Speaking up about mental health.

This is quite a different blog post from what I normally write, and I did think about putting it on my personal blog, but it is a political issue, just as much as issues related to my gender or sexuality are political issues. I’m talking about my mental health. Well, more, why I don’t feel comfortable talking about issues related to mental health anymore. I used to. But since coming to university I’ve become increasingly unwilling to be just…be open about the whole thing.

I’ll preface this by saying I have depression and I have anxiety. I first remember being properly depressed when I was nine…the worst it has ever been was when I was fourteen, which was in large parts because I just didn’t know how to deal with it or, more importantly, have any real desire to. I’ve had plenty of depressive periods since then, but none that bad. I’ve self-harmed, although I don’t think I’d describe myself as a self-harmer…more a depressive who…dabbled. I have really rare panic attacks, and I have bouts of social anxiety when being around people just…freaks me out; and this can be strangers or my best friends. This isn’t most of the time, by any means, and depression especially I am for the most part really pretty decent and coping with. But it’s still something I suffer from and that’s probably not going away, well, ever.

Before I came to university I was fairly fine with being like “yeah, I have this thing…” if the issue arose; and I suppose one of the key reasons I'm not anymore is just that when you meet new people, you're hesitant to bring it up too early on...but then they become your friends and you still haven’t brought it up and then so much time as passed and it just feels weird to suddenly insert it into conversation.

But there are a lot of other reasons why I think I feel very uncomfortable talking about this stuff. And I know that that’s bad and that I should be open about it because mental health is still something with this huge stigma attached and people speaking out is helpful…so I wanted to write a post about why I don't feel comfortable speaking out about it anymore.

I worry about people not believing me because I seem fine. And, for the most part, I am fine and I can see why the idea I’d be depressed, let alone the idea I have episodes of social anxiety, would be surprising to a lot of people. And so I do feel like people just won’t…take the idea that these are actually problems I suffer from seriously.

Then, there’s this feeling that I can’t say I have mental health issues because they’re not nearly as bad as other peoples. And they’re really not; there are so many people who suffer from mental health problems a million times worse than mine. But on the other hand I’m more than happy to speak out about issues related to being bisexual, but I’ve never experienced  hate crime, I have a supportive family etc…my experience of this hasn’t been anywhere near as hard as a lot of other people’s.

And it’s good to speak up about milder mental illnesses…because that helps challenge the idea of a binary mentally ill or mentally well state of being....right?

I guess the other big thing is that wonderful world of jobs and careers that university makes you really, really aware of…which is a good thing, but when you’re conscious of presenting yourself in an employable way you, or at least I, tend to not want to mention the bit where you’re so sad you just don’t want to get out of bed. Which is silly on two levels; for me, personally, depression etc has never stopped me doing anything I had to do. It’s made it a whole lot less fun and it’s stopped me doing things I’d like to do, but with school and work I’ve kept going, albeit unenthusiastically.

But more importantly if someone wasn’t prepared to hire me because of these issues, that would be really wrong of them. I shouldn’t hide this because some people might be horrible about it.

We do need to, as a society, be more open about mental health and mental illness, and I know that. But it can be tough, you know?

Leeds Mind Matters society is running an excellent campaign called the elephant in the room, which inspired this post...it is important that we all find the strength and are given the freedom and the safety to speak up about mental health problems; because a whole lot of people have them, and the sooner we can start accepting them as normal, the better.

The elephant in the room facebook page; http://www.facebook.com/LUUElephant

Her name was Reeva Steenkamp.

Written for Her Campus Leeds.

In the UK, one in seven female students are victims of sexual assault or physical abuse.

Around the world, 1/3 of women are physically or sexually abused.

On the 14^th February, women and men all over the world took part in the One Billion Rising campaign, aiming to raise awareness of and help tackle violence against women and girls. From flashmobs to dance shows to plays, to lobbying elected officials to elected officials putting forward legislation, across the globe activists played their part in this incredible movement.

I went down to London to take part in a flashmob outside Parliament and a dance show at the South Bank, and also went to see Yvette Cooper and Stella Creasy speak about legislation they’d been helping get through Parliament that day, calling for compulsory sex ed in schools, with a focus on non-violence and consent. Although the support from some MPs wasn’t as strong as would have been liked (I’m looking at you Michael Gove…), most were incredibly supportive and this legislation will be a huge step in changing our culture of violence towards women.

The event was truly one of the most inspirational things I have ever taken part in.

And if anyone was left in any doubt as to why movements like this are necessary, The Sun provided a handy reminder that evening, with their front page about recently deceased model, human rights activist and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp.

Except, if you’d just read The Sun’s front page, you wouldn’t know why was any of these things. You wouldn’t even know her name.

 To eroticise and dehumanise Reeva’s death in this way isn’t just sexist it’s completely without any kind of human decency. People calling The Sun to complain were told that, as she was a model, this is just a picture of her working. Just because a picture was appropriate when advertising swimwear does not make it an appropriate picture to use when talking about a woman’s death.

That so often women who suffer from violence and abuse are not looked at properly as real, complex people is part of the problem that One Billion Rising aimed to tackle.

Leeds University Unions’s femsoc recently launched an “I need feminism because…” campaign, which got students from across the university discussing why they need feminism. Feminism so often dismissed now as old fashioned or unnecessary in an era where women are legally equal to men (which is rather UK-centric, since many women around the world still face legal inequalities). But we all still need feminism. I need feminism because her name was Reeva Steenkamp, and she was more than just beautiful and she was more than just someone’s lover. And that even after her death large parts of society don’t seem able to see that is why feminism is still as relevant as it ever was today.

Things Matthew Offord did not do...

• Reply to my email about equal marriage.
• Reply to my letter about equal marriage.
• Accept my request to follow him on twitter.
• Reply to my tweets about equal marriage.
• Vote for equal marriage.

Not only did Matthew Offord chose to vote against my rights to marry a woman if I choose to...he does not even seem willing to talk to me about it.

Some elected representative I have.

The problems with A levels, and why Gove's reforms will do nothing to fix them.

The fact that Michael Gove is in charge of education in this country is as bizarre as it is terrifying, and time and time again he has found ways to outdo himself in terms of ill-thought out, illogical and simply strange proposals for how children in this country should be educated. And he’s done it again with these proposed changes to A levels.

Now, I am not a massive fan of A levels, as they are currently. I think they are seriously flawed in a lot of ways and do not encourage critical or creative thinking, and because of this are not adequate preparation for university (or, more importantly, whatever Gove may think, life). Gove’s proposed changes do not even begin to solve these problems; they do, however, create a bunch of new ones.

Taking AS and A level exams is incredibly stressful. However, you know what would be even more stressful? Taking all that pressure, and instead of dividing it up between two sets of exams, placing it all on the one set of exams at the end of Year 13. Dividing up the pressure between two years’ worth of exams eases the pressure on the individual exams. Having to keep a tonne of information in your head at once to be able to regurgitate it over a two or three hour period during an exam is horrible enough, without it being a whole two years’ worth of information. And then there’s the taking away of the ability to retake modules without retaking the entire exam. The level of pressure this would put on pupils is ridiculous. Have a bad day? Feeling sick? Family problems? Any of these cause you to screw up just one of your exams and you have to do the entire A level again. How is this fair on pupils?

And these reforms do nothing to solve the problems that Gove is, apparently, trying to tackle. He says that A levels are not in depth enough. Although this isn’t always the case, generally I would be inclined to agree. However, he then goes on to say this is because they are modular. Um…what?

Now, Gove has not made it clear whether, under this new system, pupils would still do different topics during the first year of study and the second or whether they would study the same topic all the way through. If the former, then this is literally no different to the current system, aside from far more pressure being heaped on year 13 exams. I wouldn’t put such a ridiculous move passed Gove, but let’s assume for the sake of argument it’s the latter; pupils would study the same topics for the whole two years.

I am currently at university. I study different modules, mostly relating to politics, but still on a vast range of topics. I do not study each of these topics for two year. I don’t even study them for one. I study each for half a year. Does Gove really think my university degree is not “in depth” enough?

Doing different modules at AS level and A level increased my breadth of study in a way that was really beneficial for my learning. It meant during my Politics A level I got to learn about House of Lords reform, and political pressure groups, and the history of Liberalism and the war on terror (as well as a tonne of other things); if Gove’s proposals mean that a pupil taking A level Politics could only study two of these things, that would be a great loss.

The reason that A levels are often too shallow in the level of both knowledge and critical thinking that they require is because of the way that they are marked. You don’t get marks at A levels for having read related books that aren’t on the syllabus, or for thinking outside the box; you get marks for fulfilling marking criteria a, b and c. It doesn’t matter that you don’t understand this philosopher’s argument in the slightest, because you know one quote that they said. You don’t get marks for looking at the importance of gender in this political theory because feminism isn’t part of this module.

There is no reason why, under the current system, this cannot be improved. I was lucky enough to have some amazing teachers, who didn’t let the shallow nature of the marking schemes prevent us from studying in depth. It wasn’t enough to know these two sentences on Iraq to write in the exam; we looked at it in detail. Conversely, I also got to experience learning philosophy via reading a page of quotes said by philosophers, completely without context and, very often, which told me nothing about their arguments. The problem is, right now, it’s the latter that is rewarded by A level markers, not the former.

But Gove’s proposals say nothing about mark schemes; they say nothing about actually adding depth or critical thinking to A level syllabuses. Having less exams, but exams that are marked in exactly the same way, will do nothing to improve the current system.

They will, however, rob pupils of a clear indication about the A level results they are likely to achieve, and therefore which universities they should think about applying to. They will remove one of the indicators that universities rely on when accepting or rejecting applications. They will also mean that pupils have to choose which subjects to study for the entire two years while they’re still taking their GCSEs; I know if I had had to do this I would not have picked the three subjects I did end up studying all the way to A level. The British education system already forces you to narrow your choices at a really early age; let’s not make this problem even worse.

That Michael Gove thinks that getting rid of AS level exams, as part of A levels, will magically make A levels involve more in depth thinking without any changes to the syllabuses, that placing increased pressure on a single set of exams will make the entire thing less exam-centric and that robbing pupils of an early indication regarding what kinds of universities they should be applying to will be in any way beneficial has to make you question whether this man has any understanding of how best to govern education in this country.

Which isn’t that surprising, since Michael Gove has absolutely no understanding of how best to govern education in this country.

A manifesto, of sorts.

I am delighted to have been elected unopposed as the Youth Rep to the London Labour regional board. I am really excited to take on the role at what is such an exciting and important moment for young Labour members and Labour as a whole, and work to make Labour more friendly, accessible and welcoming to young members (something that has improved considerably during the time I have been active within the party; but there is still more to be done).

I just wanted to just post my manifesto here, cause although I was lucky enough to be unopposed, I still wanted to put it out there, so there would be something by which I can be held accountable.

Also please check out all the other people standing for various positions if you haven’t already; there are some amazing candidates up for various positions:

http://www.younglabour.org.uk/uploads/8df031de-bf35-9424-6101-451bda205c06.pdf

I first joined the Labour party in 2010, and was a very active campaigner within my CLP, but was almost completely unaware of how to go about getting involved in other aspects of the party or how to connect to other young members. I am standing for Youth Rep on the London Labour regional board because I want to work to ensure that all young members in London are able to get involved; because come 2015 young people need to be at the forefront of the fight against a government which is putting the future of our whole generation at risk.

I will work with CLP Youth Reps to help them recruit more active young members to their CLPs, and ensure they keep their young members up to date with what is going on in their CLPs, as well as letting them know about other ways they can get involved with the party (such as through Young Labour, Labour Students, Young Fabians etc). I will work with CLPs who don’t currently have youth officers to recruit more active young members who can fulfil the role.

In order to ensure young members are a fighting force in London, we need to offer them more than just occasional requests to campaign. I will help to facilitate regular campaigning days in key seats in London, and help young people get involved in campaigning with their CLPs; as well as liaising with members in safe seats to help them get involved in campaigns in more marginal seats. But I will ensure that this is combined with other social and policy focused events to make young people feel a part of the party they are campaigning for.

Looking at the success of Tower Hamlets Young Labour, I’ll examine the merits of having smaller Young Labour groups in different parts of London to work alongside London Young Labour, and help to set up such groups.

I want to work with sixth forms and other political organisations (including those I may not personally agree with) to get Young Labour in schools talking to young people about how to get involved in politics, as London Young Labour did in the run up to the mayoral campaigns; this was a brilliant scheme that needs reinvigorating.

Trade unionism is, of course, a central part of the Labour party; but it is, worryingly, declining in our society. As well as working and campaigning alongside young trade unionists, we need to be encouraging far more young people to be joining trade unions. I will organise events for young members who are not currently in trade unions with trade union officials and young trade unionists to facilitate and encourage this.

And, crucially; I will work to make sure every young member knows about what is happening and what they can get involved with. You shouldn’t have to already know the right people, or follow the right twitter accounts to know how to get involved; and too often young people, especially those not at university, don’t get involved just because they don’t know how. I will ensure that London Young Labour has an up to date social media presence and website, that CLP Youth officers send out regular emails (or that CLPs send out regular young member specific emails in cases where there is currently no youth officer), encourage people to set up facebook events for events and campaign days, and make sure these are linked to in emails and work to ensure young members are always welcomed and not simply overlooked when they first try and get involved. Getting involved in the Labour Party shouldn’t have to be a series of ever more complicated challenges, and I will work to make Labour in London an open and accessible community for all. 

Talking about UKIP on the doorstep...

Out campaigning during the recent Rotherham by-election I, and many other Labour activists, encountered first-hand the rise in support for UKIP; I’ve met the occasional UKIP supporter here and there on the doorstep, but nothing like the number I was meeting here. According to a recent ComRes poll, most of UKIP support is not coming from those who voted Labour in 2010, and anecdotally I’d be inclined to agree.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that there are former Labour voters who are turning to UKIP; enough that Labour activists need to know what to say to them on the doorstep. And, I think, there’s still a lack of understanding about UKIP policies and what UKIP really stands for; and there is so much there for us to attack.

Because these voters might support UKIPs policies on the EU and immigration – and of course there are serious issues there we need to address – but I doubt that Labour/UKIP swing voters support grammar schools (or a voucher system for schools, for that matter), or increased privatisation of the NHS, or a 20% flat tax and the resulting cuts to public services. UKIP’s far right economic policies are quite, well, right wing, and if the person you’re talking to is a libertarian then fine; not much you’re going to be able to do about that.

But to those who are supporting UKIP because of their immigration/EU stance, or as a protest vote, Labour activists need to start talking about what else UKIP stands for; the libertarian-leaning, free market party is far from on the side of the working class (or, you know, most people).

Additionally, there’s the interesting (and admittedly, impressive) issue of UKIP getting former none-voters to vote; these voters most likely part of Labour’s target demographic, but where Labour has failed to get them out to the ballot box. And although I may not be thrilled at their party preference, it is good that these people are engaging with the political process. And we should be talking to them. Because now they are engaged, hopefully, they’ll be more inclined to talk us, both about what UKIP really stands for (because, like the former Labour voter, I’d hazard a guess that they wouldn’t be a fan of large chunks of UKIP’s policy program) and about what Labour stands for, and what Labour can offer them in government.

None of this is to dismiss the reasons people are turning to UKIP; as well as the issues of the EU and immigrations there’s, of course, a general disenchantment with mainstream politics and politicians, and we should take seriously how we address these issues.

But we must also start properly attacking UKIP’s dangerous economic policies; and get our activists talking about them to voters who are unlikely to support such policies if they are made aware of them.