Winter

What a glorious reminder of our connection to the natural world; we also change with the seasons.
This comes as a timely reminder to use winter wisely.
Summer can be alikened to our positive moods. Generally speaking in summer, we increase our social activity, we’re a little more vibrant, we are some what more frivolous with our resources (finances and energy) and generally speaking we are happy to be out in the sunlight.

Winter changes things, maybe not quite like a deciduous tree but metaphorically similar. In the natural world, fauna and flora power down and reserve their resources. What a lovely trend to follow.
As humans, we benefit from times of rest, repair and reflection. There is no better time than winter.

How will you power down? Will you lighten your social calendar and spend more time cozied up on the couch? What about your nutrition and food choices? Do you eat seasonally and take more care to nourish your body? What requires reflection time in your life? Winter can be seen as a season for self care and contemplation. Journal the learnings of this winter. Enjoy the cozy warmth and take the time to quiet the mind and body.

How to make Mental health a little more user friendly

A quick introduction, my name is Janine Di-Masi and I am a local Central Coast Psychologist.  My special focus is on disadvantaged and vulnerable families and have built a private practice in Wyong to do just that (The Seedpod Therapy). I have worked in mental health since 2002 and what strikes me is the disparity between mental health services and the accessibility for those that need it. I thought I’d dedicate time to creating a brief user manual for mental health support in our local area.  If you are reading this outside the Central Coast and Hunter, just take the general steps to support and research it in your area.

The mental health system is quite an unwieldy beast; so let me see if I can I help break it down to educate and improve accessible.

Entry point:

Generally, there are 3 ways into the system:

1. 1. PRIVATE (Via your GP) – call and organise an appointment to get a Mental Health Care/Treatment Plan.  This allows you to access the Medicare rebate of $96.65 (Registered Psychologist), $141.85 (Clinical Psychologist) or $82.30 (Mental Health Social Worker). This care plan gives you 6 rebated sessions with the option to an additional 4 sessions (10 per calendar year).  Most of the time the GP will have a preferred clinician, however you are free to choose. You can also see a Mental Health Nurse, creative therapists (art, music, movement, meditation) or a Counsellor. These guys are generally highly experienced and skilled so this is also a great option. If you choose this pathway, ask your GP if you qualify for an Enhanced Primary Care Plan (EPC).

1. 1. GOVERNMENT – There is a triage hotline (MH Line 1800 011 511) that can help you identify which team is required for the current circumstances.  Mental health support can be divided into acute (immediate/high need), community (moderate/mild support) and long term (persistent/enduring symptoms). You can also access NDIS for disability support, NSW Victims Services (counselling and recognition payments), DCJ and SafeWork NSW (previously WorkCover or Worker’s Compensation).

1. 1. NON- GOVERNMENT – on the coast there are many support programs that do such great work.  I urge you to google these services and see what they provide in our local area.  Agencies such as Uniting, Baptist Care, Catholic Care, We Care Connect, Allambi, Coast Shelter, Central Coast Family Support, Interrelate and Family Relationships Centre, Little Sparks Program (vulnerable children), Phoenix Youth services. RYSS, PCYC and Feel the Magic (grief).

This is certainly by no means comprehensive, however the hope is, that those that need it can find it.  I will spend time over the next few editions to help improve the accessibility of mental health and support services and improve connectivity for our community.

ANXIETY – an introduction

It would be completely remiss of me not talk about one of the most prevalent mental health conditions in our contemporary society.   Anxiety is used as a casual phrase in urban language and is also experienced by an astounding percentage of the population.  The truth is we all experience anxiety because it’s forms part of the suite of survival tools we have onboard. Anxiety is utilised as a protective mechanism.

So, what is anxiety? It’s your very own occupational health and safety officer (OH&S officer).  Anxiety’s job is to focus on the detection of danger and threat and is generally utilised for risk assessment.  Anxiety (or playfully referred to as our OH&S officer) will generally begin its enquiry by posing the question: WHAT IF?  Think about this for a moment. 

Those of us who regularly experience anxiety will be no stranger to the barrage of questioning relating to ‘what if’ and scenario building.  Just like any good OH&S officer, their job is to identify risk or danger prior to it happening to prepare and reduce potential for harm.  Think about this in terms of fire – there has been a very successful campaign to ensure that most schools and workplaces are required to carry out fire drills and lock downs. This has been developed to ensure panic and chaos does not ensue and large numbers of people can be mobilised if a threat occurs.  This procedure has been developed from a what if? line of questioning.  Let’s relate this back to our daily lives.  Just like a good OH&S officer, we need to answer the what if? question with a procedure.  Put simply, just answer the question.  What would I do if…… was to happen? When a what if? question is posed by the mind, spend some time answering the question with a rational and logical response.

Mind matters – Level up on Anxiety

Why does the brain prefer to enquire at night?  Just as we are about to drift off…… the question ‘What if?’ will ring out in the depths of our mind and break the momentum of falling asleep.  The simple answer is competing priorities.  During the day, the brain will filter and preference certain tasks, however at night the queue of conscious demands is significantly reduced. 

Let’s consider Anxiety for a moment (refer to the November’s edition of The Grapevine for a nice introduction to anxiety).  Essentially, a fun way to think about anxiety is aligning it with the role description of an Occupational Health & Safety Officer (OH&S officer).

An OH & S Officer will set to answer – “what If?” to assist in identifying risks and then set to create a procedural response to it.  Anxiety is no different.  In this capacity, Anxiety will in fact, identify risk and require a procedural response.  So next time you a wracked with anxiety, see if you can flesh out the “what if?”. “What if I see someone I know?”. “What if he is not actually where he says he is?”

Answer the question! What if these things were to occur?  What would you logically do if these things were to happen?  Answer the what if? question, it is an enquiry to respond to the risk or threat detected in the environment. 

The other feature of anxiety is a survival mechanism.  When there is a real threat detected in the environment the anxiety system will take over and dose us with an adrenaline cocktail to allow us to FIGHT OR FLIGHT.  This is an automatic response to our survival.  Another great question to ask ourselves when experiencing anxiety is “is this a real or perceived threat?” Or “Is this life threatening?” If the threat is real this is not a conscious response, if perceived then we need to attach a procedural response to the risk. Take notice of these two parts to anxiety and give it a try? Maybe it’ll make a difference.

Parenting

One of the most difficult and rewarding jobs is parenting – no matter how that role has come into your life; committment and attachment are key words however I’d also like to add beautiful trauma to the mix. It’s difficult to see ourselves as doing a good job. It’s worrying, exhausting and challenging and we’re all doing the best we can, with the skills and knowledge we have.  There is no manual for parenting, we literally rely on the skills we have learnt on our own unique journey.  Our skill set is a complex web of the skills that have been modelled to us through our own family of origin and other significant relationships.  Take a moment to reflect on your adult models and relationships that may have shaped some of your responding and informed some of your parenting?

Access to information and quality skill development is something that you may not have been exposed to, however the key here is……. YET! If you find that the parenting relationship triggers some of your own hurt then seek support from a trusted clinician (see previous article for how to access mental health support).  The parenting relationship will highlight the outer limits of your skills set.  Being able to recognise when you have reached these limits will be a big win.  How? Where? do I learn the skills to be able to deal with issues as they arise instead of being reactive? ASK, SEEK, READ, TALK, ACKNOWELEDGE, REFLECT, REPAIR.

Repair, this is an effective skill. Repair helps us define where the other person’s responsible ends and our responsible starts.  Being able to go back and say “I’m sorry, that was my bad” is such a powerful message of accountability.  Repair allows others to take themselves out of our story and understand our human qualities. Repair helps us refocus on the behaviour that requires guidance. 

Finally, I want to define parenting in 3 stages:

Parenting from in front (teaching) – Birth to 17 years

Parenting from the side (guidance) – 17 – 30 years

Parenting from behind (support) – 30 +

In the next article, I’ll discuss resources for parents both parenting the children and the complexity of sharing the parenting role.

Sleep

Sleep is something we all interact with but the quality of sleep is certainly not a typical experience.  It can be the source of much anguish for some and yet, another person’s source of peace and rest.  It is by far one of the most regularly identified symptoms of mental health and over half of the population struggles with some form of issue relating to sleep.

Sleep is actually a very active process and it’s a biological mechanism of the body.  The body will use this time as a sort of rest and repair phase and the brain…well that’s a very interesting story. During sleep the brain will take advantage of powering down to do a few important things.  The brain uses this time to categorise the information from the day and will also bathe itself.

During REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement), it is understood that the brain will categorise emotional information and start to store experiences.  In this way memory and sleep are connected. Another process during this phase is a mechanism where the brain will use cerebrospinal fluid to wash itself, removing dead cells and other matter from processing throughout the day. Given these functions are important for optimal brain functioning, let’s look at a few ways improve our chances of wrangling sleep. Sleep hygiene is the term that is used for the rituals and routines that can improve our chances of quality sleep.  Sleep is a huge commercial industry, everything from pillows, mattresses, pyjamas to music and meditation.   Sleep has now even permeated the travel industry, with specialised hotels specially designed for sleep.  We don’t need to travel for good sleep; we can look at our daily routine to see if there are some areas of improvement.  Good sleep starts from the time we wake all the way to the time we settle into our bed.  We need to develop a biological hunger for sleep. Take the time to evaluate your sleep and what your rituals are to prepare for sleep? the amount of activity you do in the day? The amount of worry and stress you have in your life? The location of your sleep? Light and dark elements? Nutrition? Your sleeping companion(s) both human and fur ones? Stimulants? Yes, sometimes life means that we don’t have a choice in some of these things but at least being able to reflect on how you prepare for sleep with the resources you have can be beneficial.