Voices For Mental Health: Clodagh, on how Ireland has changed its perspective on mental health #NowWereTalking

I think we’ve come a long way in Ireland. People are much more open now about their mental health, but I think there is still too much focus on the negative, and not enough on what we can do to help ourselves. We need to find a balance. Mental health isn’t just a negative thing, it’s also being happy, and we need to start associating it with positivity too.

I’ve been dealing with mental health problems for as long as I can remember. After losing my mom when I was young, I didn’t know how to deal with grief and neither did my family. I never learned to deal with negative emotions, so I developed quite severe anxiety disorders such as trichotillomania and bulimia. I strongly believe if I had been given the tools to deal with this kind of trauma sooner, it would have saved me a lot of struggle.

Growing up, there was a huge stigma around therapy in my family. Now, though, I’m pretty sure every single one of us is going regularly. What has surprised me – in a good way – is how open we all were about it. What I want to see is that change happening outside of my family too.

I think services like Pieta House do such fantastic work in acute and crisis situations. Ironically, it would be wonderful if we didn’t need them anymore. That’s why early intervention services like A Lust For Life and Jigsaw are so important too. One of my main goals in life is to promote positive mental health, and because of this, I’m releasing my new EP on September 20 in aid of the mental health charity, A Lust For Life, because that’s exactly what they do.

I want to promote self-care, meditation, regular therapy and just healthy habits that lead to a healthy mind.

I’ve been working intensively on my own mental health for about a year now, doing everything I can to help myself be in a healthy mind space, and I’ve seen so many benefits in my personal life. What I wasn’t expecting, though, is to experience so many benefits in my life as a musician. Having a good headspace is important for creativity – even more important than I realised.

I started writing songs when I was in my darkest place and it saved me; it gave me a voice I didn’t even know I had, so for me promoting mental health isn’t optional. I write music to tell my story and this is my story.

•Clodagh’s debut EP, In All Of Your Glory, is out now.

Now We're Talking 2019
A partnership between Lyons Tea, Pieta House & Hot Press.
Let’s break the stigma and take the dialogue about mental health issues onto a new level
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