A YORK man who struggled with his own mental illness for years and then had to cope with the trauma of his mum’s suicide has found a new lease of life - working for mental health charity York Mind.

Gavin Dickinson, 53, says Mind helped him cope following his mum Joan’s death just before Christmas 2019 - then helped him through lockdown. His new job as an administrator with the charity’s activities programme feels like a way of ‘giving back’, he said.

Gavin, who recently moved to Easingwold but lived for years in Acomb, said he had struggled with bipolar disorder since his 20s - though for years he didn’t know what it was.

He had ‘ups and downs’ - periods when he was full of energy and felt on top of the world, followed by crashes.

“I’d be working all hours, pushing myself to the limit, feeling I was everybody’s best friend,” the former call centre team leader said. “And suddenly I would crash.” His wife Carol would notice the patterns, he said. “But by the time I was on a high it was too late to stop it.”

It came to a head in 2013. Gavin was working as a call centre team leader at the GP out of hours service at Monkgate. Several of his team were made redundant, and he was told he would have to move to Wakefield.

At first on one of his ‘high’ cycles, he threw himself into making arrangements. But then, having started to work from Wakefield, he crashed. “My wife remembers me driving home in tears.”

His GP suspected bipolar and referred him to a psychiatrist. “Within 15 minutes of seeing him, he said straight away ‘yes, it’s bipolar’,” Gavin said.

He was prescribed the epilepsy drug Sodium Valporate, which stabilised his condition. He seemed to have found some equilibrium. Then, in 2019, his mum - who also suffered from depression - became ill.

She had tried to take her own life several times, Gavin said. She spent five months in an institution - first a dementia unit, because no specialist mental health beds were available in York, then in Cherry Tree House.

Eventually she was discharged - but then, just before Christmas 2019, she took her own life.

It was Gavin who found her. The shock led to a fresh crisis. “I was struggling, depressed, thinking ‘is there anything I could have done to help my mum?’” he said. Gavin realised he needed help and approached Mind - initially about volunteering. “I thought it would help me.” But then lockdown hit.

Gavin had to isolate because of a separate health condition, a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He signed up to a series of online activities with Mind which helped pull him through. “Seeing people - even on a computer! - and being able to swap stories, or to chat about what’s on TV, on the news, was great.”

Last September, the first lockdown over, he began volunteering for Mind. And at the beginning of this month, he started work for the charity, as an administrator on the activities programme that had helped him so much.

It has given him a real feeling of purpose in his life, he says.

And his advice to anyone who may be struggling with their mental health? “Don’t bottle it up. And don’t be ashamed. It’s OK not to be OK, and it’s good to talk.There are people that can help you.”

If you have mental health issues, contact your GP.

You can also contact Mind on 01904 643364 or the Samaritans on 116 123.

 

Big increase in people needing support

York Mind saw a ‘significant increase’ in the number of people turning to its programme of well-being activities for support during lockdown.

Jamie Edwards, the charity’s activities service manager, said many people turned to the charity who would not normally have thought of themselves as having mental health problems.

The pressures of being cooped up at home, added to fears about losing your job and worries about Covid, all had an impact on peoples mental health, said Jamie. Many people also found themselves trapped at close quarters in increasingly toxic relationships - while others were isolated and alone.

The charity’s programme of activities - which include everything from well-being workshops and evening peer support groups to a photography project - helped ‘save many people’s mental health from deteriorating’, Jamie said. “For some ... the programme has prevented them engaging with suicidal thoughts and kept families together.”

The charity is about to launch its new activities programme for summer. Find out more at yorkmind.org.uk