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Making Space for Grief at Christmas

As the nights draw in and the days on the calendar hurtle towards December, most of us are starting to plan. Making lists, sorting meals, buying gifts – it’s all part of the fun festivities. But for many, there's another plan that needs to be made - how to manage the grief of a lost loved one. Since Christmas is a time for family gatherings, it can bring up a lot of complex feelings and grief for those who are no longer with us, even if we lost them some time ago. Grief like this is a totally normal part of life, which is why it's important to embrace it, rather than repress it. To try and make this festive season a little easier, we wanted to share some tips around how to make space for grief at Christmas, and make it a positive part of the celebrations.

Can ADHD Really Impact Your Mental Health?

You would be forgiven for thinking that there’s been a huge spate of overdiagnosis when it comes to ADHD. The news is talking about the fact that more people than ever before are being diagnosed with ADHD, and that many systems simply aren’t built to accommodate neurodiverse people effectively. A new story is in the media every few days, and you probably know at least one person who has been diagnosed with ADHD later in life.

The Real Impact Of Being Left Out

National Inclusion week is one of those new annual celebrations, sitting right alongside national careers week and neurodiversity celebration week. The aim is to highlight the importance of inclusion across the UK, particularly in the workplace. This year it falls on the 23rd to the 29th of September, and you probably saw loads of employers doing activities and showcasing how inclusive their workplace is. Which is all great stuff! But this month what we want to really highlight is why inclusion matters, and the negative effects not being included can have on an employee’s mental health.

Men’s Hormones – And How They Affect Your Mental Health

Every human on the planet has hormones. They’re an important part of our body’s communication mechanism, and they keep a lot of important processes running. Growth, repair and rejuvenation, cell regulation and reproduction – all of them are controlled by hormones. Typically, your body knows how much of which hormones to produce and when so that everything can work smoothly. But sometimes that doesn’t happen. A hormone is missing, present in too high or too low levels, or just appearing at the wrong times, and this can cause all sorts of problems. This is called hormone imbalance.

Women’s Hormones And Mental Health – Are They Connected?

When it comes to our mental health, we know there are dozens of things that can have an impact. Environment, diet, circumstance, social support, stress and trauma are all things that can cause your mental health to decline. But there’s one thing that has much more of an impact than we think - hormones. Particularly in women, who experience more hormonal fluctuations every month, and whose hormones will change as they age. But why do hormones play such a big part in women’s mental health, and is there anything we can do to tame them?

An Introduction To Bipolar Disorder

For a long time the term ‘bipolar’ was used as somewhat of a joke. A way to brush off someone whose mood had changed quickly, or who tended to easily go from being happy to angry. Thankfully over the last few years there has been more awareness of bipolar disorder, and the problems people suffering with it face on a daily basis. If you think you or someone you know might be struggling with bipolar disorder, then this guide to the basics of the condition might be helpful.

The Widened Scope of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are on the rise. It might not seem like it, but between 1.25 and 3.4 million people in the UK alone are affected by an eating disorder. Most eating disorders develop during the teen years, but they can start as early as 6 or as late as 70 or even 80. And surprisingly, eating disorders have the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders – above depression, anxiety and even schizophrenia.

Is It Possible To Be Too Positive?

We all know that positivity is a good thing. Whether that’s positive thinking to get you through a tough situation, or having a positive attitude when dealing with a difficult customer, there’s a lot of power in positive thought. In fact, studies have proven that positive thinking can reduce anxiety, increase your general happiness, improve your resilience to stress and even help you live longer!

Stress – It’s Not All In Your Head

Everyone gets stressed! This is something we hear all too often at Melp Co -usually as a way to dismiss very valid feelings. To some extent it’s true - we all experience stress at some point in our lives, but it can affect all of us in very different ways. Most of the time it doesn't look like the TV vision of stress. There’s no tearing your hair out and shouting. Instead, stress can affect you in all sorts of strange ways that you might not think are stress-related at all. Since the only way to deal with the symptoms is to address the underlying stress, it's important to understand what physical issues you're experiencing could be caused by stress.

Gambling And Mental Health

Gambling. For most, an occasional fun treat, or even a weekly ritual with their family. Who hasn’t enjoyed a flutter on the lottery when the jackpot’s high, or tried their luck on a scratch card? But for some people, dipping their toe into the water isn’t enough. For them, gambling quickly becomes an addiction, and one that can have a huge impact on their mental health.

Why Aren’t We Talking About Children’s Mental Health?

Whenever the topic of children’s mental health comes up, it’s often an awkward turn in the conversation. It’s an uncomfortable topic, and not something most people really want to think about. Especially if the conversation is about younger children. Somehow, we’re all aware that older children and teenagers experience mental health problems, but we choose to believe that younger children don’t experience the same things. Despite the fact that 1 in 6 young peoplestarting from aged 5 up to age 16 will experience mental health problems, and that prior to Covid-19, suicide was one of the leading causes of death for young people age 10 to 19 years old.

4 Tips For Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Hello and welcome to January! May we be the first to wish you a prosperous and happy 2024.

Is There A Link Between Chronic Pain And Mental Health

This might sound a little strange, but often pain can be a good thing. It’s your body’s way of telling you to stop what you’re doing and check for damage, because something isn’t working the way it should. It prevents you from making injuries worse, and signals that you need help to recover.

Making Mental Health Accessible

In past years, we would have started this kind of article with ‘if you know someone who struggles with mental health problems.’. but in 2023, there’s no need to say ‘if’. We know that either you or someone very close to you has experienced mental health problems at some point. Since the 2020 pandemic poor mental health has been on the rise, and now 1 in 8 people worldwide live with a diagnosed mental health condition, and 1 in 4 will experience one even if they don’t have a formal diagnosis.

The True Impact Of Collective Trauma

Have you felt a little different over the last few years? Not quite yourself, like something has changed?

Men’s Mental Health Challenges (And What To Do About Them)

Mental health. It’s something that’s talked about a lot nowadays, in stark contrast to even 5 years ago, when it wasn’t discussed at all. Now you can open up any social media or news app and be greeted with affirmations like ‘it’s OK not to be OK’ and ‘ask for support if you need it’. Which is great!

Disordered Eating & Eating Disorders

Food is essential to life. It’s our fuel, the thing that keeps us going and ensures our body can still function perfectly. But what happens when our relationship with food starts to break down, and we restrict our access to the fuel we need to keep going?

Failure

Answer this question as honestly as you can. When was the last time you failed at something?

Tips For Managing Work Stress

For many people, work is a great source of stress in their lives, and if not managed properly that can have a big impact. So we have a few tips to help you manage work stress and have a much calmer, happier time.

Sleep Problems and Insomnia

As human beings, we need to sleep. The amount of sleep we need varies depending on our age and our general metabolism, but generally the average adult needs between 7 and 9 hours of sleep a night. If you’re constantly feeling tired during the day, then you’re probably not getting enough sleep.

Preparing For The Excess Of The Party Season

Whether you eat too much, drink too much, or don’t prep enough, the holiday season can be really tough on your body and mind. Not only do our stress levels go through the roof, but there is an expectation of excess around Christmas and New Year's that some people find difficult. Whether that’s because you’re recovering from an addiction, you have a difficult relationship with food, or you struggle to manage with less sleep, the excess can catch up with you very quickly. So as we move into the festive season, we wanted to highlight some of the issues that can come up, and how to navigate them.

Emotions

Everyone feels emotions. Happiness, sadness, excitement, fear, nervousness – these are all emotions that tell us something about what’s going on, either in our body, our mind, or in the world around us. But while emotions are normal, they are something we have to learn how to interpret, understand and manage. A lot of this work is done in childhood, but even as adults we can come across new feelings and emotions, or feel overwhelmed by the emotions inside us, and this can be really difficult to navigate. And this is where you might need a little support.

Good Habits For Well-being

At Melp, we are passionate about the prevention of mental health illnesses. And good well-being habits underpin the prevention process.

Is Goal Setting Good For Your Mental Health?

When it comes to setting goals and making resolutions, we’ve all fallen into the trap before. We set a big, ethereal goal with no real idea of how to achieve it, and then we feel depressed when we don’t manage it. It’s one of the reasons New Year’s Resolutions are considered bad for your mental health by some. But instead of setting a resolution, why not look at setting yourself some goals instead? It might sound similar but setting yourself a goal can be incredibly beneficial for your mental health.