Wellbeing & Recovery
Your mental health
If you have been diagnosed with a mental health condition or are worried about your mental well-being, you are not alone. As many as one in four people will experience mental health problems at some time in their lives.
Mental illness can be severe, moderate or mild and can be a reaction to life events such as bereavement, birth, or changes in personal circumstances, including at work.
Anxiety and depression are the most common conditions and women are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health problems than men, but men are less likely to seek help. Mental health conditions can and do affect people of all ages and backgrounds and sufferers have a wide range of symptoms and experiences.
Many mental health conditions, like physical illnesses, are temporary. Recovery is common and even for severe and more difficult to treat conditions long periods of being well can be expected with the right support.
First steps to health and well-being in Brighton and Hove
Mind in Brighton and Hove
Mind in Brighton and Hove works to promote good mental health in our city and across Sussex. It seeks to empower people to lead a full life as part of their local community. Mind publishes information on many topics relating to mental health. View website »
Synergy Creative Community
Our vision is to provide safe, supportive care in the mental health sector that is meaningful to clients by facilitating collaborations between clinicians, carers, peers and local services. Synergy bridges the gap between mental health professionals and service users by engaging them as equal particpants in creative workshops and training, thus helping to reduce the stigma that surrounds mental health issues.
Through peer support, Synergy uses empathy and compassion as tools of transformation and aims to enhance wellbeing by developing people’s potential and empowering them in a creative, supportive and dynamic environment. Synergy’s strategies for affecting change involve user-focused creative workshops which include music, drama and believe-it-or-not sharing. The workshops are led by service users and ex-service users whose experience with mental health is seen not only as a tool but as a skill that can be used and shared in creating a new reality that promotes well being and regenerates community involvement.
Find out more of the Synergy website »
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals
Provides information and downloadable leaflets on a range of mental health and emotional issues to the public in Brighton and Hove. View website »
The Sussex Mental Healthline
Can be contacted on 0300 5000 101 (17.00 and 9.00 and all day during weekends and bank holidays)
Men Get Eating Disorders Too
Men Get Eating Disorders Too’ is a UK based charity dedicated to representing and supporting the needs of men with by eating disorders. Eating disorders are typically perceived to be conditions that are suffered by only females. This is far from the case. Men of any age, background or sexuality can be affected. View website »
As You Are
As You Are provides affordable counselling and group work for depression, stress and anxiety for people living in Brighton, Hove, Portslade, Southwick, Shoreham, Lancing and Worthing. View website »
Brighton and Hove Local Involvement Network (B&H LINk)
The independent health and adult social care watchdog for Brighton and Hove. We are an independent network of people and groups who want to help make social and health care better in the local area. This group focuses on mental health and wellbeing. Meetings are held monthly in central Brighton This group is chaired by Neil Holmes from Care Co-ops. View website »
Soteria Brighton
A group of around 40 people with a personal and/or professional interest in working towards the establishment of a Soteria house in Brighton. We believe it is time to establish better alternatives to the traditional psychiatric approach to ‘psychosis’, which more closely reflect what service users say they need, and which do not rely on coercion/compulsion but rather on collaboration. View website »
