MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT AND ADVICE - GETTING CHELSEA FANS OVER THE LINE TO A BETTER PLACE
What is a mental health problem?
We hear a great deal about mental health these days but it is a ‘catchall’ term. Some people believe that to have a mental health problem means you have to suffer from severe psychological disorders or conditions. Others believe that to struggle with mental health is just a part of daily life and that they should just ‘get on with it’. Mental health still carries a stigma – some people believe that struggling to cope is a sign of weakness.
It isn’t, and on this website, we use the experience of fellow Chelsea fans to help you recognise the need to talk about and explore your mental health, to understand that finding it difficult to cope is not uncommon and is nothing to do with weakness or failure. On this website, you can watch some of our short films in which fans discuss their own journeys.
One of the principal reasons people continue to struggle with their emotions and life in general is that they do not believe they have a problem at all. Others believe that services aimed at helping people in crisis are only for those who are contemplating taking their own lives. It is true to say that services like the Samaritans, or SHOUT will always assess the risk of a caller doing harm to themselves, but it is entirely possible that you can be feeling extremely low, anxious or troubled without ever contemplating suicide. However, unaddressed depression and other mental health difficulties can often result in secondary problems, such as alcoholism, other addictions, and, sadly, sometimes suicide.
We hope that you came here because you recognised you have a problem. But what can that look like? How do you decide that you have a problem? Lots of things can trigger depression, anxiety and sadness.
You may have suffered a trauma or some difficult event in your life, perhaps a bereavement, a divorce or other relationship breakdown, maybe lost your job. The list of issues is almost endless, but NOTHING is unimportant when it comes to emotional wellbeing. Losing a favourite pet can be a trigger, being unhappy at work, having financial difficulties, worries about family and friends, having a phobia. What matters is how these things affect you and it is often the case that voicing your concerns for the first time makes you fearful that others will think your issues are trivial or inconsequential. They aren’t trivial.
Finally, it is important to note one other vital thing; there doesn’t HAVE to be a REASON for how you feel. And the truth is that there is no NORMAL mental health state – who can define what is ‘normal’? What matters is how we cope, how we function, and how we feel.
