If you need some support during lockdown, don’t be afraid to ask for it
Take the advice of Bodycoach Joe Wicks and share your feelings, writes Prudence Wade
Like so many of us, Joe Wicks is finding another lockdown mentally challenging.
The Body Coach broke down in tears in a recent Instagram video, saying: “It really hit me tonight how long this has gone on. You can be the most upbeat person, but it’ll catch you – it’ll creep up on you when you’re not expecting it, and that’s what I feel like.”
He added: “I’m trying to let you know that it’s OK to feel upset and down right now, and it’s OK to not be this really strong person all the time. I think the most important thing is probably to chat to people, communicate, reach out to your family.”
During the first lockdown in April last year, the Mental Health Foundation found one in four people experienced feelings of loneliness – compared to one in 10 before restrictions set in. It also found young people between 18 and 24 were most likely to feel lonely, with almost half experiencing these feelings.
The new lockdown can feel daunting, so it’s a good idea to take Wicks’ advice and talk about your feelings, rather than keeping them bottled up. If you need urgent help, you can find an immediate helpline through the NHS, or you can call or visit your local A&E. If you’re looking for someone to chat to more generally, these resources might help…
Samaritans
If you want to talk to someone with no judgement or pressure, the Samaritans (samaritans.org) phone line (116 123) is free and open 24 hours a day. If you’re finding it hard to articulate your feelings out loud, there’s also the option to write an email jo@samaritans.org.
Samaritans says: “People contact us with all sorts of concerns and what might be a small issue to you, may be huge to someone else. You could be going through something new or have been struggling to cope for some time, either way, we’re here if you feel you need some extra support.”
CALM
CALM (thecalmzone.net) – the Campaign Against Living Miserably – is the movement against suicide, particularly focusing on the fact 75 per cent of UK suicides are male. You can call the helpline on 0800 58 58 58 and chat to a trained support worker between 5pm and midnight every day, or you can speak to someone online.
If you’re struggling with the new restrictions, CALM recommends staying connected with your friends and family, focusing on the things you can control (like going for a run or watching your favourite TV show), getting some consistency in your days, and remembering to be kind to yourself.
Rethink Mental Illness
Rethink Mental Illness (rethink.org) has a web chat function between 10am and 1pm Monday to Friday, you can get in contact via email (advice@rethink.org) or letter, and the phone lines (0300 5000 927) are open for calls and texts between 9:30am and 4pm during the week.
Not only does the charity provide support for those struggling, but it is also there for anyone caring for someone with poor mental health.
A weird kind ofsyn chronic ityfe ll into place forKir kcal dybased singer-songwriter Mike Clerk just before Christmas, when one of the inspirations for his forthcoming debut solo album, The Space Between My Ears, accidentally sought him out on the internet. While writing the album, Clerk had immersed himself in TV dramas and books, and one of these was Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting follow-up The Blade Artist; then, one Saturday morning in December, Clerk woke to find that Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle had tweeted a recommendation for his song Keep Movin’.
Does he know Carlyle? “Like how Americans think ever y Scottish person knows every other Scottish person ?” laughs the easy-going but enthusiastic Fifer, originally from Methilhill. “No, I’ve no links to Bobby, I’ve never met him – it was just a really weird surprise. It’s nice to get a recommendation from somebody you respect, though.”
This wasn’ t Clerk’ s first encounter with the firmament of Scottish culture, however. In the 2000s, his band The Lost Generation played former Creation boss Alan Mcgee’s Death Disco club in London.clerk stepped away from music and worked as a private music tutor but recently decided to test himself by writing while learning piano.
Applying for a grant to help release the album, he set up a Gofundme as an income stream; within a week he’d smashed his target, and not long after he had a publishing deal.
Keep Movin’ is his Scotsman Session, recorded at historic Cardy Net House in Lower Largo. “The album is about psychological states of mind,” says Clerk. “Empathy, struggle, failure, defiance – all written in three acts like a film, picking you up at the beginning, dropping you in the middle and bringing you up at the end. This song’s about redemption and determination; about pushing through the odds just to see if you make it out the other side.”
For details see www.instagram.com/mikeclerkmusic.