Mark’s Story

1. Give a short biography of yourself, particularly your occupation and experience in sport.

My name is Mark Whitehead , current third year BA physical education student at the University of East Anglia and current joint head coach of the Norwich City Womens Reserve team. In my spare time i love to play my drums, listen to Rock and Metal music and watch TV.

2. What personal experiences with mental health do you have? Either with yourself, people in your field or friends.

During my year off between finishing sixth form and starting uni went through year long in and out phase of depression where I didn’t want to eat I didn’t want to speak to people i just wanted to be alone.

3. How do you feel sport/fitness affects mental health?

I think sport/ fitness is a good way to help people with poor mental health as it takes your mind away from what worries you and helps you to focus on other things. Studies as well have shown the benefits of completing physical exercise and its affects on mental health. This is difficult for me to answer as I found music was what helped me the most, during my phases in and out I didn’t want to complete exercise and if I did i would never finish it.

4. What advice do you have for people in sport/fitness who struggle with mental health issues? 

Don’t feel as if this is something you have to face on your own, everyone around you wants to support you and care for you but they cant if you don’t talk to people. There are countless stories in sport, music and normal culture of people who didn’t talk about their demons or issues and ended up taking illicit substances or doing much worse to deal with these feelings. Never believe you are alone in what you feel and never be afraid to open up. And never believe in the whole Man-up speech someone might give you , be yourself and never be afraid to talk.

5. What advice do you wish you had been given before going through (or observing) the experiences you have? 

Advice I would give myself is always think logically and clearly about what you read as I read a lot to try and help me feel better but then that would lead to me worrying about more and more issues. If I could have clearly seen and analyse what was being said I don’t think I would have gone through it at all.

6. Do you have an extra message you wish you add? 

Its a great thing that MyoMinds is trying to achieve and help people. Some peoples mental health can be so fragile that the smallest ounce of negativity and set them off in to a spiral , without people such as that of MyoMinds I can safely say a lot more people would not be here or as mentally healthy , as they would feel nobody can help them and that can lead to dangerous routes