Last week, the former government mental health champion for schools and founder of the Body ‘Self-Esteem Team’ campaign, Natasha Devon, MBE pledged to send a daily letter to the current Prime Minister until she responds “in a meaningful way” regarding mental health education for Britain’s youngsters. Devon and her team of wellbeing warriors have harboured a pretty impressive online following (Natasha herself has more than 15,000 Twitter followers) and their campaign to introduce mental health education in schools is supported by mental health experts and doctors across the country. The praise for such a scheme is hardly surprising given these latest figures:
According to the Department of Education, out of 30,000 14 and 15 year olds surveyed, a terrifying 37 per-cent of girls and 15 per-cent of boys reported three or more symptoms of psychological distress. And it’s getting worse. Currently, one in three teen girls will suffer from anxiety or depression and over the past 10 years, there’s been a 10 per-cent increase in mental health problems, leading to experts announcing a “slow growing epidemic”. Yet – speaking from personal experience – many of those in a position of care for the mentally vulnerable are just as clueless as the rest of us.
So what does it actually feel like to suffer from a mental health illness? We asked one exceptional young person and anorexia survivor, with an incredible talent, to give us an insight. Thank you Lucy Harding, for your epic artwork and for keeping me sane (ish).
If you like what you see, give Lucy a like on FaceyB.
“This was a response to a photo I stumbled upon on an app called Skchy. I love the self-hug in this photo.”
“I made a small book of positive affirmations whilst I was in hospital. I didn’t show it to anybody. I would try and say it to myself and to others as much as possible.”
“I painted for Kiran
[occupational therapist] as a joke because she hates them and I thought she should face her fears like we have to.”“This was supposed to be a bit of a joke. I had hundreds of multicoloured medications in my rucksack and I had a strange urge to photocopy them: so I did. I guess you have to joke about these things…”
“These images show the reality of eating for somebody who has an eating disorder. I want to convey the emotional pain as being the same as physical pain.”
“Lucy [a fellow patient] made me do this as a memoir of her ex husband – art therapy has a new meaning.”
The mental health hospital in London where Lucy spent her time in treatment.
“I wanted to show how god damn creepy hospitals can be, but also how beautiful the architecture is in the mist. I love the creepy, abandoned feeling. It makes me feel more alive to take photos of something so empty.”
To pledge support for Natasha Devon’s campaign to introduce mental health education in schools, follow the Self Esteem Team on Twitter.