They’re a bit sarcastic but the point is clear. Nobody lives in the perfect family.

Hugging it out

In ReachOut.com’s “perfect family,” ad, two siblings cheerfully tell their parents about issues they’re struggling with. So dad suggests the family to hug it out. All fixed right?

Not easy

In real life the issues brought up in this ad are not so easy to talk about and just as difficult to hear.

Tough times

What it demonstrates is that everyone goes through tough times. No matter how perfect things look from the outside everyone has their own issues they struggle with and everyone needs a dig out from time-to-time.

Talking about it

It was pretty easy for the people in the ad, but telling someone you’re going through a tough time in real life can be hard. Whether you talk to a friend, family member or doctor asking for help can be scary. But it’s worth it!

Don’t go it alone

It’s important to remember your family and the people who care about you more than likely know that you’re not perfect and want to help you. Nobody should ever go through a tough time alone.

Read eating disorders or getting help for drug use for more information if you’ve been affected by the issues in the advertisement.

Winter can be tough. The cold and dark make it all too tempting to hibernate for the season. The cold makes it hard to find motivation to go out with mates or keep up regular exercise routines and the dark can get us feeling down.

Hibernation

If you’re feeling your motivation for leaving the house waning now’s the time to make a plan for staying social, active and positive this winter.

Staying social

Staying in touch with your friends is really important. Having a laugh and a chat will make you feel much better and is a reminder of the support network that you have,

Having fun

OK, beer gardens may be out but there are plenty of things you can do to stay connected.  Have people over to cook dinner, check out free museums and galleries or just have your mates over for a cuppa and to play some video games. Start a regular night like movie, poker or board game night.

Learn something new

If you don’t feel your friends would be up for it why not join a night class?  It doesn’t matter which, the point is to motivate yourself to get out of the house, do something fun and meet new people.

Staying active

Regular exercise is really important. If you’re lacking in motivation rope a friend into going with you.  Joining a team or class works too.  Or you could chuck the regular routine altogether and take up ice-skating, hokey, zumba or jazz ballet.

With a plan for winter you never know it could become your favorite season. But if it doesn’t, remember it’s only a few months.

Best behaviour

Accolades have been coming thick and fast from all over about the Irish fans at the Ireland vs Spain match last night. In fact, all week Irish fans have been living it up in Poland and, well not running amok. All good-natured fun, erm, mostly.

Credit where it’s due

But last night, when all hope was lost, the supporters sang “The Fields of Athenry” for the last six minutes of the game and well past the final whistle of the match, for their team.

Those in the football world have been sharing their thoughts on Twitter, with Fabrice Muamba tweeting “Credit to the irish fans the way they support they team. It incredible.”

Updates

Even the Wikipedia page for “The Fields of Athenry” was updated this morning (!) stating – “The display of support was noted in media in Spain, Poland and Germany, where the song’s provenance was explained.”

Fans interviewed leaving the stadium said the boys did their best. Behind them to the end. At the beginning of this week we were talking about the importance of support, and while it didn’t get the result wanted, what a good news story! We all know how few and far between they are.

Support

No matter what certain people have to say about giving the fans something to sing for, let’s bring it home, the idea of unwavering support. Support from family and friends when you need it, or even just knowing it’s there can make you walk tall.

Hang on to those socks for your wing mirrors, there’s the Olympics to come.

25,000 Irish fans flew, drove and cycled to Ponzan to watch the boys in green last night. That in itself ought to win some sort of prize, no?

There’s a reason the team are there, they earned it and so have earned the support. Hope is not futile!

Pride

As a nation we’ve taken a few blows to our sense of national pride in the last few years. Bailouts, mass emigration and finally acknowledging that we just don’t have the Eurovision knack anymore. (We have actually accepted that, haven’t we?)

Until last night, we were full of belief and excitement about the European Championships. Having the craic on a monumental scale, flying the flags, wearing the wigs and bristling with optimism.

C’mon Ireland!

Even those with absolutely no interest in football have been swept up in the carnival atmosphere. It’s infectious.

The feeling of being a part of something is a good feeling. Feeling connected and the communal sense of anticipation can give you strength and with that comes highs and lows. But it’s the shared experience and that makes all the difference.

Support

Can you see where we’re going with this? The moral of the story is: when you’re going through a tough time sharing it with someone you trust will make all the difference too. Support from family and friends can give us the strength to get through tough times. Offering support to others can give them that strength, when they need it.

Resilience

Last night’s result was disappointing. If you’re doing the Leaving Cert right now, (double whammy) last week’s English paper was disappointing. But what we really have now is a test of our resilience.

Let’s dust ourselves down, muster up that energy and belief we had not 24 hours ago to continue to support the boys in green. Remember, there’s everything to play for.

The cheque for €65,000 was raised at the fifth annual Paul Stafford Ball which took place in the Mansion House in November 2011.

The Paul Stafford Foundation was set up in 2007 to raise awareness and funds around the issue of suicide. It has held an annual ball with charity auctions for the past five years and this last year ReachOut.com was their chosen charity.

Our CEO Elaine Geraghty accepted the cheque on behalf of ReachOut.com along with two of our ambassadors Shane Noone and Vicky Kavanagh.

ReachOut.com would like to thank the Paul Stafford Foundation and all of the generous supporters who contributed on the night for their support and for helping us in achieving our mission of helping young people through tough times.

This week, Dean Windass, recently retired footballer has been humbled by the support he received after speaking out about his depression.

Dean

He made a name for himself scoring the winning goal in the Championship Play-offs that brought his home team into the Premier League in 2008. At the height of his career Dean made half a million pounds a year. He has a beautiful wife of 18 years and two great children.

From the outside it looked like the perfect life, but Dean was depressed.

Depression

He says he has cried everyday since his retirement and turned to drinking as a coping mechanism which resulted in him becoming isolated from his family and friends. This week things came to a head for Dean when his depression led him to attempt to take his own life.

Dealing with change.

The loss of the routine and adrenalin of football, a relationship break down with his wife and the recent loss of his father all became too much for an already depressed Dean.

This economic climate is a time of change for all of us. Unemployment and money worries  putting  pressure on our relationships. Famous footballer or not it can be hard to adapt and there is no doubt that these extra pressures can compound feelings of depression.

It’s not all about the money honey

Dean’s story is proof that anyone can experience depression. There is a common misconception that people need a reason to get depressed. But depression is an illness just like physical illnesses and it can affect anyone at anytime. Although Dean has been through a lot in two years since his retirement, it still seemed he should have the perfect life.

Reaching out

As well as reaching out to his friends, family and fans, Dean has put himself on a waiting list to see a counsellor. Dean says that he needs to “sort himself out” and that’s why he is speaking about what he’s been through.

When you’re feeling down it can be really hard to reach out for help. Depression can trick you into thinking that nobody will care and that there is no way out. But the overwhelming support for Dean shows how many people understand and many people have been through it too.

Talking to someone you trust or someone outside the situation like a GP or counsellor can make all the difference.

Positive mental attitude

They may well get to go on and perform in the finals this Saturday. The odds at the bookies are fairly high and if this was a competition in positive mental attitude they would be a shoo-in. A lesson to us all maybe?

One news report stated that “everyone is getting the joke” and “this joke is not lost in translation like Dustin was”.

But is it a joke?

As a nation we took this competition far too seriously for too long. Our sense of ownership and entitlement of the title have been rightly rattled in the last few years.

It’s a song competition, let’s be honest, a catchy/irritating song competition, so not unlike X factor.

This time is different

Clearly our perception of Jedward has shifted since then. Even if this song entry is fittingly irritating, we want them to succeed and not just because we want to win.  We’re now rooting for who they are; people who make us smile.

Internationally it’s looking like it doesn’t really matter if they win or not, they are taking over the world. Jedmania is infectious and no one is immune.

As an act, Jedward are a bit of a harmless fun. If nothing else, it’s providing a welcome novelty in positive coverage for Ireland, particularly in a European context.  Bringing a bit of glitter, frivolous fun and eh…lipstick back home.

Paddy’s Day is meant to be a day that we celebrate being Irish, not just about marching bands, green beer, diddley aye, leprechaun hats and vomit.

So what about it?

Are you proud to be Irish? We have a very rich cultural heritage that we dine out on quite a bit but what about now? As a nation we were heralded internationally as such an economic success story, not to go on about it as it’s tired at this stage and so over.

Arts

But now we’re the underdog again, let’s take a little stock of who we are. For such a small nation we still produce a huge amount of art, from music, literature, plays, dance and visual arts.

Sports

Again for underdogs we are punching way above our weight in games like rugby and cricket. Around the world people use GAA as a model of successful voluntary sports organisations.

Charity

Internationally Irish individuals donate the most amount of money to charity, even now in the downturn. When there is a natural disaster Irish teams are generally in the first groups to respond with emergency assistance.

Humour

Then there is our unlimited capacity to laugh at ourselves.  This can go a little too far at times but god knows we need it sometimes. (If you haven’t seen this satire of terminal two do watch) We’re very funny really.

Countryside

We still have a beautiful country (in parts). Even though people left in the past, they’ve always come back and will again.

So remember all these tourists here tomorrow, or worldwide celebrating Paddy’s Day, pretending to be oirish for the day. They’re here and pretending to be us and you know what they say about imitation…

My name is Nigel and I’m a third level student studying in UCC. I’ve struggled with my course in college, to put it rather mildly. I’m currently repeating (not for the first time either) what I now hope will be my final year.

Old routine

Back in September I was dreading the thought of coming back – the same subjects, the same lecturers, buildings and faces; the same old routine. What made this year seem even more insurmountable was that most of my friends were off in different corners of the world either travelling or completing further education or starting off on the first steps of their careers. I really did feel alone and uncertain how the year would work out without the friends who had helped me through college difficulties so far.

Filling time

I decided I wanted to turn this seemingly enormous negative in my life into an even more enormous positive! What could I do to fill my time in between lectures and studying? I needed to try and keep myself occupied. I had to find something to fill those empty lunch hours and quiet evenings! So I decided I’d challenge myself.

Motivation

Completing a marathon has always been one of those “I’d love to be able to do that” thoughts! Now, what better way to get fit (I was a bit overweight to say the least), keep myself motivated and occupy my spare time training to compete in a full marathon?

Going well

And here I am! I’ve just finished my first twelve-week-base programme. I’m feeling a lot healthier and fitter (I’ve lost a good bit of that flab!). College is actually going well for a change and while I do still miss my friends, I’ve found I’ve never been busier! I’ve a perfect balance between college, work and training that takes me from one end of the day to the other.

Looking after myself

Plenty of challenges still lie ahead though. I’ve just begun an eighteen week programme designed up to marathon day. I’m going to have to start looking after myself now too; a little less partying and junk food I think! I should get to bed at more appropriate times as well. A good night’s sleep is important to ensure my body has plenty of time to recover after a run. It‘s tough, but tough in the good way.

Back in September, this year seemed like a big staircase with an infinite number of steps to climb. But I started off small and looked at what I could do to make it that bit easier. And slowly but surely, I’m climbing, one step at a time, to achieve my goals.

Joint campaign

The campaign, spearheaded by four national youth groups (ReachOut, 
Headstrong, Fóroige and BeLong To) was launched to put young people directly in touch with their local candidates.

Issues that matter

We often hear politicians talking about the importance of investing in our country’s future. So we’re asking why issues that matter to young people, like their mental health, rarely feature in political debates. We want to make sure that youth mental health becomes an issue that is talked about, by young people and their local representatives.

Energetic campaign

Get on Board for Youth Mental Health has two angles,aimed at both young people and election candidates:

▪ Get On Board Online! – the hub of the campaign. You can support the campaign and interact with your candidates through an online map. Tweets and emails can be sent directly though the site.
Videos and photos of every candidate that gets on board, as well as messages of support from well-known faces will be constantly uploaded to the site so you can see exactly who is supporting our campaign.

▪ Get on Board the Bus! – a campaign bus will be hitting the streets next week! We’re travelling to candidates around the country asking them to “get on board” with youth mental health. We might even play a little game of “Follow the Leader!”
 The open-top bus will be full of young people, a band and a camera crew and candidates will be invited on board to hear what young people have to say.

We want every candidate in the country to be asked, be it on Facebook or on the doorstep: ”What are you doing to get on board for youth mental health?”