Work experience - Mental Health First Aid 2 Day Training

Hello! 

It's Thursday the 21st of August 21:23

Day 1 of the Mental health first aid training was today and it was AWESOME! Maybe a little long (9:30am to 5pm). 

I woke up pretty late, but still made it on time الحمد لله (thank God), I hate being late, too much awkwardness. 

The training day 1 was made up of two 3.5hours sessions. The first half they spent most of it introducing what mental health actually is by making us do brainstorming activities with different people. Once we did that we talked about clinical depression, the facts, the information and also the signs & symptoms. 

Definition: Clinical Depression: is one that lasts for at least two weeks and affects the young persons behaviour and has physical, emotional and cognitive effects. 

It also interferes with the ability to study, work and to have satisfying relationships. 

Natural brain chemicals called neurotransmitter, are thought to be the cause of depression and it's symptoms. These chemicals are messengers. The chemicals travel from nerve cell to nerve cell in the brain. When the person is depressed, their brain has less of these chemicals. The main chemical messenger in the brain which controls mood is, serotonin.

There are A LOT of different causes for depression, such as, exposure to family or community violence, death of someone close, or even just caring full-time for someone with a long-term disability. 

The interesting part was the stories different people had to say about their experiences. I would share them with you, but since I'm aiming to become a doctor, I need to practice patient confidentiality. 

First aid for depression:

1. Ask, assess, act

2. Listen non-judgementally

3. Give reassurance and information

4. Enable the person to get appropriate professional hell

5. Encourage self help strategies 

There are a number of useful places to seek help for a person who might be depressed or suffering from anxiety. 

- Your GP

- Psychiatrist

- Councellors and clinical psychologist

- Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)

- Interperosnal psychotherapy (IP) 

- Psychotherapist

- CAMHS, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service. 

Anxiety

Firstly, we learnt the different types if anxiety, anxiety disorder and normal anxiety. Normal anxiety is the day to day anxiety everyone feels just before an exam etc. These causes never lead to panic attacks, whereas anxiety disorder lasts longer than usual and can eventually lead to panic attacks because it is more server and it also interferes with school, work and relationships. 

Examples of anxiety disorders include: 

- Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 

- Panic disorders 

- Phobias 

- Social Phobias 

- Seperation anxiety disorder

- Actute stress disorder and list-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

- Obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) 

You can also find people with both anxiety and depression. Some people might need mediciations, whilst others need a councillor or psychiatrist. To each their own. 

At the end of the day we were given homework, the homework is to go home and take 1hour to do something you enjoy. Awesome right?!!! 

Today I've learnt that mental health has so many different aspects and forms. I've also learnt that it isn't easily recognised by the person or even the people around them. I've learnt that a certain situation can cause someone to become depressed whilst the same situation can cause no mental change to another person.