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How to manage your mental health | Leon Taylor | TEDxClapham


[Music]
[Applause]
so my mum and dad still refer to me to
this day is a bit of a pain in the
backside and probably from cabeza how
many parents have we got in here give me
a quick wave are loads of you ok what I
was a hyperactive child I drove my
parents up the wall with my endless
amounts of energy I wouldn’t sleep I
needed constant attention and no matter
what my parents seemed to do
I wouldn’t rest a few of you not doing
sorry about that my parents had no idea
what to do with me so they took me to
the family doctor to see if there’s
anything that he could do now I’m not
sure what available labels there were
back then but the family doctor labeled
me as a problem child and he said to my
mum daddy he can’t cope with Leon I can
always take him off you and sedate him
and that he proceeded to share with him
some other drug related interventions
that they might want to consider and for
whatever reason my mum and dad bulked at
this they decided that they would find
another way so they gave me away to
other people to look after mum and dad’s
friends and family but that didn’t work
because everyone got very busy and they
were left my mom and dad were left with
their problem child at the end of their
tether you know there’s a picture of my
mum and dad on their wedding day they
look young healthy vital and there’s a
picture of the three of us less than two
years later and they look at how they’ve
aged 25 years so my parents decided to
fight fire with fire
and they decided to attempt to tire me
out and that’s where my life of activity
started way before I can even remember I
was swimming from day dot I went to
mother and baby gymnastics before I was
1 year old that turned into tumble tots
and I was taking part in any physical
activity that was going and every sport
that I was able to do at the age that I
was at and magical things started to
happen
I became easier to manage and I’m glad
my parents went down the physical
activity route because my dreams of
going to the Olympic Games started when
I was six years old I watched the
Olympic Games on the TV in nineteen
eighty-four and I told my dad then that
I wanted to go to the Olympic Games I
used to get the Guinness Book of World
Records at Christmas and I would write
down in my best handwriting my time next
to the world-record holder to see how
many minutes I needed to take off and
I’m glad my parents went down this route
because when I was 9 or just before I
was 9 I started diving and that was one
of the many sports that I tried but
actually within a short space of time it
was clear to me the diving was the sport
for me ultimately I followed my limpid
Reims in the sport diving competing at 3
Olympic Games and even winning an
Olympic medal in 2004 and none of that
would have been possible if my mum and
dad hasn’t chosen physical movement as
my medicine so it’s widely known the
negative effects of inactivity on
someone’s physical health and the
associated risk of disease but what’s
really concerning me is the link between
inactivity and someone’s mental health
now can I just check with you here today
in London just by a show of hands how
many of you know someone close to you
who has suffered always suffering with
in some way their mental health just
give me a quick indicate Wow pretty much
every hand went up this is a huge issue
today you know in a recent index of over
300 diseases mental health problems were
the largest cause of the overall disease
burden worldwide here in the UK 2016
official survey showed that nearly 20
percent of those 16 and over are
suffering with symptoms of either
depression and/or anxiety and there’s a
huge percentage of the population who
don’t necessarily have a diagnosable
mental health problem but who are
suffering with their mental health
it seems that stress and overwhelm are
so commonplace in today’s society and
although stress in itself is not
a mental health issue it’s often the
starting point for many could you
imagine what our world would be like if
we had very few mental health issues
what would it be like if we could
drastically reduce the number of people
who are suffering well I believe we can
I think there’s something that we can do
even more of and is simple I’d like to
argue that we spend too much time stuck
in our heads and not enough time in our
bodies thinking isn’t necessarily the
solution to our problems thinking is
often the cause especially when we get
stuck in a pattern of over thinking over
thinking leads to psychological stress
and according to the World Health
Organization stress is a global health
epidemic so what can we do we can move
more we can physically move because you
know physically moving changes
absolutely everything and when I say
everything I mean our experience of the
world and what else is there fascinating
things happen biochemically in the brain
when we move the first thing that
happens when we begin to move physically
the human nervous system recognizes this
as a moment of stress and in order is it
thinks you’re about to fight or flee
from an enemy and in order to protect
you your brain releases a chemical a
protein called brain-derived neurotropic
factor fancy name BDNF for short BDNF
prepares the brain protects the brain
and it also plays a key role in creating
new neurons specifically in the
hippocampus area of the brain alongside
this another chemical is release one
that you may be more familiar with
endorphins endorphins are often
attributed to the high that we feel
after moving physically but their role
is to dumb down any disk
but that we might encounter from
fighting or fleeing from that enemy so
essentially it’s the chemical mix of
BDNF and endorphin which explain why
things are often clearer and we feel
more at ease after moving physically but
how does this show up in the real world
how do we experience this well moving
physically in the short term immediately
changes our state Thanks immediately
changes our state it boosts our mood and
it releases the buildup of stress in our
human nervous system and over the
long-term consistent physical movement
changes the structure of our brain it
boosts self-esteem and decreases the
biological reaction to psychological
stress psychological stress is clearly
the enemy to our mental health and it’s
physical movement that is our best
weapon to respond this isn’t new cicero
who was around over 2,000 years ago
arguably one of Rome’s greatest orators
said this it is exercise alone that
supports the spirits and keeps the mind
in vigor and he was right
and it seems more applicable now than
ever there’s a whole body of research
showing that movement is an effective
intervention on more serious mental
health issues in 2013 there was a study
into depression that showed that
meditative movement in this case it was
yoga chi gong and tai chi were effective
in reducing symptoms of depression in
all participants in that particular
study a few years later a separate study
showed that regular yoga practice as an
intervention and it must be regular was
effective in reducing the symptoms
severity of post-traumatic
stress disorder PTSD even in some cases
so much so that PTSD diagnosis was no
longer valid a different type of
movement intervention was used to combat
anxiety disorders it was shown that
aerobic exercise actually was a
fantastic intervention in to those who
suffering those with anxiety when they
experienced a physiological change that
they are fearful of for example an
increased heart rate when it’s through
aerobic exercise it helped make the
fight flight response their stress
system less reactive and therefore
building a resilience and a tolerance to
such symptoms resulting in infrequent
less frequent less intense anxiety
episodes and finally Fritz and O’Connor
in 2016 showed that 20 minute bouts of
medium intensity exercise successfully
reduced symptoms of those with attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD and
that’s certainly reflective of our
movement was used as an intervention
when I was younger so what would happen
if we reclaimed our mental health by
moving more well there’s two actions
that you can all take the first one is
when you find yourself in a context
where you’re stressed
whatever that is maybe you’re hunched
over the laptop maybe it’s a completely
different context when you’re stressed
you’re poisoning your body there’s
chemical changes taking place cortisol
is going through the roof Adrenaline’s
going through the roof and if you don’t
change that then you’re poisoning your
body the thing that you do is get up and
go for a walk if that is available to
you if you’re physically not capable of
that
even just changing your posture and the
rhythm of your breath is enough to
change the chemicals in the brain and
move you from stress more towards
wellness the most important thing here
is we disrupt this constant pattern we
disrupt the buildup of stress and do
this as often as you can and the second
long-term solution is a challenge I
challenge you to find your
movement your physical movements poor
activity doesn’t matter what it is but
there’s something very important at play
here and I learnt this the hard way
so clearly diving was my movement and
you’d think that someone like me who’s
to train for seven hours a day six days
a week would be one of the most mentally
well people around because of all of
that movement but that wasn’t the case
in my experience the Olympic Games in
Sydney in 2000 ended up fourth and I
knew that he couldn’t get any closer to
my dreams that next year things started
to go south I had a reconstructive
shoulder surgery on my right shoulder at
seven months of painstaking
rehabilitation then I made it back to
fitness only to have to go under the
knife once again for a second shoulder
reconstruction on this same shoulder and
then I fell into a ditch for the next
eight months life wasn’t fair I fell
into a depression
I was training and training and training
obsessing on all of the detail doing
exactly what I needed to do and I was
stuck because something was missing I
hit rock bottom I’m stood on a pool side
away from the crowds with tears rolling
down my face my shoulders are hunched
and I’ve given up because I’ve tried
everything and he’s often the way
there’s a point where it turns around
and it was my mentor that came up to me
at that time and he gently put his hand
on my shoulder and he asked me a
question
he said Leon remind me why do you do
this sport because I could enjoy it I
said well what I only seen you smile for
the past eight months and that was it
the reason I chose the sport in the
first place over all of the sports I
went into when I was young is because I
enjoyed it and because of the stress and
the pressure that I put myself in I was
stuck in that negative spiral I made one
change when I went back to training the
very next day I put a smile on my face
and it was like that it was a forced
smile to start with but that negative
spiral very quickly started to go the
other way I found the joy in the
movement once
every single training session every
single dive every single weight I lift
it I find that didn’t make it easy but I
found their joy in it and that negative
spy went the other way and I was back on
track after my Olympic dreams so my
challenge to you this is an exercise for
exercise saying this isn’t forcing
yourself to go to the gym
this isn’t movement for movement say
this is find your movement the movement
that fills you with joy so we challenge
you to be creative walk run swim dive
play tennis kick a football even head
off to one of those early-morning sober
raves
that’s the thing you should try them
whatever you need to do but the magic
ingredient here is enjoyment so what
would happen if we moved more on and
what is possible for movement as an
intervention well number of years ago I
was asked to work with a young man as an
executive coach I was to be his
performance coach and on paper things
were looking amazing because he was a
high flyer accelerating through a
massive organization here in London he
was already almost at the top of the
very tree but in reality things were
very different when I sat down with him
I discovered the things were very dark
he was suffering with bipolar disorder
he was under the care of a psychiatrist
and over the past five or six years the
symptom severity of his bipolar disorder
had slowly been increasing and therefore
the medication he was on subsequently
was being upped and upped and upped and
he found himself to a point where it was
tearing him his young family apart and
he was right on the edge
we made one intervention I asked him
what do you love to do movement wise he
was he did tell me story how he still
loved to run when he was younger so he
built a series of behaviors and habits
around running he started to go running
frequently before long in a number of
weeks he’d already joined a local
running club and this journey went on in
six months down the line he ran in his
local half marathon with his wife his
children extended friends and family
cheering him on
the most momentous day
and over that period the symptom
severity of his bipolar disorder had
been reduced so much that he was taken
off pretty much all of his medication
the side effects that were plaguing him
had faded away and from a mental health
point of view he was in the best place
he’d been for over a decade because
running was his movement so there’s a
beautiful quote that I’m going to leave
you with from Thomas Jefferson who said
this exercise and application
produce order to our affairs health of
body cheerfulness of mind and those make
us precious to our friends so in this
world of stress overwhelm and
overthinking we need to get out of our
heads and back into our bodies we need
to physically move more because if we
don’t the children of this world will
continue to model our behaviors of
stress and inactivity and this mental
health unwellness will continue to rise
so here today let’s start a movement for
movement I challenge you to reclaim your
mental health by finding your movement
the movement that fills you with joy and
do it as often as you can thank you [Applause]
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