My interview with BBC Radio Manchester

Lindsey Cree is a carer, Involvement Worker with Rethink Mental Illness, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) instructor, Trainer, Counsellor in private practice, Researcher with Manchester University. She writes here about a recent radio internveiw

Lindsey addressing a recent RMCIA event

As Chair of Rethink Manchester Carers In Action (RMCIA) I write our monthly newsletter and email it to our contacts. Those on our mailing list are a varied bunch – carers, service users, mental health organisations, professionals and local media/newspapers. Our August 2012 newsletter focussed on a wellbeing and fundraising event to raise funds to give our carers a treat, and was picked up by BBC Radio Manchester who telephoned me to ask if I would come in a few days later and give a 30 minute Live interview about our carers group, how I got involved, and our upcoming event. I immediately knew this was an excellent opportunity to talk to the general public about severe mental illness.

I had never spoken Live on radio before, and shortly after I agreed to do the interview apprehensions began to creep in – will I say something stupid, will I get my facts wrong, what if I dry up, the anxieties were endless! However, to deal with worry I normally use a strategy which allows me to bask in a ‘3 minute worry time’ whenever I begin to feel anxious. So, I worried for England! I imagined all kinds of catastrophes, anything that could go wrong would, worse case scenarios, I would even trip up on entering the studio and fall onto the mic!!! You can’t imagine how therapeutic this is until you’ve tried it yourself. The key is to wallow in self doubt, pity, fear etc for a full 3 minutes and no longer. This gets all those uncomfortable thoughts out of the way – it kind of clears the decks, freeing me up to enjoy the task.

Worry time now over I began to make notes of the messages I wanted to share about mental illness. I knew 30 minutes was a long time so I made certain I covered all my main points, stigma, carers, myths about mental illness, support for families, hope and recovery, early intervention and young people. Oh yes – most important, our upcoming fundraising event! I began to realise half an hour would go very quickly.

On the day of the interview, noting the time, I realised I would be on air for about 10 minutes and not 30, crumbs I have too much to say! I walked into the studio, my notes on hand with bullet points and as I sat down the interviewer said ‘we’ll be on air in 20 seconds, you won’t need notes, they will be distracting. Let’s go with the flow and I’ll ask you a few questions. Is there anywhere you’d like me to begin?’ I quickly said ‘yes, ask me why I became involved with Rethink carers group’. I looked up and saw a red light ‘On Air’. From thereon in the conversation flowed, I simply trusted her as a professional to stay in control if I went off on a tangent,  to remind me if I ‘forget’ what the question is and allow me the space to raise a few issues like stigma and early intervention.

It felt good to talk about a subject so dear to my heart, and despite the lack of time, I felt determined to mention some serious matters surrounding severe mental illness like stigma and the importance of early intervention. The interviewer had done her homework too, and we got into a good discussion about stigma and how to break down the barriers.

 I was just starting to feel at ease when the time was up. Thankfully, I managed to tell listeners about our carer’s event the following week and I’m sure we got some more visitors because of the publicity.

The comments and feedback I received about my time on air has been truly encouraging, even enlightening. I think I’ve found my niche, which is SO cool as talking has always been my one of my fave subjects :)