Mental health

What is mental health?

Mental health is your psychological and emotional wellbeing. A mental health problem is when a situation or problem affects the way you think and feel. This can mean you find it hard to cope with family life, school or the wider world.  This can happen if you experience a big change in life, such as bereavement, bullying or abuse. Sometimes it can happen without these triggers.

How mental health can affect you

Going through different emotions is part of life. We all feel sad or low sometimes, and this can be a natural and normal response to what’s happening around us. Often, a little time and support from people we’re close to can help us feel better again. 

If these feelings of being sad or low last for a long time, you might need some professional help. When you're depressed, these feelings can be overwhelming. They can also stop you from doing or enjoying things you would normally do. This may lead to:

• sudden mood and behaviour changes 
• unexplained physical changes, such as weight loss or gain 
• sudden poor academic behaviour or performance 
• sleeping problems 
• changes in social habits, such as withdrawal or avoidance of friends and family 
• difficulty in concentrating 
• self-harming 

Top tips for improving your mental health

There are some things you can do to help improve your mental health. These include:

• tell an adult how you are feeling 
• being in good physical health, getting regular exercise 
• eating a balanced diet  
• having time and the freedom to play, indoors and outdoors 
• being part of a family that gets along well most of the time 
• take a break from looking at screens and social media 
• taking part in local activities for young people 

What you can do if you are feeling anxious or panicked

Try to focus on:

• five things you can see 
• four things you touch/feel 
• three things you can hear 
• two things you can smell 
• one thing you can taste 

Guidance and support

Within Walsall

If you're looking for local guidance and support you can contact:

• your GP
• the school nursing team:
  • find out more on the NHS school nursing website
  • email the school nursing team
  • follow school nursing on Twitter

Get support online

There are some great online services for children and young people. These include:

Kooth

Visit this online mental wellbeing community for:

• a magazine
• discussion boards
• messages or live chats with the team
• a daily journal you can fill in

The Mix

A free confidential telephone helpline and online service. Visit the Mix website to find out more or call their free helpline on 0808 808 4994. The lines are open from 11.00am to 11.00pm every day.

Childline Toolbox

The locker is your personal place on Childline. Sign up and customise how your locker looks, write in your journal and create images. It lets you:

• send private messages to a counsellor
• see messages from Childline
• see notifications about the message boards
• save pages

Anything you save to your locker is between you and Childline. Sometimes Childline may contact you about something you have written or saved. They will only tell someone if they are worried about your safety. Visit the toolbox at the Childline website to find out more.