New thinking on routes to recovery in mental health

Virginia Moyles and Maria Lawton-Murray have had first-hand experience of how Ireland’s public health service treats people with mental health problems. Both women have suffered issues around mental health and are now drawing on their experiences to drive change in what they describe as a “one-size-fits-all” approach to treatment.

Through the group, Cosáin, they are offering a more holistic approach to mental wellness, one which encourages people to live a good, meaningful life, supported by their peers.

“People go into illness in different ways and come out of it in different ways,” says Maria, who turned her life around after being on medication for 20 years. She was initially diagnosed with depression and later as being bi-polar. The pills treated the symptoms but left her feeling numbed.

‘Numbed’ is also the word that Virginia uses. Both women recognise that medication can have a role in helping people, but feel it shouldn’t be a long-term solution to mental health issues. In fact, they say, its side effects can often impede recovery.

The women are not advising people to abandon medication, and stress that any changes in treatment should occur under medical supervision. What they are saying is that there are different pathways to recovery, something that should be reflected in how people are treated.

Mental health is a complex issue and the long-held scientific belief that problems are caused by a chemical imbalance is being increasingly challenged, according to Virginia.

“People’s symptoms are often a natural response to a hurtful experience in their lives,” she says. “There’s a huge amount of evidence to show how it’s caused by trauma of some kind.”

And that doesn’t have to be a major trauma, the women explain, it could be something as simple as growing up without emotional support at home.

While medication has a place, Maria and Virginia felt that being on it long-term affected their quality of life.

“After 20 years, it didn’t work for me,” says Marie of her own experience. It wasn’t solving the underlying issues and she couldn’t recover until that happened.

“I had to go back and find the source and address it.”

Maria, who previously worked as a carpenter, is currently employed by the HSE on a pilot scheme as a mental health peer-support worker. She’s assisting people who have had mental health problems to return to the community.

“A lot of people haven’t learned how to emotionally self-regulate,” says Maria. Being on medication doesn’t allow you to learn how to do that, which is a problem because “you have to learn to work through the emotions”.

In her case, Maria had becomed so numbed from pills that she had to give up her passions of work and exercise. That’s when the sports fan who had been the first woman to referee National League soccer games in Ireland really decided to quit medicating.

“I had to get fit, lose weight and try to find like-minded people.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.