grahamg
Old codger
- Location
- South of Manchester, UK
I've posted before a few times on this forum about my own mental health breakdowns, and what if anything I've learned from the experience that may be worth passing on.
Firstly I'll emphasise, (if it needed saying!), I'm no expert on the topic, but have had two fairly major mental health breakdowns, one following the break up of my marriage, which it would be fair to say was related to the trauma of all that unwanted change, (damage to your self esteem etc.), and the second occasion was following the death of my mother, but I would suggest here that although I didn't realise just how much my mother had done for me throughout her life, the association of the two events aren't quite so obviously related.
Right what did I learn from either of these very difficult periods in my life?
Well to start with a fairly odd one, the break up of my marriage occurred in 1986, (and as many on the forum know very well by now, I never stop going on about it, and the aftermath in terms of contact with my child etc., etc., etc.!).
However the funny/strange thing I wish to mention is the odd fact that world events, such as the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, (or former Soviet Union as it maybe was back then,....., a very topical area of the world now of course), occurred in that year, just as things were becoming impossible in the marriage. This was very difficult for my little mind to process on top of everything else.
I cant say exactly what I thought, and we heard our own government warning about the dangers of possibly eating Welsh lamb, or at least lamb from around the highest peaks in Wales (i.e. Snowdonia), where rainfall containing nuclear fallout was said to have been concentrated, in the soil and could be taken up in the meat.
Maybe its quite natural that worry world events maybe have a disproportionate effect upon those feeling vulnerable already, and suffering stress/anxiety on top of the depression, but there we are it did worry me, (and amusing as it is to think abut it now, my child releasing a helium balloon that got caught high up in my neighbours tree next door worried me disproportionately too, though the dear ninety year old lady next door told me how nice it looked!).
There are more things I could say, or a few more so far as what I think I may have learned but I'll leave it for now, whilst admitting some of the things I might suggest I've learned could be incorrect, or at least of less significance than I may give them in terms of what helped me out of the depression/anxiety, the second episode of which lasted about five years!
Firstly I'll emphasise, (if it needed saying!), I'm no expert on the topic, but have had two fairly major mental health breakdowns, one following the break up of my marriage, which it would be fair to say was related to the trauma of all that unwanted change, (damage to your self esteem etc.), and the second occasion was following the death of my mother, but I would suggest here that although I didn't realise just how much my mother had done for me throughout her life, the association of the two events aren't quite so obviously related.
Right what did I learn from either of these very difficult periods in my life?
Well to start with a fairly odd one, the break up of my marriage occurred in 1986, (and as many on the forum know very well by now, I never stop going on about it, and the aftermath in terms of contact with my child etc., etc., etc.!).
However the funny/strange thing I wish to mention is the odd fact that world events, such as the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, (or former Soviet Union as it maybe was back then,....., a very topical area of the world now of course), occurred in that year, just as things were becoming impossible in the marriage. This was very difficult for my little mind to process on top of everything else.
I cant say exactly what I thought, and we heard our own government warning about the dangers of possibly eating Welsh lamb, or at least lamb from around the highest peaks in Wales (i.e. Snowdonia), where rainfall containing nuclear fallout was said to have been concentrated, in the soil and could be taken up in the meat.
Maybe its quite natural that worry world events maybe have a disproportionate effect upon those feeling vulnerable already, and suffering stress/anxiety on top of the depression, but there we are it did worry me, (and amusing as it is to think abut it now, my child releasing a helium balloon that got caught high up in my neighbours tree next door worried me disproportionately too, though the dear ninety year old lady next door told me how nice it looked!).
There are more things I could say, or a few more so far as what I think I may have learned but I'll leave it for now, whilst admitting some of the things I might suggest I've learned could be incorrect, or at least of less significance than I may give them in terms of what helped me out of the depression/anxiety, the second episode of which lasted about five years!
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