By Natasha Whelehan
I am a huge fan of Dr Rangan Chatterjee, and look forward to new episodes of his podcast Feel Better, Live More on a weekly basis. For anyone with an interest in health and wellness the podcast is a great resource, with episodes on stress management, sleep, social media, hormone balancing and exercise to name but a few.
I really enjoyed this week’s episode, and thought it may be of interest to some of you Happy Magazine readers. The guest this week was Natasha Devon MBE, a writer and mental health campaigner. Everyone is familiar with the term mental illness. What really appealed to me was the concept of ‘mental fitness’ which was one of the central themes being discussed this week.
For many of us our mental health takes a battering following a cancer diagnosis. The implications of a cancer diagnosis are far reaching and the toll on our mental health can be huge. Yet for many of us the anxiety, PTSD and depression that can exist after active treatment ends is often hidden.
I have personally experienced mental health issues, in particular severe anxiety for many years pre-dating my cancer diagnosis. I was not always as open as I am now about these struggles. I didn’t feel I could be. As such, I found the discussion on mental fitness, the campaign for parity of treatment for mental illness and Devon’s goal of seeing mental health first aiders introduced into the workplace fascinating and very thought provoking. In particular, her comments about how people react to a mental health illness and how this can differ to the reaction to a physical illness really struck a chord with me. Mental Illness. Physical Illness. Why is there often a difference in how people respond?
A really interesting and thought provoking episode of a great podcast. Hope you enjoy!
You can find it here: https://drchatterjee.com/mental-fitness-and-body-image-with-natasha-devon-mbe/
By Natasha Whelehan, Happy Magazine Contributor.
