Bingo Wings or Healthy Minds?
I was just finishing one of my talks this week when I noticed a man in a wheelchair becoming quite tearful. Through his tears he managed to send me across a smile and then gestured that he would like to talk to me when I had finished. He waited patiently whilst I spoke with several others and eventually we were close enough for us to shake hands. Our conversation over the next five minutes or so was one of the most poignant I have had since I founded Breaking the Silence.
He spoke with great emotion about his life spent in a wheelchair and how both his loving family and himself had spent many years focusing on how best to support his physical disability. He thanked me for my talk and said for the first time in his life today he realised that the biggest challenge facing him was not his physical disability but his mental health. Years in a wheelchair had taken its toll on his emotional wellbeing and he shared that he was close to ‘cracking’. Hearing my thoughts about how we think so differently about our mental and physical health he vowed to see a therapist and for the first ever time ask for help with his increasingly low self-worth.
My own family and friends have been amazingly supportive to me over recent years and I would not be in such a ‘good place’ now if it was not for them. I currently have a poorly knee and in the last week I have received a total of 17 texts asking how I am getting on hobbling around the UK. I have not received one text since the invention of mobile phones asking me about my mental health. I am not being critical whatsoever but just highlighting in society we are so much more comfortable asking people about something that is visible.
I stayed over at one of my best friend’s houses this Friday night and was still there on Saturday morning when their personal trainer turned up to put their family through their paces. In the taxi on the way home I calculated that I now have at least nine friends who use the services of a professional for their physical health but didn’t know of any who had a personal trainer for their brain. However, I probably would not know if they did because they would be too embarrassed to tell me they had a therapist because of the stigma. I smiled to myself thinking that society that has become more focussed on not having bingo wings as opposed to having a fit and healthy mind.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 19th, 2017 at 12:55 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.
24 Comments on “Bingo Wings or Healthy Minds?”
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Blog Archive
- Some good will come from 2020
- Businesses that are kind to their employees are more likely to survive the coronavirus
- Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions
- Discovering Self Compassion
- Who is the Usain Bolt of Mental Health?
- Bingo Wings or Healthy Minds?
- Wellbeing programmes drive energy levels
- Every day has been a school day
- Employee wellbeing is NOT a fluffy subject
- This is why I do what I do
- Do you stay silent or risk stigma?
- It’s okay to not be okay
- Beanz Meanz Mental Health
- Breaking the Silence WILL Break the Stigma
- The tone must be set from the top
- Mental health is not a laughing matter
- Happy Valentines Day to All
- It was #TimetoTalk
- Confession time…….
- Pizza…..the new cure for depression
- What is wrong with me in this photo?
- Breaking the Silence in 2017
- It’s not rocket science….it’s pants!
- Getting naked in a lift
- The Story Of Mr Fish
- My First Mental Health Blog Entry
Another inspirational event on your amazing journey Dave. Proving how very important you and others like you are to the wellbeing of us all. it is not enough to merely comply with acts of parliament covering fairness an equity in the work place, we all need to be constantly aware of each other and the changes we face as we all strive to become inclusive, important cogs in our communities. and strive to do the best for our team.
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