As of today (with some uni years), I have been in care/support work for 5 years! I have learnt a whole lot about myself and have surprised myself many times. I have also learnt a fair amount about people as well but I don’t think my lessons are over yet! I particularly wanted to write about my job role in relation to my mental health but there will hopefully some general applications to take from this as well.

It has been a mystery to me and perhaps other people that when I have had experience of and work with people to encourage them, that I struggle to use this knowledge/wisdom for myself. It has been helpful for me recently, as I went through counselling, when I was being my own worst critic to think about what I would say and do to someone who was going through the same thing as me – firstly as a support worker but also as a friend or family member. I have found this helpful to turn my negative and anxious thoughts around and start to be kinder to myself.

The other side that I wanted to write about along this topic is the idea of people who had or have particularly mental health conditions working in the health professions. Of course, your health doesn’t immediately disqualify you if things are stable and in place for you and you are fit to work. However, I think one of the important things to keep watch of is how your thought process can change. I feel like when you begin assessing and observing someone else’s mental health – with or without the professional terms – it can make you over-analyse situations when your own health worsens. Like am I depressed? Or was that a panic attack? Or how well am I engaging? Of course, there is a time for that but I think it is important to have more time out of work to get myself out of thinking this way all the time and being able to put the time I may have used to over-analyse into something else. I am grateful that this is something I now have in my new job.

Not that all people who want to do support work aren’t inspiring, but I particularly appreciate people, who have used their own experiences of either having health issues themselves or supporting their own loved ones with one, to help other people in difficult times. Because health conditions themselves don’t discriminate in profession but it’s a special breed of people who can overcome them and want to help others do the same.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you find it helpful. As always, feel free to get in touch with any questions/feedback/comments, I always love to hear them. Stay tuned for the next instalment.

Until next time

K