Paul's story

Paul first started having difficulties with his mental health when he was about 15, and soon after that he was referred to a psychiatrist.    

It started off with my moods going all over the place, between being quite low, but then fluctuating quite high as well.   

I started developing some issues around feeling really paranoid, and I started to hear voices. As a result of that, I became quite withdrawn, and had bizarre, strange thoughts related to the voices that obviously weren't true – but I sometimes believed they were.   

I got a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder when I was about 19, and the easiest way that I could describe it, is that it's like a combination of having bipolar disorder and schizophrenia – or some of the symptoms of both of them.   

I manage my mental health now through a combination of lifestyle interventions. 

I try to eat well, and I try to exercise when I can – although, I suppose everyone needs to do a bit more of that. Talking to people is important as well. Talking to people that you trust, and having a good sort of support network. I also do take medication to help some of the symptoms. 

It’s getting easier for me to talk about mental health as I do it more, sort of like practice makes perfect. But I still feel uncomfortable talking about it to this day.   

I find it easier to talk about if I’m feeling low compared to, ‘I'm hearing voices and they're saying this, and this is quite scary for me’ - even to my psychiatrists, who will hear this fairly regularly.   

I think that's largely driven down to public stigma. If we're talking about hearing voices, for example, and we're feeling paranoid, it's not well discussed in the mainstream media. It's quite stigmatised and affects the public’s views.  

Paul said how the media covers the experience of different kinds of mental illnesses would be a help towards better understanding them.  

One of the big things for me is how these experiences of related diagnoses are covered in the media heavily stigmatized. 

Even to this day, it's shocking how some of these things are portrayed. And I think when you read or hear that, it does start to generate the self-stigma that ‘I'm strange’ or ‘I'm a bit of a weirdo’, and you feel really isolated and alone. 

I wish these topics were covered a little bit more sympathetically and actually, accurately, in the media. 

It would allow people who have these experiences to feel a little bit less isolated, a little bit less strange, and a little bit more relatable.  

Part of the issue is that a lot of the experiences covered in the media, for example, hearing voices or a sort of bipolar type mood cycle, I couldn't relate. 

It was covered so negatively or stigmatized. 

As a society, we've probably made quite a good amount of progress in reducing some of the stigma surrounding more common mental health problems, but there's still a lot of work to be done when it comes to more severe and enduring mental health conditions.    

While they’re now getting talked about more, they're still heavily stigmatised, and it'd be nice to see us starting to move more in the direction as we've done with some other conditions. 

Paul says that it’s important that the person listening should feel confident helping someone reaching out for support, regardless of their experiences or diagnosis. 

We need more guidance for people about how to start conversations, because starting the conversation can be really difficult for some, and if there were more suggestions available about how to engage in those conversations, I think it would be a lot easier.    

It doesn't necessarily need to be formal, where you sit down opposite each other and have a chat. That could work for a lot of people, but you could go out for a walk, catching up over a coffee or a pint.   

Don’t feel like you have to give advice whenever someone is talking about something difficult.   

A lot of the time when people are offloading, they don't need or aren't looking for this great advice, they just need to share their issue, share their problem.   

Just listen and be there and be supportive of the person. I think if you do that, you can see that genuine empathy, and that makes it a lot less uncomfortable for the person who is opening up.   

Paul hopes we can further break down stigma around other topics like hospitalisation and medication. 

Certain medications can even be stigmatised, like anti-psychotic medication and antidepressants.  

I've heard people make comments like, “Oh, do they really need them? Is there not something else they could do? Could they not just do something else instead to boost their mood or whatever?” It's not always that simple, and it can be really life changing for some people.  

So, de-stigmatising, challenging and getting more comfortable talking about the fact that you take medication is part of it.  

I remember the first time I went into hospital; I didn't want anyone to know, not even my friends. 

My family knew that they were there with me, but I didn't even want my friends to know that I was in – which I feel really ashamed about thinking about it now. 

Because all my friends were great and super supportive. They didn't care. They just wanted me to get better, and I'd be the exact same if that was them. 

It was down to stigma that I was massively embarrassed being sectioned.  

But you wouldn't be embarrassed if someone you know was in hospital for a broken leg or an asthma attack. Or if someone was taking medication for their heart condition.  

It’s the same thing when it comes to your mental health. We have to get more comfortable talking about these things to normalise them.