What happens when someone develops a mental health problem? In this episode I speak with Katie who explains just how complex it can be.

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

English - March 16, 2019 12:58 - 55 minutes - 99.4 MB
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Previous Episode: In this episode, I speak with my good friend, Christopher, a man I met on Twitter a hundred years ago while we were both making a noise about mental health through the medium of THE LONG WALK.

Next Episode: Diagnosed with Childhood Bipolar at 9, Holly walks us through her experiences of mental health services, diagnoses and labels until the present day.

In this episode, I speak with Katie. She got in touch on Twitter after I threw out the question

‘What happens when someone develops a mental health problem?’

I’m not entirely sure what I expected from such a vague question, but twitter didn’t let me down…here’s one of my favourites…

Dr Chris Manning says

‘I’d start off by defining what you consider to be a ‘mental health problem’? I consider it to be something at the level of consternation at my bag going missing at Heathrow. I also think the term trivialises the severe anguish, distress and darkness associated with mental illness’

Thanks for that, Chris

I think the language we use surrounding mental ill health, mental illness, mental health problems, mental maladies…and how we refer to people with these conditions is an interesting area worthy of discussion…

I’ll talk about this more in later podcasts, but it’s my feeling if we police that language too closely…too strongly…then we’ll be closing down the very conversations we desperately crave…

In the messages I got from Katie, she explained that developing a mental health problem, for her, was so much more than becoming ill…getting treatment…and returning to how you were…it’s decidedly more complex than that…

We cover some challenging topics in the podcast, so I’ve given it an Explicit rating.

A huge thank you to Katie – I think I’ll keep throwing out the question, ‘What happens when someone develops a mental health problem?’ for a while – there’s still a lot of conversation to be had there.

Next time I’ll be speaking with Hollie, who, after years of navigating the mental health system was recently given the label of ‘Borderline Personality Disorder’

We discuss what that means to her and her plans for the future

Remember you can contact me on 07535 035 909

Or email at [email protected]

Or follow me on Twitter @walkamileuk

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Until the next time

I’ve been Chris young and you’ve been rather fabulous

Walk a Mile