Joe Minihane, Author at MensFitness https://mensfitness.co.uk/author/joeminihane/ Just another WordPress site Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:32:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.3 https://mensfitness.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/MF-desktop_favicon_32-1.png?w=32 Joe Minihane, Author at MensFitness https://mensfitness.co.uk/author/joeminihane/ 32 32 Jonny Wilkinson Interview: Stress, Success & Buddhism https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/jonny-wilkinson-interview-stress-success-buddhism/ Fri, 05 Aug 2022 12:02:53 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=10349 The biggest name in English rugby, Jonny Wilkinson, reveals how Buddhism helped him find a greater sense of fulfilment

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Jonny Wilkinson is the player who transcends rugby. His iconic drop goal in the dying minutes of the World Cup final in 2003 ensuring he would forever be remembered as the man who won England the trophy they’d been after for decades.

But that moment, along with countless others – in a career marked by the outward success of four Six Nations championships and two Heineken Cups to go alongside that World Cup winner’s medal – was just part of a wider story. One in which he was battling anxiety and depression despite, from the outside, appearing to have it all.

“It ended up so fairytale-like for me compared to what I could have possibly imagined,” says Wilkinson, who works as a mental health ambassador for health insurer Vitality and has long been a practising Buddhist – something which he has previously said helped him make sense of his own mental health.

“You become attached to [the fairytale],” he adds. “And then it stops. You come out of the flow state into the material, physical experience of the world.”

Jonny Wilkinson on why success doesn’t buy happiness

These attachments to success, says Wilkinson, did little to improve his mental health. Winning could never ease his low mood or sense of constant worry.

He was, he says, only able to start improving his wellbeing by opening up about his feelings and being vulnerable.

“When it becomes a practised habit,” says Wilkinson, “it’s no longer really being vulnerable and opening up. It’s recognising that it’s about facing challenges and understanding why things are there – going deeper and, I think, getting better.”

He says that, while he feels the conversation around mental health is improving, we need to start considering what life looks like beyond those first ‘beautiful’ moments when we tell someone else about how we feel.

“I coped and survived my way through matches, because I put so much of a fear of failure onto myself” – Jonny Wilkinson

“So much of it is about coping and getting through,” he says. “I get that, because I’ve been in that space. But by their very nature, coping and managing, for me, are a survival state.

“It’s actually what I did with so much of my life in terms of my rugby career. I coped and survived my way through matches, because I put so much of a fear of failure [onto myself].”

These techniques became more and more reinforced, however, leading to further anxiety.

So instead, Wilkinson began delving deeper, considering how people believe they need to suffer to succeed, as well as exploring spiritual ways to become more grounded in the present moment. This is where his Buddhism really comes to the fore.

His passion for the topic is every bit as powerful as his urge to win when on the rugby pitch, albeit from a more rounded place and without the need, as he sees it, to become attached to specific achievements and goals.

“Challenge doesn’t come in the form you want it, otherwise it’s just not challenging.” – Jonny Wilkinson

It’s these goals, he says, that we need to get better at understanding:

“If they’re an attempt to fill a hole, or have a lack of connection to self-worth or fulfilment… then it just doesn’t work. It’s almost like you put all your eggs in one basket and say, ‘When I get this, everything’s going to be good.’ Then when you get it, you go, ‘Oh god, what now?’ Then you think, Well, maybe the next one will do, but you already have your evidence [that these kind of goals don’t work].”

This is where Wilkinson believes being more reflective and honest with ourselves is key. “When challenge becomes the understanding of growth,” he says. “that’s opportunity, that’s connecting more with who you really are and connecting more with life. Challenge doesn’t come in the form you want it, otherwise it’s just not challenging.”

Facing up to failure, rather than searching solely for success, is what Wilkinson is driving at:

“If you had a big sports tournament coming up at the end of the year and you said, ‘Right, we’ve got a year to plan our fixtures before that,’ who would you choose to play against? You’d pick the best teams in the world. Some might say, ‘You’re going to lose.’ But that’s the point.

Wilkinson continues with the rugby analogy:

“What we’re actually saying to ourselves is, ‘Give me the 80-nil games, give me those games when everything happens exactly as I wanted, so I don’t have to grow.’

“But then as soon as you sit in that space, the unfulfillment level is huge. The inner voice that says, ‘It’s my nature to expand infinitely and to explore my boundless truth,’ is saying, ‘I’m not OK with this.’

Wilkinson says that even when taking the route of safety and comfort, challenges will still present themselves:

“That challenge will be unrest – enormous unrest. That was how I played my entire rugby career. It was, ‘someone’s trying to take me on, I need to win this. I need to win this battle. I need to win it.’ The problem is, if you win every battle, you don’t go anywhere.

“Losing, and in that way suffering, is still so challenging and so painful and tough, but it’s no longer suffering if you are able to view it with perspective.”

Jonny Wilkinson smiles to camera with arms folded for Men's Fitness interview

Jonny Wilkinson on reframing stress and anxiety

There’s also, says Wilkinson, a need to try and understand that we can positively frame stress and anxiety when facing challenges in life.

“In the Zen Buddhist tradition, [you] pose conundrums with people that take them into a level of anxiety. The whole point being in that space, there is growth, because it’s the shedding of ‘what I had and what was giving me some kind of comfort was essentially stopping my expansion… Do I release it and go into the unknown or do I hold onto it and stay with what I do?’

Wilkinson believes that embracing such challenges is fundamental, but he isn’t naive enough to think it’s easy. Rather, he highlights that our challenges and attempts to understand our lives and mental health are a never-ending processes. Understanding that, he says, has been key for him:

“It’s not a journey because it’s not going anywhere. There’s no destination, it’s an adventure. Life deepens, it doesn’t go linear from here to there… Now is all there is.”

Understanding suffering

Ultimately, what Wilkinson is espousing is a kinder, more gentle approach to life. One which doesn’t put its store in material success or achieving endless goals without really exploring why we’re trying to attain them in the first place. This, again, comes back to suffering, something which in the past he has claimed he felt was essential in order to achieve his goals as a rugby player.

“The idea about suffering, the one that I think is the one that got me [as a player], is not so much that you have to go through it to get what you want, but the idea that getting what you want at the end of it is going to be better than the suffering.

Wilkinson says that he has instead come to accept that what he has gone through, and what we all go through, is part of a deeper exploration of life.

“It’s not my life, it’s life working through me,” he says. “My job is to get out of its way so I can experience the the intuition, the wisdom, inspiration, the creativity, the beauty, the love – all that stuff, which is inclusive and universal.”

To some it may sound a bit out there for a man who became known for his uncompromising and professional focus on the rugby pitch. But staying present and being kinder about who we are, and who we want to be, is an easy and powerful message to get behind.

Jonny Wilkinson was speaking earlier in the year as Mental Health Ambassador for health insurer Vitality as part of Mental Health Awareness Week

Words: Joe Minihane

RELATED CONTENT:

  1. How to cope with anxiety
  2. Roman Kemp on why we need to talk about suicide
  3. Rugby icon Gareth Thomas on tattoos, HIV and fitness

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Seasonal Affective Disorder & Depression in Summer https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/summer-depression/ Tue, 21 Jun 2022 05:00:30 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=9506 Seasonal affective disorder is increasingly recognised, but for some it’s summer, not winter, that brings on low mood and depression

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Seasonal affective disorder is increasingly recognised, but some people find they feel more depressed in summer rather than winter. Let’s take a closer look at the causes of depression and low mood in summer.

“We associate summer with being happy, positive and having a great mindset,” says John Junior. “You would think that low mood wouldn’t affect you in the summertime, but it does.”

Junior is one of a growing number of people who struggle with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) during summer.

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?

The condition, first identified by psychologist Norman Rosenthal in 1984, is usually associated with winter, with sufferers complaining of low mood and depression as it gets colder and the days become shorter.

Research by BUPA suggests three in 100 people will suffer from SAD in their lifetime, with most people getting their first symptoms during their 20s and 30s.

What is Summer SAD?

While winter SAD is increasingly understood and accepted as a condition, summer SAD remains opaque, unknown and often misunderstood. Those who have it report battling with insomnia, weight loss and suicidal thoughts.

“It’s like I have a persistent low mood in the summer and a loss of interest in things,” adds Junior.

“I feel worthless, despairing and have a lack of energy, no matter if I go to the gym and eat well. This always happens in the summer. It never happens in the winter. I don’t know why.”

Junior, nominated for a BAFTA for a short film he made with the team behind Hollyoaks – after he revealed how a storyline in the show about suicide helped prevent him from taking his own life – has become an advocate in raising awareness around summer SAD.

It’s an issue, he says, that many still struggle to get their heads around.

Summer SAD & Body Image Issues

“In summer my low self-esteem definitely seems to heighten,” says Tom Home.

Home is the founder of blOKes, a not-for-profit mental health platform that offers men support online. He says that summer has for a long time been the hardest part of the year for him:

“I suffered quite badly with acne until I was about 23. I’m now 26. And because of the various antibiotics I was on, my skin would flare up. Often, direct sunlight and heat in particular would be the cause and it would take the form of being quite noticeably red.

“I would feel quite awkward and embarrassed. I’d be very conscious about spending too much time outside in the sun or in the heat which, affected my ability to enjoy life.”

Home also says that issues surrounding his body can be exacerbated in summer by seeing other men with ‘perfect’ bodies on the beach or in the park, as well as seeing strangers and friends in similar situations on social media.

“You go on Instagram or you go on Facebook and you see, not just celebrities, but even some of your friends who have a different body to you. They have these washboard abs and it often made me feel self-conscious.”

Researchers at the University of Vermont suggest that the bodily focus Home describes isn’t necessarily summer SAD, but rather a wider issue with body image.

But what both Home and Junior say about seeing others happy in the summer leading to them feeling low tallies with research about summer depression.

“It’s very real”

While research into summer SAD isn’t as widespread as that into its winter variant, there is an understanding that SAD varies depending on location.

A 2012 study in Comprehensive Psychiatry found that cases of winter varied depending on latitude, with respondents in India reporting higher incidence of summer SAD, possibly because of higher heat and humidity. High pollen counts have also been suggested as a cause.

Even further back, a 1996 study in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry found that summer SAD was nine times higher in tropical climates. Heat and humidity were both said to be triggers, something which fits with new work by scientists at the University of Vermont.

Juan Antonio Sorto, a US-based PhD graduate who has done work raising issues around mental health in the Latino community, says that fits with his experience.

“When I was younger, summers were extremely difficult, because of the time change in the United States in spring,” he says. “My mental health associated with SAD just seems to intensify due to the longer hours and added commitments to my family and employment.

“When we spring forward, it does not help. I often look at my watch around 7pm and see how bright it is outside, and how I need to manage the remaining two before it gets dark. I try to be in bed by 10pm, but that often turns into a struggle.

“My mind needs additional time to process that it is dark and time to get some sleep. Summer is seen as the happiest part of the year. So any sign to highlight the contrary is often seen as complaining and sometimes spoiled.”

Managing Summer Depression

Sorto says he manages his summer depression by exercising and setting fitness goals for the autumn:

“I run at least three miles per day early in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon, when I really feel SAD taking place. I also set long-term goals, such as training to qualify for the Boston Marathon.”

He is, though, concerned about the lack of knowledge around the subject.

“There’s very little known about it but it’s very real,” he says. “I learned about it in 2021 through a Google search, when I wanted to know why my mood would change in the afternoons.”

Putting the kind of physical activity which Sorto mentions front and centre of your life is, says therapist Clair Morrow, a good way to help deal with symptoms associated with summer SAD.

“One of the frontline treatments for moderate depression is behavioural activation,” she says. “Essentially, that means doing stuff that makes you feel better. Nine times out of 10 that is exercise, moving your body, socialising and connecting with people.”

However, it’s also vital that we start to consider the roots of why people feel low in summer.

“I’m a bit more interested in the meaning of it,” Morrow adds. “I would be thinking about expectations. Why do you think summer should be so great? Has that always been the case? And if not, why not?

“Social media doesn’t help, especially with pictures of people eating outdoors, hanging out outside and enjoying holidays. If that’s populating your psychic landscape and it’s not your reality, it’s unhelpful.”

Morrow advises moderating or deleting social media for those really struggling.

Specific treatments for summer SAD are harder to come by compared with winter SAD, where light therapy has been shown to work well.

Researchers are also concerned that as climate change gathers pace and the planet warms, summer SAD will likely become more common and therefore demand for treatments greater.

For now, working out, accepting that you prefer winter, being kind to yourself and potentially seeking therapeutic counselling are the best ways forward.

Understanding Why Some People Feel Depressed In Summer | Men's Fitness UK

Photography: Shutterstock

5 steps to help deal with seasonal effective disorder in summer

1. Be cooler

This might seem antisocial, but if you don’t like the heat, there’s no shame in staying indoors and finding cooler places during the summer months.

2. Open up

Summer SAD can seem as if it’s somehow ungrateful at a time of year when people are supposedly at their happiest. Services such as @blOKes provide a safe online space to share your experiences.

3. Limit social media

Instagram, Facebook and Twitter have much to recommend them, but if you struggle with body image in summer, try deleting apps from your phone or setting aside specific times for social activity, rather than endlessly scrolling.

4. Stay close to home

Some sufferers have expressed difficulty with going on holiday during the summer. If this sounds like you, then try to travel when you’re happiest, during autumn and winter.

5. Seek therapy

Speaking to a professional can help you get to the root of your problems with summer SAD. Check out NHS IAPT services or, if the wait is too long, look at affordable private therapy options.

Words: Joe Minihane

RELATED CONTENT:

  1. How to combat seasonal affective disorder with nutrition
  2. Why you need to take a ‘mental health day’
  3. Good mood foods: 7 ways to ear for better wellbeing 

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Roman Kemp On Why We Need To Talk About Suicide https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/roman-kemp-interview/ Thu, 26 May 2022 15:29:20 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=9245 After losing his best made to suicide, Roman Kemp has made it his mission to tackle the stigma and encourage more honest conversations

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Roman Kemp didn’t set out to become a mental health campaigner. Just two years ago, he was best known as the friendly, effusive presenter of Capital FM’s hugely popular breakfast show, as well as a finalist on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity.

All that changed in August 2020, when his best friend and the producer of his radio show, Joe Lyons, took his own life. Lyons’ suicide was a deeply shocking event, which left Kemp and his friends bereft and searching for answers.

There had been no clues that Lyons was suffering. He did not speak with any of his friends or family about how he felt.

Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency

In those raw months after his death, Kemp made Our Silent Emergency for BBC Three, an urgent and unflinching documentary exploring male suicide and the seeming inability of men, in particular, to open up about how they’re feeling.

Now, he’s fronting a new campaign with Nivea Men and Talk Club, designed to get more men checking in with their feelings.

New research for Nivea has found that 44% of men avoid talking about their mental health. 32% feel lonely, and many equate vulnerability and openness with weakness.

“I made it just to tell my own story about how I’ve been dealing with it, and the stories of other people,” says Kemp, about the impact of his documentary. “I really hope that it has helped, and certainly within my own friend group it has.”

Roman Kemp on his own mental health struggles

What makes Our Silent Emergency such a powerful watch is the fact that Kemp doesn’t shy away from discussing his own mental health struggles.

He is open about the fact that he has taken antidepressants since he was a teenager. He has talked with his parents on camera about his suicidal feelings and issues with depression and low self-esteem.

“It’s ridiculous to think that humans are constantly happy or constantly sad, you know. Some days are great; some days are bad,” he says when discussing his own mental health.

He continues to take sertraline every day to manage his mental health. This is something which, he says, caused something of a stir when he was filmed taking one alongside his daily dose of vitamin D:

“When we did the doc I was always so shocked when people were like, ‘Oh my God, you took a tablet on camera.’ When we were filming it did not feel in any way shape or form an integral part of the show. But so many people said how embarrassed they are to take it – that is so abnormal to me.

“How come men are so quick to go to their mates and say all they’re doing to get in shape, but they’re scared of talking about taking something for that?”

Kemp says that breaking down this stigma is more important than ever. He has become a keen advocate of ‘asking twice’, following the example of men in the film who lost a friend to suicide who always follow up ‘Are you OK?’ by asking the same question again. This, they say, tends to give a more honest answer, leading to healthier conversations around mental health.

Improving mental health education

His true passion, though, is improving mental health education, right down to the youngest kids in primary schools. In Our Silent Emergency, Kemp visits a pioneering school in Tamworth, Staffordshire, where children discuss mental wellbeing and illness in a way that is aimed at breaking taboos and opening up conversations, which too many adults struggle to have.

“I don’t think we’re getting it right at all,” he says when asked about the way mental health is approached in schools. “What I’d love to do is to be able to speak to more schools on a level and just say,

‘Look, why has it never been pushed in schools? What’s the thing that’s stopping it? Who do we need to speak to for that to change? Why are kids learning about their heart and their lungs and all those different systems of their body… Yet mental health is still not really looked at. The idea of suicide is never spoken about in a school.’

For me that is a subject that should be in your GCSE exam. You should know what your brain is capable of, and what depression looks and feels like.”

Kemp says that he would love to see this approach pushed rapidly. Especially as those of us who have left school are likely to be dealing with poor mental health in the long term.

“For everyone over the age of 16, we are going to be in a crisis area for the rest of our lives, because we weren’t taught about these things as kids. But we have an opportunity to push for that to not be the same in the future.”

Raising awareness

He is keen to emphasise, however, that he is not a lobbyist. Rather, he wants to tell stories and raise awareness in a bid to help move the conversation along.

“I’m not going to sit here and go, ‘We’re going to do this and we’re going to do that,’” he says. “What I’m trying to do is just ask the questions. If something is not being done, then why is it not being done? If they’re looking for solutions, I don’t necessarily think I’m that guy.

“But if, over the next five years, I can meet or help parents to ask their children’s schools, ‘What are you doing for my child’s mental health and for their education?” that’s a great thing.”

One approach that has shown to have good results are dedicated ‘buddy benches’. These are seats where kids can sit at school so others know that they want to discuss their mental health.

It’s something which Joe’s Buddy Line, the charity set up by Lyons’ family and for which Kemp is an ambassador, has helped pioneer.

“For kids in schools, it’s little tricks like that [that work],” he says. “That’s the kind of thing that we want to push, to say, ‘You just have to talk about it and it does get better.’”

For all his concerns about the lack of mental health education in schools, Kemp does believe the situation is improving.

“As Brits, we’re very cynical,” he says. “We’re often thinking ‘Everything’s f****d, it’s just getting worse,’ but no. You look at how far things have come, it’s fantastic.”

Destigmatising suicide

He highlights the fact that men increasingly approach him, whether in the pub or even while playing football, to talk about their mental health and how suicide has affected them or their friends. That, he says, suggests progress is being made. In that spirit, he wants to see the word ‘suicide’ be used more openly.

“I want to change the word suicide from being something that is seen as a dirty word,” he says. “People will talk about suicide as if it’s a swear word. I’ve done interviews where people don’t want to say it and they don’t want to bring up that word.”

He highlights AIDS as an example of how destigmatising a term can lead to improved understanding and acceptance:

“People didn’t want to talk about it. It was the same with cancer: they just called it ‘The Big C’. Nowadays, how many adverts do you see for cancer research groups? It’s something that isn’t seen with as much fear [because of greater openness].”

The most important thing, says Kemp, is to keep the conversation going, because our mental health is constantly changing. It’s part of a process that never ends.

“It changes every day, it changes all the time,” he says. “It’s up to us as mates and it’s up to us as people to keep that in check – to keep those coping mechanisms going.”

If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, visit thecalmzone.net or call their dedicated helpline (open every day from 5pm to midnight) on 0800 58 58 58.

Words: Joe Minihane

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How To Cope With Anxiety https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/coping-with-anxiety/ Mon, 02 May 2022 09:08:07 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8931 Tim Clare’s new book, Coward, is a brutally honest account of his anxiety struggles. Here are some of the lessons he learned from exploring his mental health

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Tim Clare is anxious. He has spent the better part of a decade wrestling with panic attacks and chronic worry. Having struggled to find  treatment that worked, and with his family increasingly concerned for his wellbeing, Clare decided to make it his professional mission to get better, trying cures as varied as cold-water swimming, psychedelic drugs and hypnosis in a bid to learn how to cope with anxiety.

The result is Coward: Why We Get Anxious and What We Can Do About It, a book by turns brutally honest and hilarious. Clare’s dedication to his subject is hugely impressive, with in-depth interviews with leading mental health experts and first-person experiences that many would baulk at.

The result is something wholly unique. It’s not self-help, says Clare, rather his way of acting as a guinea pig for anxiety sufferers everywhere.

“I think a lot of my coping strategy has been trying to cheapen my pain by turning into a product I can sell,” he jokes. Though it did have a serious purpose. Writing it down, he says, was a way of motivating himself to get better.

These are some of the treatments he tried and how they affected his anxiety… 

Exercise and diet 

We all know that eating well and moving more are good ideas. But in and of themselves, says Clare, they did not prevent him from feeling anxious.

“Exercise and a better diet are not going to cure someone’s anxiety, unless they have it very mildly,” he says. “I would say they are great foundational things that make it easier for the other stuff to work.”

But that doesn’t mean they don’t have value. Over the course of a few months, Clare began eating a vegan diet and started running daily. He lost three stone and ran a marathon.

“That was a great confidence builder for the other work that I did on myself,” he says, “because I never thought I could do that. I would never have believed I could have changed my diet or run that far, but I did.

“Then I started thinking, Well, if I can do that, is it possible that I’ll be able to not be anxious in certain situations? That is quite a persuasive thing to have knocking about in your head.”

And even if exercising more and eating well don’t improve your anxiety, there are still clear benefits, he says: “The worst that ever happens when you’re doing these things is that you’re making it less likely that you’ll get long-term health problems.”

An Expert's Guide To Coping With Anxiety | Men's Fitness UK

Psychedelics and antidepressants

Clare has been taking antidepressants for most of his adult life. But for his book, he wanted to try drugs that have enjoyed plenty of coverage in recent years: psychedelics.

A growing body of research from institutions including Imperial College London and New York University suggests that drugs including MDMA and psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can alleviate anxiety and depression. He had pinned much of his hopes on ending his anxiety onto this increasingly popular cure.

In order to do so, he had to come off of his antidepressants, which inhibit the reabsorption of serotonin in the brain. Psychedelic drugs increase serotonin’s release, meaning that when both drugs are taken together, they can cause serotonin syndrome, causing tremors, a racing heart and potentially death.

Clare placed much hope in these drugs, taking psilocybin under supervision in the Netherlands. “I was flying through tunnels,” he says. “I met an angel who spoke to me. My body exploded. The dead came back to life and spoke to me. The room filled with water and I was a jellyfish swimming through it.”

Clare was told that afterwards he would be in a heightened state of consciousness and that his anxiety would be alleviated. The reality was the complete opposite. “I felt like I was having a massive comedown,” he says, and he broke down in tears with his wife, as he explained that all his hopes that psilocybin would cure his anxiety had come to nothing.

Clare points out that a Johns Hopkins study that claimed to prove the efficacy of psilocybin in a double-blind trial was problematic. “You can’t have a real control group when you’re doing psychedelic studies with high doses,” he says. “When you take a load of magic mushrooms, you can’t be in the control group and not know.”

Clare points out that prescription antidepressants such as sertraline have a far better efficacy rate compared with psychedelics. He still takes his medication daily.

Cold-water immersion 

Swimming in icy rivers might hold an appeal for a certain subset of hardy souls. But Clare was keen to get beyond the nature communion aspect and consider cold-water immersion in a wider context. He began by taking cold showers and baths, first following renowned ‘Iceman’ Wim Hof’s cold-water immersion and breathing techniques.

Hof’s methods – which involve exposing yourself to the cold, either in a bath, shower or outdoor setting; and taking sharp breaths before breathing out and not breathing in for anything upwards of a minute – have gained a legion of fans who say it has eased the release of stress hormones and lessened their anxiety.

RELATED: The Science Of Cold-Water Immersion

Clare says the cold allowed him to see his anxiety coming, watching like an observer as a panic attack washed over him before realising it had passed. Then he went swimming.

“I spoke to a few researchers, including Mark Harper and Dr Chris Van Tulleken,” he says, “who did a small study for a BBC show called The Dr Who Gave Up Drugs.”

This study in cold-shock response suggested repeated exposure to cold water could reduce inflammation, which is a cause of anxiety and depression. The same, brief exposure to something dangerous is the same principle behind vaccines, says Clare.

“I did the protocol in [Harper’s] paper, which is six consecutive days with three minutes, where the water temperature is around 14 degrees.”

He warmed up after his swims by running alongside the river near his home. Clare says in that moment he felt centred and calm. ‘I enjoyed the experience,’ he writes. ‘It felt meaningful to me.’

An Expert's Guide To Coping With Anxiety | Men's Fitness UK

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy

In Coward, Clare writes that hypnosis exists in a ‘no man’s land’ between legitimate treatment and alternative medicine. There is, he says, scant evidence that hypnotherapy works better than placebo treatments. Yet, it was hypnosis that he says had the most marked, long-term effect on his anxiety:

“I am not saying that hypnotherapy is a well-evidenced intervention for anxiety. However, I have to report for the sake of honesty that I went to four sessions of it and I’ve never had a panic attack since. I think it may be as simple as during those sessions I was encouraged to talk about my feelings.

“That you do so under supposedly hypnotic state conditions means it can be especially easy to talk about embarrassing or traumatic things.”

Ultimately, says Clare, he felt understood when he went for hypnotherapy. More than trying to understand the physiology of a panic attack, he believes that being believed and heard when discussing such intimate feelings and what triggers them is key to dealing with anxiety.

“Until you feel, at some level, your anxieties have been listened to and that the message has been received,” he says, “it’s not going to go away.”

Words: Joe Minihane

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New Research: Music Can Improve Mental Health https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/music-mental-health/ Tue, 19 Apr 2022 10:14:03 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8796 Uplifting playlists can be every bit as powerful as regular exercise for maintaining mental wellbeing

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Ready to crank up those tunes? We’re taking a closer look at how music can help to support your mental health and wellbeing.

If you’re struggling with your mental health, one of the first things any professional will tell you is to get some exercise.

The release of dopamine and endorphins from working out has been shown to improve mood – even if doing so in isolation without additional treatment isn’t a long-term solution for severe cases of mental illness.

But new research has found that music can have an equally powerful impact on mental health and wellbeing.

The study pulled together data from 26 studies and a total of 779 patients from across the globe.

It found that singing, listening to music or playing an instrument had a positive impact on wellbeing. The study also found that our brains release the feel-good hormone dopamine when our favourite tunes reach their peak.

Playing music alongside exercise or other forms of treatment, including during therapy, made it even more effective.

Researchers believe that the rhythm of listening to or playing music stimulates the neocortex. This leads to relaxation and a pleasant ‘flow state’.

The study may be small, but it points to yet another non-clinical intervention that we all have access to – a small way to boost your mood if you’re finding things tough.

Words: Joe Minihane

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The Expert Guide To Being Less Stressed https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/expert-guide-being-less-stressed/ Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:42:56 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8660 Expert strategies to cope with, combat and manage the harmful effects of too much stress

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Feel less stressed with these expert strategies, designed to help you cope with, combat and manage the harmful effects of too much stress…

Phones we never switch off. Social media accounts that take up an increasing amount of our time. Work days that start before breakfast and barely end before bedtime. Demands on our time that can seem impossible to get on top of.

We are living in a world primed to create stress, and we are struggling to see a way through.

A 2021 study by the Mental Health Foundation found that a staggering 74% of people felt so stressed in the previous 12 months that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. Worryingly, 16% said they had self-harmed as a result, while 32% said they had experienced suicidal feelings.

“The anxiety and stress epidemics correspond with some very tangible societal changes,” says therapist Ian Coleman.

“The world of work, and what it demands of us, has changed vastly. The level of security that we have has decreased vastly at the same time, and we’re only really talking over the last 20 years. Then you add in the constant stimulation of tech culture. These things create anxiety and stress, and put us into a permanent fight or flight response.”

So, how can we create a world where we no longer feel overly stressed? With stress awareness month running throughout April, now is the time to gain a greater understanding of what triggers stress and why it’s vital we do something to mitigate against its harmful effects. 

How to Feel Less Stressed

1. Understand your stress

“The problem isn’t stress itself, but overexposure to unchecked levels of stress,” says Duncan Rzysko, chief of creativity, happiness and innovation at the Stress Management Society.

Ryzko’s job involves him working with organisations to understand how stress is affecting their staff and how they can boost their wellbeing in the process.

He says he is concerned by the physical and mental reactions to prolonged periods of stress, rather than the stress itself, saying it’s these factors which can lead to poor mental health and people being signed off from work.

Anne-Sophie Fluri, a neuroscientist and head of mindfulness at MindLabs, a mental health app, says that there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what stress is. She believes that instead of striving for a world without it, we need to get better at recognising the nuances surrounding it.

“We typically think of stress as this ancient thing, the fight or flight response, when we had to avoid predators,” she explains.

“The problem isn’t stress itself, but overexposure to unchecked levels of stress.”

“Now we’re understanding that with our lifestyles changing and the rate of information spreading through the world, the accessibility to it, we can be in more prolonged states of stress.

“We’re also pivoting to an age where we are recognising that there is actually some benefit to stress. We understand that small bursts of stress can actually be healthy. They can propel us into action. They are actually good for brain function. And what we’re now realising is that short-lived, not chronic, stress primes the brain for improved performance.”

She points to a 2013 study conducted at University of California, Berkeley, which found that rats exposed to acute, rather than chronic, stress, actually saw neurogenesis – the process by which neurons are formed in the brain.

The key, she says, is realising that while chronic stress levels are unhealthy, occasional exposure to stressful situations is part of being human.

2. Be aware of your stress triggers

“One of the biggest triggers for stress is demand, rather than just people needing you, whether that’s in your professional or personal life,” says Ryzko. He says that the ongoing blurring of boundaries between work and home life – exacerbated since 2020 by the pandemic, but also by our infatuation with smartphones – has helped create a dangerous, always-on culture from which it can feel impossible to escape.

“I would also say control is a major issue,” he adds. “People experience being overwhelmed and having a lack of control. When you feel out of control, you feel hopeless.” 

That can lead to a fear of missing out, he says, as well as a sense of hopelessness about not being able to affect events, especially if we’re prone to constantly checking the news or spending hours scrolling on social media.

Awareness of how we behave when stressed is also vital, says Fluri: 

“If something is really impairing your sleep, if you’re shutting down, if you’re withdrawing, if you’re dissociating, watching endless hours of TV, overeating, undereating, sleeping too much, or just engaging in negative coping mechanisms, like risky behaviours or alcohol consumption or drugs, then that’s your signal that this is an issue that you need to resolve.”

The Expert Guide To Being Less Stressed | Men's Fitness UK

3. Use stress as a catalyst for change

“Stress seems to be the acceptable face of poor mental health,” says Coleman.

“In a way it’s a good thing: a way into the conversation about someone’s internal experience. I think the association with stress is working too hard and, as a society, we don’t see that there’s anything shameful in that.”

Coleman says that many of his clients tend to use the word stress interchangeably with anxiety, and that they’ve made the leap to seeking help because they feel overwhelmed by what they’re experiencing.

This, he says, suggests we’re getting better at saying things aren’t right, because stress is more broadly understood and experienced than many other mental health conditions. That means it can help create the conditions to change our lives for the better through treatment.

“I think what people mean when they say they’re stressed is that it’s too much,” he adds. “You know, ‘I’m overwhelmed with whatever’s going on.’ And often, they start the conversation by talking about work.”

4. Moderate phone and social media use

“When you initially engage with your phone it’s seductive, and it’s enjoyable, but then you can easily go down rabbit holes,” says Ryzko. There is, he adds, no digital sunset or digital sunrise, but endless activity which can lead to endless demands and, in turn, stress.

Social media, in particular, has a lot to answer for when it comes to stress, says Fluri:

“If you’re on social media, you often feel stressed. It really taps into that reward system, which is linked closely with that feeling of stress and achievement. There are definitely ways you can distance yourself from things that are harmful to your mental health, and moderating social media use is one of them.”

Fluri does not use social media and says her mental wellbeing has improved as a result, saying that we need to consider more creative ways to engage with people if we use such platforms for work and business, such as developing real-life connections.

5. Create a community

For this year’s stress awareness month, Ryszko and his colleagues at the Stress Management Society are focusing on community.

“It’s all about connection,” he says. “We heard a lot about herd immunity during the pandemic. I think we are a herd animal and humans need a crew.

“I think fostering genuine connections can help you, especially when you distance yourself from social media,” says Fluri. “Social ties have definite health benefits. If you choose to connect to a friend or connect to the world around you, that can relieve your stress.” 

In short, it’s about being open, honest and sharing experiences with others. The good news, says Fluri, is that both individuals and companies are becoming increasingly aware of stress and how it can hamper everyday life.

“I think with our increased understanding of the importance of mental health, and how mental health and physical health intertwine, it’s starting to help us change the narrative.”

Words: Joe Minihane

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Best Breathing Techniques For Energy & Stress-Relief https://mensfitness.co.uk/health/simple-breathing-techniques/ Wed, 23 Mar 2022 14:08:22 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8559 You do it without thinking – until someone mentions it, like now – yet how you breathe has the power to change your entire way of being

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How you breathe has the power to change your entire way of being. Try these simple breathing techniques for boosted energy and stress-relief…

Breathwork, the process of understanding and controlling breath, has gained traction recently. Mental health practitioners, personal trainers and authors are all praising the benefits of developing a regular breath practice.

Get it right, and the simple act of breathing can help you deal with mental health struggles. It can even improve your physical fitness.

“Because of the simplicity of it, how we breathe is something that we’re very quick to underestimate,” says Jamie Clements, a breathwork coach and facilitator based in London.

Clements runs The Breath Space, and teaches classes and one-to-one sessions focused on simple breathing techniques for stress and energy, nervous system regulation and improving performance. He also teaches on the new MindLabs mindfulness app. This has been billed as the Peloton of mental wellbeing.

“We breathe close to 20 to 30,000 times every single day, usually without thinking about it,” he says. “I think the first thing I always try to make people aware of is that every emotion, every experience that you have, has some level of impact on your breath.”

How to get started with stress breathing techniques

Before you start on any breathing techniques for stress and energy, it’s worth considering how you breathe.

“Have a look at how you’re breathing day-to-day, moment to moment,” says Clements. “How can we actually take what you’re doing without thinking about it and make sure that you’re doing it in the best possible way for your health?”

What’s key here, says Clements, is to aim for functional breathing:

“The fundamentals of functional breathing are breathing light, breathing slow, breathing deep. So you’re breathing gently and slowly down into the belly and out of the nose. The nose will naturally filter, warm and humidify air going into the lungs. So, it’s making sure that the air is in the best form to be received by your body.”

Simple Breathing Techniques For Energy & Stress Relief | Men's Fitness UK

Nasal-only breathing is more efficient and better for managing anxiety | Photo: Jamie Clements

Keep your mouth shut

We’ve all heard the disparaging term mouth breather. And there is truth to the fact that it’s worse to breathe solely through your mouth than through your nose.

“If you’re mouth breathing,” says Clements, you’re usually breathing too much for your body’s requirements. Essentially, you’re over-breathing. You’re restricting blood flow to the brain, as well. That’s why people who mouth breathe or over-breathe might struggle with things like ‘brain fog’. They might also struggle with dehydration.”

If you’re breathing in and out of your nose, you’re breathing slower and you’re allowing oxygen to be delivered more efficiently to your cells and your tissues. This has the added benefit of boosting recovery after strenuous exercise, as well as reducing stress levels if you become anxious.

Connect the breath

“The breath acts like a direct line into the nervous system,” says Clements. “The autonomic nervous system, which the breath is a part of, governs all the automatic functions in our bodies. But the breath is the only part of that system that we can consciously control.

“That system is made up of our fight-or-flight response, stress response and also our rest and digest response: the relaxation part of the nervous system. Any breathing technique, at a basic level, is about how you can manage where you’re sitting within your nervous system.”

Understanding this connection is the first step to realising that how you breathe can have a profound impact, both positive and negative, on your wellbeing and mental health.

Count as you breathe

“Someone with high anxiety is going to typically be overactivated in their fight-or-flight response. That means they’re spending a lot of time with their nervous system in a place of stress.

That can be countered, however, with some simple breathing techniques, designed to boost energy and relieve stress. The first is called ‘coherent breathing’: breathing in for five seconds, and breathing out for five seconds.

“With this, what we’re really trying to do is focus on breathing into the belly,” says Clements. “Breathing with your diaphragm has beneficial effects in terms of stimulating a relaxation response. Also, we’re massively reducing respiratory rates. If you’re breathing in and out for five seconds, then you’ll bring your respiratory rate down to six breaths per minute, when the average is somewhere between 12 and 20. That has the knock-on effect of adding to calm and relaxation.”

For even greater relaxation and stress relief, try using extended exhale breathing techniques. “Extended exhale breathing is about making the exhale longer than the inhale, because our exhale is responsible for the rest and digest response,” adds Clements. “Try breathing in for four seconds, and for six seconds.”

Breathe consciously

“The way that I would typically work with athletes would be to say if we’re doing low- to medium-intensity exercise, you want to be able to breathe relatively calmly in and out of your nose. The reason for that is that as you start moving your body more, your body starts producing more carbon dioxide, and your body wants to get rid of that carbon dioxide. If it’s rising more quickly, your body wants to get rid of it more quickly – that’s why you start to breathe more heavily.

“The flip side to that is that CO2 is one of the key factors in oxygen being released from the red blood cells to your tissues. So if you’re getting rid of loads of carbon dioxide from your system, you’re actually reducing the efficiency of oxygen delivery to your cells.”

Clements advises using a ‘gear system’, whereby you start breathing in through your nose and out through your nose, then breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth as you get a bit more fatigued, and eventually ending up breathing in and out of the mouth when exercising at a higher intensity.

He says that nose breathing when exercising can be tricky and may require stepping back, slowing down and considering the long-term benefits.

“We don’t always want to do that, because you have to take two steps back to then make a lot of steps forward,” he says. “But from my perspective, I think it can make a pretty massive difference.”

Words: Joe Minihane

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Coopah: New Running App For Mental Wellbeing https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/coopah-running-app-mental-wellbeing/ Mon, 21 Mar 2022 12:57:43 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8518 Coopah uses machine learning to tailor its training plans, as well as offering a community chat platform where runners can share their tips

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Pete Cooper didn’t consider himself a runner, even after his mum convinced him to join her when she became obsessed with pounding the pavements.

A keen footballer in his youth, he didn’t see the appeal of long-distance racing. Nonetheless, he agreed to run alongside his mum, first in a series of half marathons around the UK, before landing a place in the Berlin Marathon.

“Now, I realise it’s a bucket list marathon for most runners, but I just rocked up and ran it after six weeks of backpacking around Europe,” he says. “Looking back it was probably one of the most special days of my life, because I got to run it with my mum.”

Even then, he says, he struggled to understand why people loved running beyond race day.

Cycle of grief

Cooper’s mum told him that if he trained properly, he’d understand. However, when she passed away suddenly, he was left struggling with grief and battling with OCD. His partner was concerned and his best friend, who had recently recovered from cancer, suggested they run the Rotterdam Marathon together.

When his friend found the going tough towards the end of the race, Cooper assumed he was hitting the wall. Six weeks later, he died after his cancer returned. Cooper fell into a deep depression. “My life spiralled out of control,” he says, “and I didn’t open up to anybody at all, not even my wife.”

Eventually, just before a planned work trip to eastern Europe, he told his wife he was frightened of what he might do to himself if he went. He was “seriously considering” taking his own life. His wife’s suggestion was simple: go for a run.

“It was absolutely incredible,” he says. “I put the shoes on, I didn’t listen to any music, I didn’t take my phone, I just went to this really easy route and I had no run in mind. I just went and ran and I felt connected to mum – I felt connected to my best friend. And I was thinking, ‘I think I’ve found something here.’”

Coopah Is The New Running App Designed For Mental Wellbeing | Men's Fitness UK

Appy days

It was from this point that the Coopah app was born. First, Cooper went started a supportive community where people could run together and then talk openly afterwards, with sessions in his local park in south London.

As an app, Coopah stands out from its rivals by using machine learning to tailor its training plans, as well as offering a community chat platform where runners can share their tips and be open about their wellbeing.

Cooper and his team have also partnered with Fuel Bank, a charity helping people in energy crisis. With people struggling to pay fuel bills often seeing their mental health deteriorate, Cooper and Fuel Bank offer ‘Run Start’ packages, which include a lifetime subscription to the app, as well as a booklet on how to start running and a running top.

They also provide packages to people who wouldn’t normally be able to access the sport. A pack is donated for every subscriber who stays with Coopah for three months. The aim, he says, is to inspire ten-million people to take up running.

Words: Joe Minihane

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What is PTSD? Who It Can Affect & How To Get Help https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/understanding-ptsd-who-it-can-affect-how-to-get-help/ Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:39:16 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8393 Though often associated with traumatic combat experiences, PTSD can affect anyone who's witnessed or experienced a shocking event

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Sexual Assault Support Services For Men https://mensfitness.co.uk/mental-health/support-services-men-sexually-assaulted/ Thu, 24 Feb 2022 14:10:43 +0000 https://mensfitness.co.uk/?p=8078 23% of men would not know where to get help if they had been assaulted. Learn about the NHS sexual assault support services available for men.

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