Service Users Forum: Help shape our services by joining our service user forum and let us know how we can improve - Find out more
Service Users Forum: Help shape our services by joining our service user forum and let us know how we can improve - Find out more
The latest episode of Let's Talk Mate, Solent Mind's men's mental health chat, discussed all things serving in the military and life as a veteran.
How is mental health perceived by people while serving? What is life like as a veteran?
The latest Let’s Talk Mate focuses on all things surrounding mental health for veterans and serving personnel with four guests who all have some kind of experience in the forces.
Steve Johns is a veteran who now is the Service Lead for our Portsmouth Peer Support team, part of his role is leading on out-of-hours crisis service the Harbour, and he hosted this conversation.
Steve was joined by Loysen from Southampton’s Peer Support Team and Denis from iTalk, both of whom are also veterans, as well as Adam who is currently serving in the Royal Navy.
Adam is also part of Andy’s Man Club (AMC), who are a charity who provide support groups across the country and help to break the stigma against men’s mental health, with Adam playing a key role in the Gosport based group.
The perception of mental health
The starting point of this conversation looked at how mental health is perceived by those serving, and some of the issue they face.
Adam said: “I think there is sometimes a misconception that because you are in the military you are some kind of super human, and you can deal with stuff that other people couldn’t.
“When actually, we aren’t that different. For me, personally, I got involved with the TRiM [Trauma Risk Management] team after a particular challenging incident. That helped me massively in the early stages after the event, but actually I found there wasn’t anything to help me manage my mental health on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.”
This point then linked to questions of how seriously mental health is taken when it isn’t directly linked to PTSD, as Loysen explained: “There is a general misconception that anything to do with mental health in the army is going to be related to PTSD [Post Traumtic Stress Disorder], when it is not. Mental health can be affected by millions and millions of things.
“You can be an operational tour, or training away, and a person breaks up with their partner for example. They don’t get any help, and that then has a knock on affect to everything else.”
Life as a veteran
While life while serving can be difficult, moving away from that can also come with its fair share of struggles.
All agreed that in the army, the opportunity to be surrounded by and talk to people who are sharing the experience with you can be massively beneficial, and losing that can have an adverse affect.
Loysen opened up about his initial time after leaving the army: “I left the army in 2010, and prior to leaving I started struggling with PTSD, but I thought I was strong enough to deal with it on my own.
“When I left the army I became really isolated because I lost all my support network. I had no one, and I was on my own, that pushed me to button up and keep quiet. While I made some new friends, I didn’t really want to talk to them about it because I felt I didn’t trust them enough.”
Anxiety in the current climate
Adam also shared his thoughts on the feeling around the military with recent headlines and stories filling up our TV screens: “It is just a massive sense of uncertainty. There is not anyone in the military right now who has had to deal with this situation before, it is completely new.
“Everyone at every level, I imagine, is feeling some kind of tense and nervous energy. I have dealt with it in my own way by just trying to ignore the media.”
If anyone is struggling with everything happening in the world at the moment, or just in general, we are here for you.
If you are Southampton based, text your postcode and ‘LIGHTHOUSE’ to 074 5127 6010, also open between 4.30pm and 11pm every evening.
If you feel your family are in need of support while you are serving, get in touch with our Anchoring Minds service, who are giving families of Royal Navy and Royal Marines serving personnel the emotional wellbeing support they need and deserve.
The latest episode of Let's Talk Mate, Solent Mind's men's mental health chat, focused on relationships. Here are a few bitesize takeaways from the episode!
Portsmouth resident Vicky shared her story of how contacting crisis service, the Harbour, kick started her journey to recovery.
The out-of-hours mental health service, The Harbour, is now available seven-evenings-a-week, offering support to people struggling with their mental health.
