1. Stress
Personal Experiences

2. Starter
You have 90 seconds to quickly draw what you think a depressed person looks like.

3. Learning Intentions By the end of the lesson you should be able to:
explain the possible impact of mental health issues on young people

4. Previously in Soc Ed…
Last lesson we looked a bit at the history of mental health treatment and some of the reasons and symptoms of stress.
Today we will be thinking about how people experience mental health difficulties.

5. Your own experience Task 1 In your jotter write down:
a) A time when you felt at your happiest
b) A time when you felt at your saddest.
These are personal responses and so we won’t discuss them as a class.

6. Discussion Points
Is there a difference between feeling sad and feeling depressed?
What does a depressed person look like?
Do we always know when a person is depressed?

7. Mental Health Experiences
We will now look at a series of clips of people’s experiences with mental ill health.
While watching them, write down one question you would like to ask someone who experiences that aspect of mental ill-health.

8. Clip 1: Depression Depression
This explores what depression feels like to young people and how they cope (or not) with their feelings.
They talk candidly about self-harm and suicide.

9. Clip 2: Anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety can be triggered by a variety of factors and affects lives in different ways. Different aspects of life make people anxious to varying degrees.
Most of us have short term anxieties but what happens when these don’t go away?

10. Clip 3: Biopolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is classified by psychiatrists as mood disorder. It was sometimes referred to as manic depression. When a sufferer has a severe manic period it can lead to poor decision making due to unrealistic ideas. It can also mean the person has erratic sleep patterns.
About 4% of the population suffer from bipolar disorder.

11. Clip 4: Breakdowns Breakdowns
Alastair Campbell talks to Ruby Wax about the events that led to his breakdown and what it really feels like to experience mental health problems.

12. Clip 5: Help & Support Help and Support
A factual clip which explains the different care professionals who may be involved in supporting someone with mental health issues.
While watching this clip, list the different people/places that can offer support to those suffering from mental ill-health

13. Discussion Points
Have a look at the questions you wrote down. What would you want to ask someone who suffers from:
Depression
Anxiety
Biopolar Disorder
A breakdown?