A WOMAN living in North Cornwall is urging employers to provide support in the workplace to those living with mental health problems.

Sammie Allen, who lives in North Cornwall, has spoken out about her struggles with her mental health and how she was treated in former jobs as a result of it. She is now urging employers and business owners, as well as colleagues, to check up on people at work.

With one in four people thought to be living with a mental health problem, and suicides of young people being ever more evident in the news of late, it is now pivotal to spread awareness of speaking out about mental health, and providing more support to everyone — at home, at school and in the workplace, the latter being something that all employers should be focusing on, Sammie believes.

Thirty-three-year-old Sammie lives with her six-year-old daughter, Siena, and is currently working for a vegan cafe in Bodmin. Although she’s happy in this job, it was a different story not too long ago when she was working for somewhere else battling anxiety and depression whilst she worked in an environment where she was mostly on her own.

“I was working this job, and I was constantly on my own, alone with my thoughts. I would come home crying most days, and it’s funny because not one job I have worked in has someone sat down and asked, ‘are you ok?’

“When I left, their reaction was just to tell me that I was really bad at my job and how upset they were that I was leaving suddenly. They did know that I suffered with anxiety and depression but they never asked me why I was feeling so bad or what was wrong.”

Sammie is now urging people to look out for one another in a time when mental health illnesses are affecting people more than ever. “In society, there are so many people killing themselves,” she continued. “One person could change that. We need to get people talking about it and to realise that they are not alone. It just needs to be more out there.

“There are more people talking about it, but I just don’t think it’s enough.”

Sammie is now happy in her current workplace. She continued: “They’re really open and you can talk about things like this, but in the laundrette you couldn’t.”

To help ease bad days, Sammie focuses on her hobbies, which include photography and experimenting with plant-based recipes. However, before attending a photography course last year, her anxiety got the better of her and it took her three months to gather the courage to ring the course manager.

She said: “It takes a lot for me to even take the first step towards speaking to someone about things, because I just get so worked up. I spoke to my brother about it, and said I thought I couldn’t do it, and he said, ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’

“When I got there, it was amazing and I really enjoyed it. When I was feeling really bad one day, I spoke to my tutor about it and she just said how she would have had no idea that I was feeling like that. She said, ‘you always look really happy’!”

She continued: “It should be spoken to kids in schools too, it should be a bigger part of education. My daughter does pick it up and she gets really emotional about some things that happen at school. Speaking about it to the younger generation is the only way more support can be given to everyone.”

That day, Sammie had completed an online hypnotherapy course on self-esteem with Marisa Peer, and had written pages of notes. She said: “The way I handle things, I just keep it all inside and then when it does come out, it can come across as horrible. It’s because they’re all built up things I couldn’t get out.

“When I quit my job, I realised that the people I was working for, they were probably having their own struggles too. We need to look closer to ourselves to see where we are struggling. The course I did today focused on how many of us tell ourselves we’re rubbish, and it quotes how we need to try to build our self esteem because no one else is going to do it.

“There’s a cycle of negative thoughts go to negative feelings and then your actions are a response to that. With depression and anxiety, we tend to put ourselves away. We just need to keep telling ourselves, ‘you are enough’.”

Meditation and a plant-based diet has helped Sammie through the bad days. She said: “The whole reason I started being vegan was because of my mental health.

“I woke up this morning and I just kept crying. I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad was going to happen today. So I went and got my boyfriend’s dog and we went to the woods and I started picking nettles and wild garlic, then I came home and made a pesto. Good food is what we should be eating, and plant-based foods have loads of nutritional value.

“But it can be hard when your brain is telling you that you’re rubbish and don’t deserve it. There’s always that thought in the back of your mind, why do you feel special? But then you have to look at everyone around you and think we’re all just the same!

“I cook a lot with my boyfriend, he comes over and we cook together. I love learning about food. Ash, my boyfriend, made an amazing vegan lasagne and made his own spinach lasagne sheets. When we cut it, it was like a cake — it was amazing!”

Sammie’s passion for vegan food spurred her to look at hosting plant-based food evenings in the local area with Ash, and the pair were even in touch with St Kitt’s Herbery who said they could use their venue. But anxiety struck again. “I was just thinking, what if no one comes, what if no one likes the food? So that was something else I felt I couldn’t do. It stops me doing things all the time.

“Obviously I’ve gone to the cafe, and they’ve been really nice, but I have future aspirations too. I want to teach people and kids about making food that is nutritious — but anxiety is a constant battle.”

Two years ago, Sammie first made an appointment with the doctor to talk about how she was feeling. She has had counselling and is now undertaking cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). “Growing up, I really was quite confident. When I finished school, I went on a cruise by myself, went travelling and was a hairdresser — that’s what I used to do,” she explained.

However, she noticed a change in herself when she moved to Cornwall three years ago to be closer to family.

“When Siena was a baby, it was really nice because we were in our own little bubble. As she got older, I found it really hard to ask people for help to look after her — even my own dad! I started feeling really guilty as Siena grew up, and now she’s at school, I just think about how I never went back to being who I was!

“When I first moved here, I didn’t make any friends because I just couldn’t talk to people, so I found it really hard. It’s really hard to be in a social situation.”

The therapy that Sammie is now focusing on ‘retrains’ her brain to focus on the positives, rather than the negatives. “It’s just our mind set, but growing up most of us were not really praised all the time. We should be praising kids for all the good things. They tend to get in trouble for all the bad things, but they’re never really praised for the positives. We should be encouraging the good rather than the bad.”

Her advice to employers and colleagues of those experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety or any other mental health problem is to talk. “Speak about it, that’s just the best thing you can do. Just keep speaking about it. Ask your colleague or your friend about it, because maybe they’re going through the same thing. We’re all connected on things like Facebook and social media, but how many times do you meet up with your friends?

“In November 2017, when I was feeling really bad, I went back to Essex and met up with my old friends from school. I told them exactly how I felt and they all just said that they are suffering with the same thing too.”

Just weeks ago, reality TV star Mike Thalassitis was found dead in the woods near his home.

“When I heard about this, I just sat there and cried — I didn’t even really know who he was. But it’s just not on — how can a 26-year-old think this is the only way out?” Sammie said. “Employers need to start talking to their staff and ask them how they are. If you have happy staff, it will make all the difference.

“Even those ladies I worked for, they could be feeling the same. But it’s really not hard to be nice. It’s hard to be horrible, but so easy to be nice to others. And if you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything. There was no need for them to tell me how rubbish I was.”

Moving on from this bad experience at work, Sammie hopes to continue with her passions in life. She said: “I envision the person I want to be and the mum I want to be. This is what I’m holding onto.”

Are you a business or employer that focuses on mental health support in the workplace? Let us know what you do and how other businesses could follow in your footsteps.