Speaker 0 (0s): Welcome to the Tim Heale Podcast. If you have the time, you can not only listen to the episodes, but you can also watch all the shows and you'll find the links in the description below. thank you.
Boom. I'm in the room. Good evening everybody. Welcome to Everyday Conversations Regarding. Mental Health. Now this evening, unfortunately I've not got a guest on, so what I'm gonna do is, this is all about requesting guests so you know what this is all about.
You are here because there's nothing on the telly, obviously, and I'm coming to you live from the old Heale Manor. Now, I normally get a guest on this, on this show, and we talk about all aspects of mental health, mental wellbeing, and it's all about taking the stigma out of mental health. We've all known over the years, particularly for the military, you know, I've got a military background and the military just keep the, the all stiff up rope, stiff up and lip, yeah, I'm okay, no problem.
When underneath you fall into bits. Now, generally, and this is a general rule, that when, when soldiers are out doing a job, they are okay. And for me, I was okay. I mean, I, I've been through, I dunno, eight or nine different, maybe 10 operation de operational deployments of varying types from Northern Ireland through the Balkans, Kosovo, the Macedonia.
I did three tours of Afghan, I did Iraq, and I've seen some pretty awful stuff during those, those tours. And it didn't actually catch up with me until I left. And that's what happens with a lot of people when they leave the military and it's normally a two or three or four years after that, things start to catch up on them. So what I'm doing, In, this episode, what I like to do is invite people on if you are a veteran, if you're not a veteran, if you've had a few struggles with the old mental wellbeing, you've had a little wobble now and then I'd like to hear from you.
Now, up until now, I've, I've found it fairly easy and I still find it easy. Mean I can get Americans on the show at a drop of a hat. No problems at all. What I find difficult is finding UK people to come on the show. British people tend to be a little bit more reserved, a little bit more ref. They, they tend to hide their emotions, they keep the old British stiff upper lip, and that's all well and good to a point, but when it affects, it affects everybody.
Let's face it, there are very, very few people that haven't had sometimes during their life, a little wobble, a little bit of not sure about their mental wellbeing. And it might be something totally little for me. My, how it affected me is that I get very emotional at silly little things.
I could be watching a cartoon and I get all emotional, all well up and, and or a sad film. And I'm thinking, I mean, alright, it's sad and all the rest of it, but it shouldn't affect me like that. So I, that's when I realized that there's something that wasn't quite right. So what I did, I went and see the quack, went and see the doctor. He referred me onto a group, I'll, I'll show you.
This is a while, a while ago. This is, this is a group. He'll come into focus. Yeah, there you go. I talk, okay. I got referred onto them and they're part of the, this, this particular group is Mind in the Silent. So I've got, I've got, I've got referred onto to them, they called me and I went and had a, a, I think about half a dozen different sessions with about three different psychologists basically.
Now for me it, it, it wasn't a huge help because, and I say if for why they didn't quite understand what I've been through, they, they understood why I was having sort of those, those emotional little problems, but they couldn't relate to, to what I'd seen and what I'd done and, and how and why that was affecting me the way it was.
So what they did, after half a dozen, I, I decided that it, it wasn't helping, it wasn't working for me. So we, we, we called a a a drew line under it and I had a chat with a mate of mine that we've been through some stuff together and we put it all into perspective, stuck it back in its box bump job done for me. That was the way I dealt with it.
Still occasionally I'll get a little bit weepy over something soppy, but, but that's that. But I know lots of people and, and when I was a welfare officer, I saw lots and lots of problems, lots and lots of people struggling. So I can recognize it and I've done all the different courses, I've done the mental health awareness course a few times I've done the suicide awareness course, I've done a welfare course, which highlights some of this stuff.
And it's recognizing in others that are struggling. And that's when it, the, the, the key comes in. Now if you see somebody that's struggling, make sure that you've a first got the time before you start asking questions to give them. And all you've gotta do is say, are you okay? And a normal response, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. And then the follow up question, are you really okay, you don't seem yourself.
That's when they're likely that open up a little bit. And once they start opening up, sometimes all it takes is to use these, your two ears. You don't need to use a K Cole match, just listen. And they will give you a full out, up generally on what's bothering them. And you can, and sometimes that's all it needs is just somebody to listen to their problems.
So that's what we're trying to do with this show. We're trying to get people on to tell their story and by telling their story it can resonate with somebody else. It can help somebody else that is struggling and it's really, really okay not to be okay. In this day and age, we, we, we, there's still a lot of stigma around it bind and that's what we're trying to dispel.
That's why we're trying to get rid of, because everybody, everybody occasionally has a little bit of a wobble. And all it takes sometimes is just for somebody to listen. All you need to do is just open up a little bit, just get it off your chest. you know, the old saying a problem shared is a problem halved. That's what you're looking for.
So let's, let's put it out there, let's help people. So by doing that, if you've got a story to tell, get in touch, it's easier to get in touch with me. I'll, I'll put my email down in the description, just ping us an email, say, put in the, the, the subject box guest on the show and I get you on the show and we can have a chat.
And that's all it is. It's a, it's a relaxed chat. I mean, you watch the show, so if you wanna do it, come and do it. It's, it's, I make it very easy. I make it, I try and make it a pleasurable experience. And all you really need, I is, I mean, at the very least is your phone. You can do it on your phone. If you haven't got a little tripod, that's great.
And we can do it on your phone if you've got a bit more of a professional setup with a, with a camera or a, a good camera on your iPhone or, or your, on your laptop, something like that. So all well look good and that's all you need and we'll have that chat and hopefully through that chat we'll be able to help lots and lots of other people. So I think I've up on enough.
I think you get a picture, I think you see where I'm coming from. Please, if, if, if you're UK based and, and you wanna come and have a chat, I'm open for it. We go live every Thursday, we try and do it every Thursday going live at seven o'clock just for, for a short time. And it'll be great if you are ex-military or, or maybe serving and you're seeing people that are struggling, come on, come and have a chat.
Talking about having a chat. I was on Big Phil Champions Force Radio show a couple of weeks ago and he released a day. So I'll pop that link in the description, have a look at the chat that I had with him, which was quite interesting. It was about my life and some of the, some of the little things that I'd done and, but it was, it was quite funny. It's one of the longest interviews he's had So it, it's probably me just routing on a bit.
Anyway, stop rattling on, he says, so if you wanna support the show, feel free. I won't, I won't say no to anything, but please, if you want to come on the show, please feel free to do so. So until next week, hopefully I'll have a guest on next week and we'll have a bit more of a chat.
We had a great chat last week and the week before with Martin and Ollie, and last week I forget, I had on see got mine like a siv. And that's what I do with stuff going on inside my head. Oh, by the way, the tinnitus hasn't got any better. It's still plague and beat and I'm still in pain, but we just get on with it.
So until next week, thank you for your time. Please share and comment, give us the old thumbs up. Thanks Keith. I'll catch up with you soon. So until then, its one TT FN Tatar for now.
Welcome to the Tim Heale podcast. If you have the time, you can not only listen to the episodes, but you can also watch all the shows and you'll find the links in the description below.