Thank you for clicking on the link. I was watching one of my favourite comedians talking about a situation he was in where his head was in a really bad place mentally and he was going to be performing stand up comedy later that evening. I was really struck by the conflict of being in a mental health crisis situation and then going out on stage to entertain others. It occurred to me that this situation is probably not uncommon, but to the person in the midst of it, it probably feels so isolating and terrifying.
I got thinking about what might help in that situation. I live with my own mental health challenges for as long as I can remember and have worked in mental health for about 20 years. I'm extremely passionate about the value of peer support and thought I'd like to create a low tech resource that performers could access and read how others manage their wellbeing on tour and identify and cope with mental distress when away from their normal support networks. To keep things simple I've made this questionnaire with just 6 questions. The spreadsheet with peoples answers is viewable to all and I will periodically create and update a pdf file collating peoples answers. The form is completely anonymous and if you don't want to answer all of the questions that's okay. Feel free to share this with friends and colleagues. The questionnaire and answers can be viewed on my website
www.essentiallifeskills.org in the Worksheets section at the bottom.
Please take care of your own wellbeing and only share what you are comfortable with.
