Mental health charity Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire Mind (CPSL Mind) is offering fully funded suicide prevention training places to anyone across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who may support others, through personal connections, their work or volunteering.
The one hour STOP Suicide workshop will equip participants with the skills they need to recognise suicide warning signs, ask directly about suicide and support individuals at risk to stay safe.
This course will be held online via Teams.
- According to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) 35 – 51% of people in the UK are estimated to be suffering from Chronic pain.
- Chronic pain and mental health are closely linked – each affecting the other. Experiencing pain day after day can lead to psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety and can lead to suicide.
Suicidal thoughts are more common than you might think – one in five people in the UK will experience suicidal thoughts in their lifetime.
Catherine Melia, 31 from Stamford, South Lincolnshire is someone who has experienced chronic pain. Reflecting on her experience, she explains,“ ‘Exercise will help’ is a phrase etched into my memory from years of PE lessons with menstrual cramps and back pain. My teachers never believed that for me, exercise certainly did not help, so I was forced to endure worse pain or to embarrassingly hand over a note from my mum excusing me from the lesson. These monthly debates were just the beginning of the dismissal I would experience for living with chronic pain. Every month since the summer before I turned 12, I have had excruciating pain that was largely ignored until, after 15 years and a trip to A&E, I was diagnosed with Endometriosis.
For all the years preceding my diagnosis, I blamed myself. Maybe I always had leg and hip pain because I was unfit, maybe I was always bloated because I didn’t eat healthily enough, maybe I was always tired because I was weaker than other people, maybe I had unexplainable searing pains in my pelvis because my body hated me. My self-esteem plummeted as I was constantly comparing myself to ‘normal’ people. Not only was I suffering physically, but my mental health was getting progressively worse as I saw no way of improving my quality of life. I was depressed, always feeling scared for that one week a month where, at any point, I would be crawling on the floor, shaking, crying, and sweating in agony. It was in bed at 3am, it was at the side of the road after a shopping trip whilst waiting for the bus, it was driving to pick my friend up from work, it was during Pride while my friends were celebrating. I have had difficult and dark thoughts over the years of living with chronic pain and I understand what it is like to feel like there is no way out of feeling so dismissed, blamed, exhausted, in pain, hopeless and useless. I continued to believe I was the problem until, in January 2020, the ultrasound technician carrying out my scan asked me if anyone had spoken to me about Endometriosis. No, I said, they hadn’t.
That was 5 years ago, and since then I have learned a lot. I’ve learned that after years of dismissal and self-blame, I am not the problem. I’ve learned that Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory illness with no cure. I’ve learned that strenuous activity has been proven to flare symptoms of Endometriosis (PE teachers, if you’re reading, I wasn’t lying to get out of your lesson. Exercise would never have helped me). I’ve learned that if you see enough doctors, there will be one who understands and validates the pain you are in.
My mental health is still a daily battle. I still feel upset that I have to live with chronic pain that makes daily norms difficult, and I still struggle to get out of bed and love my body and accept that it is restricted in what it can do. However, I have also learned ways to manage my mental health in a way that works for my experience of chronic pain, and I have achieved things in spite of pain and fatigue that I am genuinely proud of. There are six key ways I have improved my mental health whilst living with chronic pain:
- I stopped blaming myself and started showing myself compassion instead.
- I gave myself permission to rest because that is what my body needs.
- I joined a peer support group on Facebook to remind myself that I’m not alone.
- I didn’t give up anything I love doing, I just found ways to do it that work for me.
- I set boundaries with friends, family, and colleagues as to how much I can manage.
- I didn’t stop changing doctors until I found one who understood my experience and was knowledgeable.
We know our bodies better than anyone, and my mental health has been easier to manage since I took back control of mine.”
To book on the training, visit the event booking page here
For more information or advice on the courses being delivered, please contact to a member of CPSL Mind training team: training@cpslmind.org.uk
Safety warning – Please consider your own emotional wellbeing before signing up for this course. If you have been bereaved by suicide, or affected by attempted suicide or suicidal thoughts, you may find the content difficult.
September 15, 2023
