‘Do I want to be alone, Darling?’ The power of social support – Stress Awareness Month
In February, I was at a Vaccines concert at the O2 Venue in Brixton. It was absolutely brilliant and put it this way, I’ve gone from only knowing 3 of their songs, to now being their #1 fan! Whilst I was there, I noticed something (it’s the psychologist in me). It was a shared experience with hundreds of other people. It felt good to be united and to look left and right to me and seeing joy, fun, happiness and focus from everyone around me. During one moment, a favourite song was being played and my neighbour erupted into song and dance. We all joined in.
On my way home it made me think about stress awareness month and how there is an epidemic of loneliness occurring across all generations at the moment (Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain – Office for National Statistics). In contrast to what I just experienced, I knew that as a norm we are trending away from 3D interactions and are feeling disconnected. Related mental health challenges are not being resolved, in particular for GenZ (Youth mental health in decline: generations differ on causes of apparent crisis, survey finds | King’s College London), and worryingly suicide in GenX is on the rise (Middle-aged generation most likely to die by suicide and drug poisoning – Office for National Statistics).
On my MSc in Health Psychology many moons ago, I remember being taught about the power of social support being a buffer to illness and that it improves mental ill health and psychological challenges (Understanding the protective effect of social support on depression symptomatology from a longitudinal network perspective | BMJ Mental Health). I think it is interesting that fast forward to two years ago and on Blue Monday Tetley and the Samaritans focussed on ‘Brew Monday’ and the power of the adage ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’. Social support was being encouraged.
So, coming back to stress awareness month, my advice would be this. It doesn’t take going to a concert to be part of something. To reduce your stress during this month (and the coming months too), as well as using the myriad tools such as mindfulness, breath work and exercise, consider meeting up with a friend for a gossip. Or join a new group. Or say hello to everyone you pass on your daily walk. Or have eye contact with those around you. Anything really that makes you feel socially connected and part of something. Every direct human contact you have will make you feel connected. The shared connection will make you feel better – even if just in that moment. Keep going with this and you’ll find that it’s the moments that add up to a momentum.
If you’d like to know more about what Working To Wellbeing does, do get in touch. A key part of our Vocational Rehabilitation Coaching work is enabling social connection. We know the power it makes to health recovery and make the most of it during our work. To find out more, please get in touch at:
Phone: 03300 552 903
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