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ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
“It’s not brave to talk
about mental health”
Looking after our mental health is key to our wellbeing. So why
are we so scared to talk about it, asks Alastair Campbell.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL
AUTHOR AND BROADCASTER
f the one in ten children
aged 5-16 affected by a
clinically diagnosable
mental health problem,
70% will not get the help they need at
an appropriate age. Cuts to services
means mental health counselling is
increasingly falling on individual
teachers within schools.
Alastair Campbell understands what
it’s like to be on both sides of that
conversation. Best known for his time
as Tony Blair’s press secretary, Campbell
is now a mental health campaigner and
a previous Mind champion of the year.
In 1986, aged just 29, Campbell suffered
a psychotic episode when working as
a political journalist.
“My breakdown was like an
explosion in my head. I felt the pressure
building and building. I was walking
around thinking everybody was talking
about me, whispering to each other.
“I started talking nonsense to
strangers, who looked at me and just
walked on. Then I thought that the
letters on the number plates of cars
were sending me messages that if I
failed to understand, I’d die.”
After emptying the contents of his
pockets onto the floor, two plain-clothed
police officers arrested Campbell and
took him to a police station, where he
stripped naked in the cell. He was taken
to hospital the next day.
O
78 // WELLBEING
“On the drive to the hospital, every
single road sign was talking to me,
giving me messages. Everything was
political – I had a whole thing about left
and right, blue and red.
“I got into bed at the hospital and
there was this colour-coded chart that
went from left to right describing your
mood. The problem was the blue
started on the left and the red on the
right. It did my head in,” says Campbell.
Pressure on young people
Campbell’s 1986 breakdown started a
lifelong journey in dealing with
depression and mental illness. He
believes that, as a society, we need to
get better at recognising the impact of
mental health – and that teachers need
to be aware of the pressure young
people are under.
“Measuring a successful education
through final exams and putting kids
under such pressure – the need for five
A grades, volunteering in a charity,
doing 50 internships and having
thousands of friends on Facebook is
having an effect,” he says.
However, he is encouraged by how
open young people are to talking about
mental health. Campbell’s daughter
Grace has spoken publicly about her
own anxiety, while his son Calum has
been open about his alcohol addiction.
He also cites Professor Green’s
5
QUESTIONS TO ASK A
CHILD WITH MENTAL
HEALTH PROBLEMS
What would you
like to happen?
What out of that list
do you have the
power to change?
Who could help
you with that?
What’s the worst
that could happen?
What is the best
that could happen?
RESOURCES
Watch Alastair talking about his
own mental health challenges.
bit.ly/AlastairCampbellFT18