"Accept the fact that how you're feeling shouldn't own you."
As this year's World Mental Heath Day is focused around young people and mental health in a changing world, Dave from The Hub wanted to chat to two particular people.
His special guests on the night were DJ and producer John Gibbons and President of the Union of Students in Ireland, Síona Cahill.
DJ & Producer John Gibbons
John's revealed in the past that he's experienced a number of mental and emotional challenges.
He told Dave that it's vital that we take control and accept responsibility for our own well-being:
"I would say take responsibility for your own mental health, and that can be a very difficult thing to do, and I have found that extremely difficult in the past. But what I mean by that is, if you can be responsible for how you feel that suddenly means you've taken back your power, so whatever you might be going through at a particular time is no longer controlling you. Even if it's just a little step by step process, and even if you feel like crap on a particular day, take ownership of the fact that you feel like crap and all of a sudden it's not as powerful and it becomes easier to change it."
"It's not that I'm saying go around and be happy and read every self help manual out there, all I'm saying is be responsible for the way you feel and it will become easier to change that. It's about power for me and I think it's about power for all of us; and if we can take back and claim ownership of our own inherent power, and that stands for everything not just mental health, well then we become the powerful beings that we are and we can actually change our own reality."
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USI President Síona Cahill
Síona has battled with anxiety for years and only recently began talking about it.
She said she was ashamed but has now accepted that it's part of her life:
"I saw anxiety, I saw how I was feeling, I saw sadness, I saw that as a weakness. And I hate the fact, I hate the fact that I saw it that way, and in certain circumstances, even now, I still do. Despite the fact that I've talked about mental health, I give out about the lack of money in mental health services, I'm constantly talking about people attending counselling or ringing Samaritans, or indicating how they're feeling. Despite all of that, ironically, I was not doing that myself and I was seeing it as a weakness."
"I was afraid to tell people I worked with. Like during the day, I could just come off RTÉ or after addressing a couple of hundred people at a big rally and I'd like literally run to the bathroom and stand there just to catch my breath because I was so anxious, even though I'd just been out at a microphone giving it absolute socks. That's the thing people don't see and it's not about it being a weakness or a strength or any of those things. I see now that's it's very much part of my life and if you can accept the fact that how you're feeling shouldn't own you."
