http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39788226 A report on the BBC website tonight saying Aaron Lennon has been detained under the Mental Health Act over concerns for his welfare. I hope he receives the help and understanding from those around him which will see him through what will be a confusing and tortuous time. As someone who struggles constantly with my own mental well being (it's nigh on impossible to write a sentence or two that doesn't sound like I should be in a straight jacket or am after sympathy so that'll have to suffice!) I can only have the merest hint of what Aaron will be going through and it will be hellish at its best. Good luck Aaron and whatever your future holds I hope you're safe and with people you don't need to hide that part of yourself from.
I hope he gets better soon, but it sounds like he has been committed to a secure unit, which cannot be good.
I hope he gets the help he needs. I struggle with my own mental health issues and it isn't easy, or fun. Sometimes, suffering in silence is the worst you can do. We need to break the stigma.
I can only presume the police and his club have been forced to confirm these reports so publicly because some vulture like tabloid hack got hold of the story and threatened to report it with or without them. I don't see how this story is - currently - in the public interest.
My thoughts exactly. I also despise the Daily Mail's headline of "£50,000 a week footballer detained under the Mental Health Act". Why the f**k does his wage even matter at this point.
I wish him well. We use the phrase admitted under section rather than committed nowadays (its a very old term committed and has some negative connotations) It will most probably be to a normal psychiatric ward which will have a mixture of informal patients (people who want to be there of their own volition) and people under section. Sections are mostly used when people have a mental illness to such a degree that they don't realise that they are unwell and need help usually for the sake of their own health and safety. They are reviewed almost daily by the team and the idea is that as people recover they are made informal. It doesn't necessarily mean they need to be under section for a very long time, usually only until they regain insight and aren't unsafe anymore. As for it being a "secure" ward, its a disingenuous word the press love. Leave for patients is also reviewed and usually patients under section have leave, it might initially be escorted with staff members or family. But ever effort is made to balance safety and freedom/recovery. The days of committing people to institutions for many months and years are long over (in general) It shouldn't be a stigma, mental illness is not really different to physical illness and it affects a lot of people.
Still "Football player has depression and is receiving treatment" doesn't sound as good a head line does it?
Actually reading the article on the BBC he was detained by the police on a section 136. This is basically a 72 hour holding power the police have if they deem a member of the public to be at risk to themselves or others and probably having a mental illness. They convey him to a place of safety and he would be assessed by Drs and a social worker. It is entirely possible he was then made informal and is on a psychiatric ward and this whole process took a few hours.
I still remember a Sun story, years ago, about Bosnich suffering with depression. The story was completely about the laughable idea that a player who was paid tens of thousands a week to play football should have any reason to be depressed. Despite the lip service given to mental health in politics and social media, it's still a dark and dirty secret and there really is **** all help out there of any value, for most ordinary people. There's an epidemic going on just underneath the surface of society and there just aren't the resources to deal with it, or the patience of most people to understand it. It's a sad truth.
I may get flamed for this but I'm not bothered. All the signals in this story which has been rolling out all season regards his lack of fitness are that sadly Aaron has had a drugs burnout. Moog mentions Bosnich - his MH health issues were cocaine based from his girlfriend and clubbing mentality. Which is how Aaron Lennon leads his life too, mixing with Towie airheads and Jake "positive cocaine test" Livermore at the latest trendy nitespots. So many celebrities who exhaust their dopamine supplies and upset their brain chemistry premanently - its classic - pictured incessantly in tabloids clubbing with P3 girls, Towie and Eastenders types in those clubs like Browns, Mahiki, Sugar Hut etc, six months later have an episode, attend rehab (cue agent selling story to tabloid papers ad magazines) and then announce you're bi polar. All self inflicted by over indulgence in the marching powder or pills. And that detracts from ordinary people who genuinely have MH issues and inherited conditions that the NHS is chronically underfunded for. The rich can pay for private clinics and rehab but the ordinary people and their families suffer hell.
My late brother was committed to a secure ward in a mental hospital many years ago, hence I do not consider mental illness a stigma and I am not being disingenuous. However I do not hold with the PC claptrap you are spouting, I was being sympathetic with Mr Lennon and do not need you to admonish me for being so.
I concur, I remember the same thing happening with Stan Collymore and John Gregory when Gregory laughed it off in a press conference saying how he gets loads of money, he can't be depressed. I think only one club, Crawley, has touched the bloke since as a manager. This comes after a week in which Prince William and Harry basically said when it comes to mental illness there is no such thing as rich and poor it can happen to anyone.
No it doesn't. At all. In fact it shines a spotlight on it. The bloke was about to top himself and he doesn't genuinely have mental health problems? I suppose Gary Speed was the same? You obviously think you have a bit of scurrilous info that the rest of us don't have and are attempting to make yourself look ITK. I couldn't give a **** about his lifestyle choices, anymore than I would sit in judgement about my kids if they found themselves in the same situation.
By the same logic, should we judge people with cancer who smoke, with lover disease who drink or with heart issues or type 2 diabetes who are fat? What about people who are injured from playing sports? Or injured from driving too fast, or driving at all? All self inflicted to a similar degree aren't they?
I think what WW wrote is largely nonsense, so this reply is not a defense - I just found what you wrote interesting. Do you consider there to be a line, or should no one be judged for suffering ill-consequences for undertaking an act with known risks?
I am not ITK about what caused Aaron Lennon to be sectioned. Of course he has a problem, and maybe one day we will find out what it was, maybe and most probably we won't. There must have been a significant event for him to end up in that position on the motorway. I would suggest that won't be a surprise to those around him, even if it is to the wider public. There will have been signs. Maybe thats why he's not been playing or training? Of course I do feel sorry for him, especially his family and that he is in his present position. Gary Speed had a completely different lifestyle and "friends" to the world Aaron Lennon had of night clubbing, false celebrity mates and paparazzi. So, no, Gary Speed's fate is not the same at all. Moog - you might know or guess I spent years and years dealing with people, including many well known people I will not name here or anywhere else, on s136 orders, mental health units and secure units at London hospitals. I've consoled and tried to advise desperate parents and wives of people who'd ended up needed the emergency protection and care of a s136 order. And drug taking was all too often the cause. And all too often the NHS MH units had no beds or staff to cope with a request for admission anywhere in London or the South East. Not always class A or alcohol, sometimes it was skunk that caused a student to become psychotic and scare his parents to death and put them under physical threat. Yet so may people think that cannabis should be legalised. I do strongly suspect that in the case of an Aaron Lennon, they will not have to search out a place in the NHS as they will be able to pay for and find a more suitable private bed in a Priory type hospital. My sister has worked in London A & E and Intensive Care Units for over 30 years and sees similar admissions from City workers who think they can burn the candle at both ends before their brains and bodies give out. The pressure on the NHS exploded in the late 80's when the rave generation got going. Maybe that Class A should be legalised and the tax spent directly on NHS Mental Health Services. A side benefit would be if say, Glaxo made the pills, the dosages would be known and the quality would be there for those who choose to take them? This is the list from Wikipedia of well known people with bi polar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_bipolar_disorder Go through the English ones (some of whom I've dealt with first hand) and see how many you know have had substance abuse issues before they were announced (or caused themselves to become ) as Bi Polar.
