Campaign against living miserably: What's it all about?
Calm Mental Health
The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is a fantastic charity targeting suicide prevention. But CALM provides much more. This charity has three areas of focus:
Standing up against ‘feeling like shit’
Standing up to stigma and stereotypes
Standing with people who are struggling with life
What strikes me is the first point about standing up to feeling bad. Life is a mixture of positive and negative experiences. We can’t get away from that. More complex is knowing when ‘feeling like shit’ has gone beyond the normal ups and downs of life.
Understanding what is ‘normal’ is more confusing when living with illness, disability, bereavement and other painful circumstances. For example, we would expect a person to experience stress, anxiety, and low mood when battling cancer. But, how much is too much in this situation?
There are many signs that feeling bad has got to unacceptable levels. Some examples are:
Feeling bad has persisted for several weeks or more
This state causes you distress
This state interferes with daily life
You experience other problems, such as sleep and appetite disturbance
Other people have noticed your difficulties
Life has little or no enjoyment
You lack a sense of value and/or purpose
You have thoughts of harming yourself. This is an emergency situation that requires immediate help from appropriately qualified professionals
Feeling like shit often starts to feel ‘normal’ after a while. It’s hard to step back and see there is another way to live. Getting the help you need definitely opens the chance for a better life. You don’t have to live in misery. Life can be better.
CalmZone
There are many ways to achieve a state of calm or improved psychological health. Sometimes professional help is useful, but not always necessary for positive change. Here are some suggestions:
Take care of the basics
You must address diet, exercise, sleep, and work-life balance. Consider these areas the foundation of good mental and physical health. We’re not dealing with rocket science here. But, the challenge for most people is applying self-care practices on a consistent basis.
Connect with others
Building social support networks is one of the best ways to improve our health. However, there are many potential barriers in this area. For example, some neuroatypical people struggle to understand and engage with others. Here are articles on other social-interaction issues:
Try mindfulness exercises
We all have busy minds. Switching from ‘doing’ to ‘being’ mode is good for our health (e.g., reduce stress). Get a taste of mindfulness-based strategies with the following exercises. There are also several good quality meditation apps available.
Try mentally unhooking
Stepping back and observing our inner psychological states is also beneficial for mental wellbeing. This article explains the process of notice, name, and normalise.
Try diaphragmatic breathing
Controlling our physiology is good for performance and wellbeing. Find a useful breathing exercise on my skills videos page.
Men’s Mental Health Charity
CALM was established as a helpline in Manchester in 1997. The focus was on mental health and male suicide. The charity has made impressive strides to provide support and raise awareness. CALM recently opened support services to any person (not just men). CALM answered 135,000 calls and webchats in 2019.
Other men’s charities exist, such as Dudes & Dogs.
While we have come a long way, there is still much work to be done in men’s mental health. In particular, we need to make more skills training available. I have done some work in men’s mental health. Here is some research on men’s coping. You can access a free online workshop called the Flexible Man Project here:
We areCoaching & Clinical Psychologists with extensive experience helping people conquer a range of wellbeing and performance issues at home and in the workplace. Read more about our work, watch practical skills videos or browse other articles. Get in touch anytime.
