When we talk about mental health, the focus often falls on "fixing" what’s broken or curing an illness. However, true recovery is about much more than just a lack of symptoms; it’s about the human elements that help us feel whole again. This is where CHIME comes in. CHIME is a framework that identifies five essential things people need to feel they are recovering and living a good life, regardless of the challenges they may still face.

In Week 1 of our workshop, a new group of us began exploring this framework as the "back-end" for our long-term wellness. While our ​WRAP plans give us the daily logic to manage our health, CHIME represents the core values that make recovery sustainable. Developed by researchers to identify common threads in successful recovery journeys, CHIME stands for Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning, and Empowerment.

Mind Over Mood Programme Overall Learning Aims: 

• To learn how our thoughts influence how we feel and how we behave.
• To identify and challenge unhelpful thoughts and beliefs.  
• To identify and change aspects of behaviour that may be worsening our mood.
• To learn tools, skills and practical steps we can take to improve our mood.

To make these abstract concepts tangible, our facilitators provided us with a CHIME Scoreboard. This exercise allowed us to move beyond theory and perform a real-time "system check" on our internal landscape. We rated ourselves on a scale of 1 to 10 across five key categories:

• C (Connectedness): How connected do you feel to others and your community?
• H (Hope): How hopeful are you about your recovery at the moment?
• I (Identity): Do you feel like you have a strong sense of who you are outside of your mental illness?
• M (Meaning): What makes life feel meaningful to you right now?
• E (Empowerment): Do you feel a general sense of control over your mental health and your life?

Exploring the Results

By adding these ratings together, we produced a total score out of 50. The goal of this exercise isn't to achieve a "perfect" number, but to gain clarity. For many of us, seeing the numbers on paper acted as a diagnostic tool; it helped us identify which areas are currently thriving and which might need more intentional support through our Wellness Tools.

For instance, if a score in Identity (I) is low, we might choose to prioritize tools like a creative hobby or journaling to reconnect with ourselves. If Connectedness (C) is lagging, we might reach out to a supporter or attend a peer group. In this way, CHIME acts as the compass that tells us where our WRAP plan needs to be directed next.

Once we finished filling in the CHIME scoreboard, the workshop moved into an introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

At its core, CBT helps us navigate challenges by looking at how our thinking patterns influence what we do. It is highly effective for things like depression and anxiety, but it’s also a powerful tool for simplifying overwhelming situations so they feel easier to handle.

It works by breaking down large, complex issues into five interconnected parts:

• Situations
• Thoughts
• Emotions
• Physical Feelings
• Actions

​Because these areas are all interconnected, a single thought can quickly trigger a physical reaction or an emotional response, sometimes trapping us in a negative cycle. CBT provides the tools to recognize these cycles, allowing us to challenge unhelpful patterns and develop healthier ways of thinking.

​​Next, we took part in a practical exercise to see how the Five Areas model works in real life. We looked at a specific situation: 'I was out walking my dog at 8am yesterday morning when I saw Mary. I went to say "hello" but she walked right past me without looking up.' By applying the model to this scenario, we could see how different interpretations of Mary's behaviour might lead to very different emotional and physical reactions.

Later, we looked at the Activity Diary, which is used to log daily life and rate how much our mood is affected by each event. Completing a diary like this helps to highlight the relationship between our actions and our feelings. Once these patterns are clear, we can be more intentional about choosing activities that provide a healthy mix of Achievement, Enjoyment, and Closeness.

In our second week of the Mind Over Mood workshop, we spent time talking about what depression actually is. Rather than using complicated medical terms, we looked at it as a common experience that affects how we feel, think, and get through our daily lives.

Our session started with a discussion on how we define depression. We talked about how it is different from just feeling sad for a day or two - it's a lasting experience that can make it very hard to feel motivated or enjoy the things we love.

This experience is incredibly common, affecting 1 in 4 of us, regardless of our age or background. By actively changing our thought patterns and behaviours, depression can interfere with our ability to function effectively; make our day-to-day responsibilities feel like a significant struggle.

During the session, we talked about how depression is less like a single cloud and more like a change in the entire climate of our lives. It settles over everything we think and do. To help us organise these thoughts, our facilitators then introduced four main categories that cover the most common symptoms:

1. Our Thoughts (Cognitive) Depression often shifts our internal "narrative." This can lead to a negative self-image or a lack of self-compassion, where we become our own harshest critics. It also explains "brain fog" - those times when concentrating, making decisions, or remembering details feels like a major challenge.
2. Our Feelings (Emotional) While a low mood is common, the facilitators highlighted a much broader range of emotions. This includes feelings of guilt, inadequacy, or hopelessness. For many, it isn't just sadness; it can feel like a persistent sense of "emptiness" or an underlying anxiety that makes everything feel more fragile.
3. Our Physical Bodies (Somatic) We also looked at the physical side of things, such as changes in sleep and appetite. This area is often marked by a deep sense of exhaustion and a lack of energy that rest doesn't seem to fix, along with those "unexplained" aches and pains that can accompany a low mood.
4. Our Actions (Social) Finally, we looked at how our behaviour changes, which often leads to a cycle of isolation. We might withdraw from friends or stop doing activities we once enjoyed. It's difficult cycle to be in: when we feel the most lonely, we often feel the least able to reach out for the support we need.

After looking at the symptoms, we moved into another group discussion to explore the different factors that can lead to depression. It was helpful to see that there is rarely just one single cause; instead, it is usually a combination of different elements.

To organise these, participants looked at two main categories:

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1. Biological Factors: The things we are born with, like genetics, can play a part, alongside internal factors like hormones. Brain chemicals act as a vital communication system in the mind; when the balance of this system shifts, it can have a direct impact on how we feel and function every day.
2. Psychological Factors: Our mental and emotional experiences, such as specific thinking patterns or a long-term sense of failure, can influence our well-being. External life events - including experiencing a loss or periods of high stress - can also contribute to the development of depression.

​Depression often acts like a loop where one symptom feeds into the next. Breaking it down into a "vicious cycle" helps show how it gains momentum:

​The goal is to turn that downward spiral into an upward one. By making small changes to what we do, we can shift the entire pattern:

The BACE model is a simple tool used to ensure we are meeting our basic needs. Balancing these four areas helps us maintain a healthier routine and can be a key part of reversing the downward cycle of depression.

• B - Body Care Activities that keep your physical health in check. For example, getting enough sleep, eating a balanced meal, taking a shower, or going for a short walk.
• A - Achievement Tasks that give you a sense of accomplishment, no matter how small. Examples include: finishing a chore, replying to an email, tidying a room, or learning something new.
• C - Connection Interacting with other people to avoid isolation. These activities include things such as calling a friend, having a coffee with a neighbour, or simply saying hello to someone at the shop.
• E - Enjoyment Doing things purely because they make you feel good or relaxed. You may like listening to music, reading a book, watching a favourite show, or engaging in a hobby.

To help us track these areas, we were introduced to the BACE Weekly Activity Diary. This is a simple log where you can write down the activities you do each day. By looking back at the week, you can see which areas are being met and where you might want to add a little more balance to help life your mood.

If you would like to find out more about the Mind Over Mood programme, or any of our workshops, feel free to call us on 086 1746330 or send us an email at [email protected]. To keep updated on workshops/events, check our website and/or Facebook/Instagram/X.

​Welcome to the second part of our 6-week WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) programme! If you haven't seen the article about WRAP workshop's weeks 1-3, you can find it HERE.

Alternatively, you can read this short description of the previous 3 weeks:
During the first three sessions of this workshop (Wednesday 14th, 21st & 28th January), participators discovered the foundations and history of the WRAP programme, learned its values and ethics, such as learning new things from your mates and treating each other with respect and understanding, were introduced to real-life stories of our facilitators about how WRAP implementation helped them during hard periods of their lives. Moreover, each of us was also provided with a WRAP workbook designed to assist us with applying this plan into our daily lives. On top of that, the participants found out about a powerful tool called "The Wellness Toolbox" which is designed to organize the things (both literal and figural) helping us to stabilize our condition during the times of hardship. The aforementioned introduction was accompanied by our facilitators showing us their own toolboxes. Shortly after, attendants were split into groups in order to come up with their own ideas, as well as learn from each other, which deepened our introduction into the values of WRAP. Next session allowed us to take a look at our lives from a different perspective in order to find an answer to the following 3 questions:

• What am I like when I'm well?
• What do I need to do every day to stay well or stay on track with my goals?
• What might I need to do some days to stay well?

Being able to answer these questions helps us recognize when we start to fall out of wellness. Divided into groups again, we discussed the things we may be required to do everyday and occasionally to stay on the rail of wellness. Later on, everyone focused their attention on understanding and distinguishing our triggers and stressors, their impact on our lives, and ways to respond to them effectively, thereby minimizing the effect on our balance.


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Taking Preventive Action

Once we identify these signs, we activate our Action Plan. This plan pairs our specific signs with Wellness Tools to pull ourselves back to wellness. In case of the Early Warning Signs typical steps would be:

• Reaching out to supporters or seeing a counsellor.
• Taking a mental health day off work or reducing scheduled activities.
• Asking for help with tasks or ensuring we get more sleep.

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​When the signs of things breaking down or getting much worse appear, we must move beyond daily maintenance and take immediate, intensive, structured, and direct action to avoid a crisis. At this stage, a person may feel they are losing control of their thoughts, behaviours, and choices, so making a pre-planned, robust response is essential. This part of the Action Plan involves high-level interventions such as mobilizing a support system for frequent check-ins, asking supporters to temporarily store medications or dangerous objects for safety, or meeting with a doctor to discuss urgent medication changes. It often requires creating significant space for recovery, which might include taking an extended leave from work, attending mutual support groups, or having a trusted supporter stay with you around the clock until balance is restored.

In Week 5, we focused on learning to understand the concept of a crisis and its effect on our mental wellbeing. As a group, we discovered that the word "crisis" might mean different things to different people, but we still have a lot of similar things on our minds. We learned that the signs of a crisis may be deeply individual, and we began by making a list of the specific feelings and situations we associate with the word.

Through the help of our facilitators, we uncovered a hard truth: during a crisis, we may need others to step in. This could mean advocating for us, taking over our daily responsibilities, or sometimes even making decisions on our behalf. Unfortunately, a crisis can happen despite our best efforts. No one can perfectly predict life experiences, accidents, or changes in personal health.

However, we can be prepared. We were introduced to the next section of our WRAP Workbook: The Crisis Plan. This is a tool designed to be created when you are clear-minded and feeling well, outlining the support you prefer during a said crisis. While it is not a legal document, it can serve as a powerful basis for an advance directive.

What a Crisis Plan covers

A Crisis Plan acts as a blueprint, enabling your chosen supporters to understand the vital details of your care:

• How they will know you are in a crisis.
• What actions you want them to take (and what to avoid.)
• Whom you want - and don't want - supporting you.
• Which treatments you are okay with and which you want to avoid.
• What tasks you need others to take over for you.
• The signs that show you are exiting the crisis and feeling better.

Part 1: Defining the "Well" Me

​The first part of the plan describes who we are when we are well. This is a crucial section, because it serves as a reminder of our positive attributes - the things that we, or our supporters, might lose sight of when the "system" is under stress.

Part 2: Recognizing the signs that supporters need to step in or take over

In the second part, we describe the specific signs that indicate supporters need to step in. This includes what we want our supporters to d if our behaviour begins to negatively affect us or those around us, or if we can no longer care for ourselves.​

Common signs we identified include:

• Not sleeping at all or, conversely, not getting out of bed at all.
  
• Self-destructive behaviours or uncontrollable thoughts about self-harm.
  
• Neglecting basic needs, such as not cooking, cleaning, or showing up for work.
  
• Extreme mood swings or refusing to eat or drink.
  
• Increasingly erratic, aggressive, or hostile behaviour.

In this part, we also need to list clear instructions for our supporters to follow if our behaviour becomes a danger to ourselves or others. These are direct "if/then" protocols, such as:

• Contacting the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) for advice.
  
• Removing any means of self-harm (sharp items, medicines, etc.)
  
• Staying with us until and after professional help or emergency services arrive.

At the end, we address how supporters should handle a disagreement. If your support team doesn't agree on a course of action, the Crisis Plan lets you decide the "logic" for the tie breaker ahead of time. You might decide that a majority must agree, that one or two specific people have the final say, or that an independent advocacy organization should intervene to make the decision on your behalf.

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Part 3: Selecting the Support Team

Once the signs of a crisis are identified, we have to decide who will actually step in. This section of the Crisis Plan is where we list the names and contact information of our chosen supporters. However, it isn't just about making a list; our group discussed the importance of ensuring these individuals are actually willing and able to follow the plan. A supporter needs to fully understand our preferences and be committed to honouring our wishes, even in high-pressure moments.

What Makes a "Good" Supporter?

Our facilitators led a great discussion on the qualities we should look for in a supporter. Ideally, a supporter is someone who:

• Doesn't stress easily and can stay calm when things get difficult.
• Isn't already overwhelmed by so many responsibilities that caring for us becomes an unsustainable burden.
• Genuinely has our best interest at heart.
• Isn't currently facing their own mental health challenges that might prevent them from being able to show up for us when we need them the most.

Whom to exclude

Just as important as choosing supporters is identifying those who should not be involved in our care or treatment decisions. We talked about how some people we care about might panic during a crisis or might have differing beliefs that would prevent them from following our plan. It's okay to note that these people can still help with daily tasks - like childcare or feeding a pet - while explicitly stating they should not be involved in immediate medical or care decisions.

Part 4: Medications and Supplements

The fourth part of the plan is purely practical but absolutely vital. If we end up in a hospital or a treatment centre, the staff will need an accurate "log" of what is currently in our bodies.

We need to spend time listing out:

• Current Medications/Supplements: Including the exact dosages and how often we take them.
• Medications to avoid: Clearly highlighting any drugs or supplements that cause allergic reactions or severe side effects.

Having this written down ahead of time ensures that even if we aren't in a state to communicate clearly, our medical treatment remains safe and consistent with what works for us.

​Part 5: Treatments and Complementary Therapies

In this section, we define what "help" actually looks like for us. Recovery is rarely one-size-fits-all, so we use this space to be specific about which interventions we consent to. These are categorized into:

• Traditional & Psychiatric Care: Specifying which medical treatments or psychiatric interventions we find effective.
• Life-Saving Interventions: Clear directives for emergency situations.
• Alternative Approaches: Listing specific complementary therapies or holistic treatments that support our wellbeing.
• Medication Preferences: A final check on which specific medications we trust to stabilize our "system" and which we do not.

Part 6: A major goal for many of us is to avoid hospitalization whenever possible.

Part 6 is our "diversion" plan. We list the types of home care, community-based support, or respite centres that are acceptable and preferred. Our guides emphasized the importance of researching these options before a crisis occurs, so we know exactly what community resources are available to keep us in a familiar, comfortable environment while we recover.

Part 7:Treatment Facilities

If a crisis reaches a point where higher-level care is necessary, Part 7 ensures we go to a place where we feel safe. We discussed the importance of being proactive and doing our "user research" on local facilities before they are ever needed.

Our criteria for choosing a facility included:

• Availability: What local facilities are actually reachable?
• Insurance & Logistics: Which centres are covered by our insurance or public health schemes
• Provider Access: Where are our preferred doctors or therapists located?
• Philosophy of Care: Which facilities are truly recovery-oriented and/or trauma-informed?

Local Resources: Tools for the Road

To wrap up the session, one of our facilitators, Jen, provided us with a fantastic set of physical resources. She put together a collection of booklets detailing the various facilities available right here in Kilkenny city.

Jen also gave us a mini-version of the WRAP workbook. It's a compact, "on-the-go" version that fits in a pocket or bag, ensuring that our plan and our tools are always with us, even if we are away from home.

In our final 6th Week, we moved from the structural part of the Crisis Plan into the person-depending specifics that make its application more effective. While last week's session was about identifying the "Red Flags" and assembling our support team, this week's session was about providing those supporters with a specific guide to our care. Thanks to the information provided, participants came to a realisation that even the most well-meaning supporters need clear instructions to follow, so they can help us in a way that respects our boundaries and truly supports our wellbeing.

Through our final discussions with the facilitators, we defined exactly what helps, what hurts, and how we eventually take the steering wheel back.

Part 8: Help from Others, Things That Help, Tasks

In this section, we moved beyond medical facilities to focus on the personal details that bring us comfort. Our facilitators made it clear that even our closest supporters can't always know what we need, especially when we are at our most vulnerable. Being clear about our preferences during the plan creation will help our supporters' understanding later.

What actually helps?

Participants looked at the specific actions that bring a sense of peace. Some of those things might look insignificant, but at the time of Crisis even the smallest things do matter. Here are some of the discussed examples:

• The balance of presence: Identifying when we need someone to stay close by, or when we simply need to be left alone.
• Small comforts: Having a supporter play some specific music, or prepare a meal, or simply listen without feeling the need to offer a solution.
• The power of reassurance: Having someone offer gentle words of encouragement or walk with us to change the scenery when things feel overwhelming.

What to avoid?

Just as vital was defining the things that might cause further distress. Here are some examples of things we may want people supporting us to avoid:

• Informing certain people about our crisis, or inviting someone without our approval.
• Letting us drive or cook, or walking alone.
• Being impatient or overly protective, speaking about us in our presence, but not speaking to us directly.
• Doing something around us that we especially don't like, such as smoking, or playing certain kinds of music, or answering our phone.

Hard truth is, a crisis doesn't pause the responsibilities of daily life. To prevent the stress of "unfinished business" from making things harder, we discussed the importance of creating a registry of tasks for our supporters to take over. We talked about things like:

• Taking care of our pets/plants.
• Caring for children and school pickups.
• Informing our workplace and paying bills.
• Household chores, sorting mail, and refilling medications.

These things are very important, so it is necessary to write down the following details:

• The task itself.
  
• Who should perform it.
  
• That person's contacts.
  
• Some additional information/notes/instructions.

Part 9: The Exit Strategy - Knowing When the Plan is No Longer Needed

The final part of our plan is perhaps the most empowering: the exit strategy. We identified the measurable signs that indicate we have regained enough stability for our supporters to step back. These indicators are personal "check-ins" for our own wellness and highly depend on the type of crisis (physical/mental), for example:

• Sleeping through the night for three consecutive nights and eating at least two good meals a day.
  
• Taking care of personal hygiene and cooking for ourselves again.
  
• Regaining the ability to hold a consistent conversation or feeling capable of returning to work.
  

We also addressed how to settle disagreements. If supporters don't agree on whether it is time to step back, the plan allows us to name a "tie-breaker" - a specific person or an independent advocate whose decision we've agreed to trust in advance.

Post-Crisis Plan

After a crisis, it can take time to heal and get back to our baseline wellness. We may feel ready to begin taking care of our responsibilities again, but we may still be in a vulnerable state. Ease back into responsibilities slowly to prevent heading back into crisis.

This plan is for:

• Creating a step-by-step plan for resuming our responsibilities as we recover.
  
• Figuring out what help we still need.
  
• Addressing consequences resulting from the crisis.
  
• Reflecting on what may prevent a crisis.

As we approached the final session's finish, one of our facilitators Miriam provided us with very useful tools we could always carry with us. Those included:

• A mini-version of the Crisis Plan that allows you to carry a short description of: the crisis, yourself (when you are doing well), signs of you doing too bad to handle things on your own, your support plan, the supporters' names and contacts (as well as the names of ones whom you don't want to get involved), and signs that the crisis is over.
  
• A pocket guide on how to manage and live with anxiety. It explores the anxiety and its varieties, possible causes, physical and psychological feelings that people experience because of anxiety, and the strategies for one to overcome it.
  
• Another pocket guide on how to manage and reduce stress. It provides you with information on stress' definition/symptoms/causes, gives you steps designed to reduce the stress, and directions to services that could provide us with help.
  
• One more copy of "WRAP On the Go", pamphlets-mini-versions of our WRAP that fit in a pocket. You can describe your triggers/ early warning signs/ signs that things are getting worse and corresponding action plans. Also, it has separate sections for wellness tools, daily maintenance and a mini-crisis section.

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Completing this workshop feels great thanks to all the help of the course facilitators and all of the information and tools they shared, but at the same time, there is a feeling of regret that the course doesn't have more sessions. Participating in six group workshop sessions over 1.5 months doesn't sound like a lot, but it's surprising how much useful information and how many tools participants were provided with over such a period of time.

If you would like to find out more about the WRAP programme, or any of our workshops, feel free to call us on 0861746330 or send us an email at [email protected]. To keep updated on workshops/events, check our website and/or Facebook/Instagram/X.