fit Note system. But it’s vitally important that this is a supportive and collaborative process.

People with mental health problems must not feel pressured to work when they don’t feel able, or to return to workplaces that are not supporting their mental health.

For too long, people with mental health problems have been forced to engage with a benefits system that can make them feel as though they have to ‘prove’ they need support.

Trust will need to be rebuilt if these reforms are going to work.

What we witnessed on the streets of London last weekend was vile Islamophobia. We need to call it out for what it is.

Things feel heavy right now.

From the political landscape changing fast to blatant racism being celebrated on our streets.

And more specifically, Muslim communities were once again forced to watch people weaponise fear, chant division, and treat their existence as a threat to our country.

Those people do not represent us.

You should never be made to feel less safe, less welcome, or less British.

We will not stay quiet when Muslim women’s bodies, clothing and voices are becoming battlegrounds for political rage.

Muslim women should never be expected to absorb racism, misogyny and public hostility ever.

Racism, sexism, Islamophobia and misogyny have no place in our society and we will call it out whenever we see it.

To our Muslim friends: We see you. We stand with you.

If you are struggling with your mental health, visit our website where you can find advice, information and services that can help.

We are here for you.

And if you have experienced or witnessed a hate crime, report it via the link in the comments.

You are not alone.

We know it’s important to rest, but it’s not always easy when we’re struggling with our mental health. If you’ve found good ways of slowing down and relaxing, let us know in the comments 💙

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia and Transphobia.

Being LGBTQIA+ is not a mental health problem.
And it does not cause mental health problems.
But discrimination does.

We all have a responsibility to stand against it.

You should never be treated differently for who you are, how you identify, or who you love.

If you have experienced homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia, take a look at some of the support on our website. It includes information for each community within the LGBTQIA+ acronym.

Big news.

The UK Government have announced a new 10 year mental health strategy.

We have been calling for this for years.

If done right, this could be a real turning point, a chance to rethink how we support people when they’re struggling. This can’t be ‘just another’ strategy.

We need radical transformation.

Right now, too many people face unacceptable waits for support, often only getting help when they’re already in crisis.

We need a system that intervenes earlier, responds faster, and sees the whole person not just a diagnosis. And real change goes far beyond the NHS.

Mental health is shaped by the world around us: poverty, insecure housing, inequality, discrimination, debt, isolation.

We won’t truly tackle the mental health crisis until we address what causes it.

Great mental health care is when you get treated as a person, not just a patient. In Mental Health Awareness Week Grace explains why.

I’d just finished university and life felt uncertain. I knew I needed to speak to someone about my low mood, yet didn’t know what to do.

I felt like I needed advice from my doctor because I was really struggling, but I was worried about calling because of my previous experience with doctors.

I was so apprehensive about who I’d face on the other end of the phone and how they would treat me.

I’d recently read a BBC article that week headlined, ‘Life being stressful is not an illness' - GPs on mental health over-diagnosis’.

Of the 752 GPs who took part in the BBC’s research, 442 (or 59%) said they believed that mental health over-diagnosis is a concern.

Would the GP I’d speak to on the phone think the same?

I called.

His response was so unexpected, as I have faced a decade of pushback and dismissiveness from GPs when it comes to appointments about my mental health.

The GP was so empathetic; not just about my low mood but also about the uncertainty I felt over graduating and being between different things.

He told me that he also found it difficult when he finished university, understood why I needed more support, and reassured me that I’d done the right thing in reaching out to him.

I'd been so nervous to call the GP, but this time it felt like I was talking to a human over a professional. I felt supported rather than challenged.

I can’t tell you how much of a relief this was.

I understand GP practices are under resourced.

I understand it might not always be possible to give people the support they need.

But seeing people as a person, not a patient, and showing kindness, compassion and understanding, can have a huge impact on someone’s experience of reaching out for mental health support.

Like it did on mine

So, when I thanked my GP for his kindness,
I had in mind my 12-year-old self.

I hope that if another young person were to call him about their mental health for the first time, he would approach them with the same understanding he offered me.

Maybe then that young person would expect the best treatment, rather than the worst.

Don't go through this alone. Take the weight off your shoulders. Reach out to someone you trust 💙

Tell us who you want to thank most for having your back when you were struggling with your mental health, and what they did for you.

Share your messages in the comments this Mental Health Awareness Week so we can celebrate those who have suppoprted us when we've needed it most ⬇️