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, you are here because there's nothing on the telly, and I'm coming to you live from the old Heale Manor. Now, this evening, again, unfortunately I don't have a guest, but what we're gonna talk about tonight is we're gonna look a little bit of what, what we hope to be covering for the rest of this year on the show. Now, you know, it's all about mental health, mental wellbeing, taking the Stigma out of mental wellbeing.
That's what it's all about. It's all about giving people hope. We're gonna cover the topics that we've already covered the last, the last couple of years. So we're gonna be looking at stuff like veteran suicide, suicide in general. We're gonna look at bereavement again, we're gonna look at addictions, whatever sort of addictions they are, whether it's, what do you call it, drug, alcohol, sex.
We're gonna cover it all, but we're gonna try and do it in a really good may to give people hope. So as of next week, the, the show's gonna move till Wednesday, so I'm gonna be back on next Wednesday, the normal time. We're going again at seven o'clock next Wednesday, not Thursday.
I'll put some reminders out during the week, just to let you know. So, yeah, I've moved from the, the studio and I've moved into the library at the Hill Manor. I thought it's a little bit more up market, should we say. So we'll just think to the new, the new scene background coming to the library.
So I might, we might move into the, the, the dining room, or we might move into the, to the sitting room maybe next week, but for today, we'll, we'll, we've set up here in the library. So mental health, mental wellbeing, it's an important thing and it's having an effect on lots and lots of people at the moment. The rate of suicide in Veterans hasn't diminished.
In fact, it's probably gone up. The amount of homeless Veterans that are living on the streets is also going up, and it's all centered around their mental wellbeing. Back in the back in the tens when we were heavily involved or the back end of the, the naughties and the, and the tens, when we were heavily involved in Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly Afghanistan, because there was lots of war fighting going on, there was lots of, lots of guys getting into contacts.
years ago, it used to be special Forces that were the guys that, that were the only guys that getting involved in, in that sort of gunfights and, and And, that sort of action until we got to the likes of Afghanistan. In, in the sort of the mid, the mid naughties from sort of 2005 onwards, I guess up until 2014 and a bit beyond when, when we sort of stopped warfighting activity and went on to a bit more peacekeeping.
I mean, it was whole thing was peacekeeping anyway, but it was trying to stabilize the country and we nearly got there with it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite happen. But from that, guys were seeing an awful lot of action they were seeing in the early days. I mean, I saw it myself in 2006. We got into firefights with the, the Taliban and while it was dangerous, they weren't overly great shots.
So we were able to take out more of them than they were taking out of us. 2007, going into 2008, they changed their operation, the way that they operate. They started pulling back from actual, taking us on in firefights, and they started planting IEDs all over the place. And, that caused an awful lot more injuries than, than your average gunshot wound.
So guys we're out on patrol and getting blown up And. that, that is traumatic. Whichever way you look at it, if you are looking it from, from somebody that's been blown up, it's very, very traumatic. But if you are involved in cleaning up afterwards, if you are involved in, in the Cassie Vac, and it goes all the way back to, to, to back to bastion and and beyond.
So you've got the MER teams coming out, picking up the pieces, and you've got that golden hour to get 'em back. So there's lots of people involved in that particular type of operation. So lots of people are seeing this. Effectively what it is, is trauma, which has an effect on, on not just the, the the injured person, but everybody around them.
And particularly if you know the guys. I, I had an incident I worked with on my last tour. I worked with a mate of mine that I'd been skiing with the previous year at the, the British Telemark Championships. And we, we, we skied on the same team. Unfortunately, I spent about a week and a half with him and his guys training him up, And that the, the day I came out was the day I was gonna go on a patrol with them.
But because of trying to get lifted out in, in Afghanistan and, and moving around by helicopter was a nightmare. I had to leave. So I left. They went out on this patrol, him and his guys were blown up and killed. I found out a couple of days later, that really rocked me. Having spent the last week and a half with them, getting to know the guys and stuff like that. It it, it shook me and it, and it shook me for quite a few days, And, that was there and then, and now I, I was at, where was I, I was at, I was at a show, one of these military type shows, and they had this wall of the fallen and I saw his name and it, it sent me over.
I, I, I burst into tears. So it's that sort of thing affects people and it affected me and it still does. I still think back on, on stuff that I've seen and stuff that I've done, and it still affects me to this day, although I haven't got full on PTSD. It, it's a, it's a form of it, And that has an effect.
So, and the way to deal with it is to talk about it and it's okay to cry. It's okay to feel emotional about this stuff, and it's okay to get it out there. There are a lot of charities out there that can help. There's lots of mates out there that will help. There's lots of different groups.
Occasionally, if you're feeling, if you're not feeling right in yourself, And, you know you're not and you think that there's something going on, go and have a chat with somebody. Go and have a chat with your doctor. Be careful when your CD doctor, quite often their first response is to offer, what do they call 'em? Downers, not downers.
I've forgotten the name of them now. Yeah, medication. Their first response is medication. Now. Now this happened to me. The first thing he, he antidepressants, that's what he offered me. didn didn't want to go down that route. Knowing a bit about antidepressants, they're not good and you can get hooked on them. So I didn't fancy that, But he, he, he referred us to, for, for this area.
It is a a, a team called I talk, they're like psychologists and stuff like that. So I went and saw them and yeah, they were good at what they did, but because they didn't understand what, what was going on with me from where I come from, what I'd seen and stuff like that, it wasn't overly helpful. And I felt a little bit restricted in, in, in what I could tell them because some of the stuff has been pretty horrific.
But I had a chat with a mate, And that sorted out. I still get a bit emotional, put my hand up to that. I do get a little bit emotional occasionally, but it's out there, it's in the open. I feel comfortable talking about it or I get emotional. It's okay and it's okay to talk about it. And it's okay not to be okay.
Now I'm trying to, I'm trying to get people on the show to talk about their experiences. There's, there's something new came up. I I've emailed some people, a veterans group and hopefully I can get them on the show. And that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for, for Veterans, I'm looking for veterans groups that could come on the show and have a conversation about mental wellbeing and experiences.
And if we can just help one person, we're getting halfway there, aren't we? One person at a time. That's all it takes. And if we can deter one person from taking their own life, then it's a, a success. But it takes a bit of effort. And like I've said before, talking about it, if if you've got time and you, you, you're notice in a, in a mate, then they're not particularly well.
There's, they're, they're not themselves. If you've got the time, ask that question. Are you right mate? And he says, yeah, I'm fine now, are you really? All right. And that's when they start to, that opens the door a little bit from start talking. And once you get 'em talking, sometimes that's all it really needs. But make sure that you've got the time to be able to listen. Don't give 'em advice. Sometimes it's best just to listen and empathize with them.
More often than not, you've probably come through some of the same stuff that they have and they just might be struggling a little bit more new. Or if you are struggling, then find a mate that's been through similar stuff and that's a good way of dealing with it. So if you want to come on and and tell your story, then you're most welcome.
And we can do that. We can get people in, we can do it online like this, which is probably the easiest way of doing it. I could, I'm working on maybe setting up the, the old, the heel manner where I can do live stuff or, or do interviews. But the easiest way of doing it is to do it online. And if you've got a good setup, if you've got a good camera, something like a good iPhone.
An iPhone works quite well, or a computer with a good camera, that also works very well. And a microphone, a good microphone, alwa always helps. And a good background. You want like my background, so if you want to come on the show, the details are down in the description, how to get ahold of me, pick us an email, pick us a message, and please come on.
I think that's all I've got to do at the moment. So we're gonna be doing it. We are moving to a Wednesday. So Wednesday night seems to be a good night. Hump day to, to Thursdays aren't, aren't quite work, aren't quite working. So I've decided to move it back to a Wednesday. Wednesday seems to be a good evening. And we'll be going live at seven again as normal.
So seven till whenever. And if you wanna come and have a conversation, you is most welcome. So don't forget if you, if you've got a mate that you don't think's right, you think he's, he's, he's not himself, have a chat with him. Make sure you got the time to have a chat. Don't mug him off once he starts.
That could be even worse for him. So until next Wednesday, please make a note in your diary. Wednesday, seven o'clock, bang on for 20 minutes, half an hour if you've got the time, come and have a chat if you haven't during the catch up, if you're watching this on the catch up, please put comments in, you know, when you flog yourself to death for this, this stuff.
And it's nice to get a comment or a thumbs up now and then. So until next Wednesday, thank you for being there. Thanks for watching and I'll catch you next week. So until then, TTFN tartar 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.