James O'Brien lambasts Mel Stride's 'gibberish' mental health comments | LBC 

"People don't pretend to be depressed. They pretend to be fine."

Thank you for exposing this James. I have severe depression, physically and mentally it's so tiring battling the daily demons.

I think the problem is they judge everybody by their own standards

The Tories victim blaming once again, blaming those suffering from the consequences of 14 years of their incompetency instead of looking for ways of undoing the mess they've created, people are suffering from the stress inflicted upon then by the very people accusing them of malingering. Adding insult to injury.

As someone who is battling mental health issues I can confirm the minister is talking through his hat .

14 years of corporate fascism will do that!

My mental ill health is born of both military service and autism, to ask does Stride think I'm a shirker?

Why do polititians think they have any expertise to talk about stuff like this? People have to be signed off by a licensed medical professional. It's not like a sick note from your mum. What qualifications does this MP have to say it's "gone too far"? Classic Tory divide and rule.

I have Bipolar disorder and a few other mental health issues. When I became very ill at work, in 2009, I was seen quickly and received the help I needed. Now, you have to wait 6 months for a phone call from a psychiatrist to discuss your illness. 6 months and it's a phone call, not even face to face. Luckily, my mum has been paying for my private therapy for the past 2 years. Luckily, I got a discounted rate, because I am on UC and PIP. It goes on and on. It never ends.

must be the same kind of pepole who think « work sets you free »

Arrogance, ignorance and generalisations when it comes to discussing mental health is never going to end well.

Reminds me of a German political parties moto WORK SETS YOU FREE

I recently decided that I had had enough of earning a decent wage as a teacher with a 20 year career, earning enough that I had a few thousand pounds in the bank each month after all my bills had been paid to spend on whatever I wanted. What I actually wanted was to be disabled, to get just under £700 a month with the PIP disability allowance, and then when my sick pay had run out, £160 every two weeks with the ESA benefit. Both payments come with lots of people making decisions for me, questioning my disability and having the right to look at my bank account whenever they wanted, apparently to check I’m not a fraud.

Mel Stride needs to go and talk to a train driver who's been signed off work for months after having one of the depressed people who can't get treatment because of his fricking government plastered all over the front of their train........ and then go and talk to the family of the person who thought the only way out was on the front of a train.

First rule of Brexit club is that it's always someone elses fault, the EU, immigrants, now mental health. They know that a percentage of the electorate will fall for whatever enemy they care to present.

Mel Stride is obnoxious

I suffered with depression and anxiety all my life and he’s clearly ignorant. But then the Toxic Tories are ignorant. But I never claimed benefits in my life.

Thank you James for speaking out for this under represented group.

Mental health ‘culture.’ It’s not music or fashion ffs

After spending 11 years being the sole carer for my wife, she died. I had a breakdown due to the stress. I asked for help and what I got was a young woman with a questionnaire asking me questions. After replying to pages of questions I was told that, yes I was depressed and their answer was to give me £100 to spend and therefore be cured. I not so politely told them what they could do with the money.

He's just one of them who's contributed to some of us suffering from mental health issues.

If this was an actual issue hasn't it developed while the Tories have been in power? That is to say an issue as describe by Mel. I mean clearly people are suffering from health issues longer due to Tory austerity but the imaginary crisis Mel Stride is bemoaning, who's fault would it be other than the Tories?

Spot on. I would love it if he got my mental health. He may understand then, what being suicidal is.

Just when you think thye have reached the absolute rock bottom the tories manage to sink even further.

Thank you for being as angry as I am with the Tories.

In my experience, when I went to the GP to explain that I was struggling with poor mental health. They told me that "because I'm not going to hurt myself or others, then I'm not that bad" and sent me home without support. I highly doubt people are being signed off for saying "I'm a bit down".

The right tend to believe in the "just world" hypothesis. At least for others.

As someone with mental health problems it is so refreshing to hear someone with "no skin in this game" get as angry about this as I am frustrated

"Mental Health Culture". Having bad mental health doesn't discriminate, you don't have to be part of a culture to have mental illness and having such an illness doesn't sign you up to some group or anything.

From political non-entity to mental health expert by way of a ghost written article for The Telegraph.

I've been on a waiting list for a condition that results in me struggling to hold down work for more than a few months due to being unable to keep up with certain demands made of you. I've been on it for 18 months now. I'm set to be on it for another 3.5 years before I'm seen by anyone to even start the process off, which can takes it's own length of time. Private diagnosis and care for the condition comes in at around £4000. The NHS GP's near me don't offer shared care from private diagnoses, so I'd have to keep paying a couple thousand every 6 months or so for assessments and medication. This is the situation for so many. How are they supposed to afford private care when their illnesses directly have an impact on their ability to work and in turn, their finances?

Mel Stride is our local MP. When my wife and I asked to speak with him about government policy on a matter of child safeguarding his secretary informed us,“ Mr Stride does not wish to meet with you regarding this matter.” That was it; no explanation. Nothing.

Get a job = make someone profit. Call it what it actually is. 🕊️

I can imagine Gullis looking in the mirror shouting "You're worth it, Big Man!".

The problem is exactly as he says - Intellectual pygmies led by moral vacuums

Privelige -Right place, Right time, Right Circle.

Mel Stride... Did he go to Oxford? [checks] What a surprise.

You absolute Polo, brilliant 😂😂😂

This country need to stop treating people like their useless if they're not "working" or "contributing to the economy"

The Tories have even taken away the doctors!

It's the Tory way. You get what you deserve, therefore if you didn't make it then you didn't deserve it. (Weird when Glenn Hoddle got criticised for similar thoughts).

I will continue to treat the Benefit System in the same way MPs use their Expenses system and get as much as I am entitled to, by whatever means necessary. If MPs can have multiple income sources from jobs they 'forget' to declare, then...?

Just watched GBNEWS, group of 3 of them saying mental health in the young is them just over reacting to NORMAL LIFE and said... there isn't a problem... fast forward 6 minutes and THEY ARE ALL saying they are backing not having a mobile phone for under 16's because its affecting their mental health!... you couldn't make it up!!!

Both Labour and The Tories need to reform work, not continuing to mess with welfare. It's utterly grim that Labour are talking equally tough on those at the bottom. MP's always use language like "tough decisions" when really, continually going after those on welfare is the easy decision, instead of coming up with other ways of getting money back into the economy.

This is what happens when you have politicians doing jobs that require specific qualifications and grades that you would have if you were a normal citizen joe getting a job, but somehow politicians don’t need any qualifications and they are the head of a certain department

The biggest obstacles to my mental health improving have been the 5-year waiting list for NHS ADHD assessment in my area and the bureaucracy surrounding ADHD medications. Both problems fall under the purview of this government. Thankfully in England there are other assessment options made available via the NHS, but many people in this country are forced to wait even longer just to be seen.

I think there's a reason we hear a lot of people talking & complaining of their own mental health. It's because it is nearly impossible to get the proper help. If the health system worked, you wouldn't hear about it nearly as much

Is there a single demographic that the TORIES don’t HATE? VOTE THEM OUT!

I have been on antidepressants since I was 12 years old I didn't ask for the medication at that age, now 59 years old, have had few jobs never held them longer than few days I thought our government carried, how wrong they just care about saving money and winning voters they don't care about the long term sick or people with long health conditions or the disabiled, I have many illness and health conditions, I have severe depression, born with it, and it's not going to go away just because the government told me too, I am also housebound, too. The DWP and government make me feel like I am a scrounger too I can't read or write only doing this with txt to speach I am spending £100 on my air source heat pump heating there only cheap to run if you get green energy I can't I am key payments, having type 2 diabetes I have to buy no added sugers food oftan being dearer to buy that's £100 a week, council tax, tv licence, water bill and water rates. Gas, it's. Not cheap being the lowerst people in the country

"what's gone too far, you absolute polo" i'm crying with laughter at that one!

The tories are definitely a damp squib

I autistic and have bipolar disorder. Sprinkled with some OCD and social anxiety. Between 6-7hours of cleaning, repeating. Then repeating again... keeping myself tethered to this earthly realm is a full time job... and more... I would love to work without falling apart. I'd love to go back to education without falling apart, I'd love to spend time with family without falling apart, I'd love to be able to shop without falling apart...

Maybe if they sorted the NHS out it may help these people. I am severly depressed due to ptsd from childhood to adulthood having severe pain 24/7. My mental health isnt helped by worrying whether the government or a assessment person is going to decide that they dont believe me. As i have an invisible problem where my bowel and bladder are stuck and then they are stuck to my back. This causes immense pain as it is. I was also a abused in all ways from when i was a child. I used to have a psychologist but the government decided to cut the funding and i was told that the only way i could still see her, was if i tried to unalive myself. Know if i ask for help it is 6 to 9 sesssions long and when it is finished i am told i can reapply in 6 months time. You need to trust a therapist so how can you get help. Every 6 months later if hou need help its like starting all over again with no trust. It is disgusting what they are doing. They complain about people being on the sick a lot of them people are waiting to be seen by the NHS for years sometimes. So that is the problem they need to fix the NHS so thrn tbese people wont always need to be on the sick. And they make it sound like it is so easy to claim, when it is so hard too. They make you jump through hoops to get anything. Even now you have the work coaches deciding whether they believe you or not and if they dont like you, then your fit to work or they will stop your benefits. They also make it soundike you are on a fortune for doing nothing, but believe me and many others, with the cost of living these days it doesnt cover most of your normal bills. So again that makes you depressed. You now have even more problems as they will be looking at you bank records and we already now that people have had their money stopped because they think there was fraud involved when there wasnt. Its horrible being ill at the best of times but now it makes you worse as you are constantly on tender hooks not knowing what will haopen next. There are fzr more dodgy mps and their tax evasion than there are dodgy claimiants.

When did Mr Stride do his training in psychiatry.

Thank you so much for exposing this James, you're a ⭐

'Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others.'

Tory austerity, Brexit cost of living, and Liz Truss kamikaze budget caused all the anxiety.

People don't seem to realise that a big part of the problem of mental health is that we don't have control over it. Anxiety is scary BECAUSE we don't have control. Depression feels hopeless because it WONT go away. I am totally sick of people who have to suffer though mental health issues being told to "toughen up".

I'm angry too. I'm a mental health nurse, I have CPTSD which I have relapsed into because of work changes I wasn't consulted on at all and I am still on no pay. Getting into financial issues because of that and the NHS trust is now refusing to make adjustments in driving so I can get well and back to my job. It makes me more ill worrying about it all the time on top of trying to manage my illness. Two NHS trusts have cocked up and not done their jobs properly in service changes and I'm the one suffering for it. So yes I am angry, getting into debt, feeling absolutely hopeless! Mental health recognition in the workplace hasn't gone far enough 😢😢😢

Work for a mental health charity that tries to challenge mental health stigma.this tells you everyrhing you need to know about the tories.they lack empathy and compassion and this kind of comment contributes to the battle people with mental health face every day.this is so irresponsible.and beleive this isnt one persons opinion.its a general feeling of judgement that people whove never had mental health put forward.james is right in calling it disgusting.bullying the vulnerable is not cool.

I'm in that position, my mental health issues started when I was still in school, things just got progressively worse. They offer no help, and you just sink deeper and deeper into the hole. Any help they offer is minimal and overworked, then when things get bad enough and you're at a point you can't work to get universal credit you have to go through questioning after questioning about the very personal issues you face, only to be required to job centre meeting after job centre meeting because you're required by the government to be doing something to "get you back into work when you're able". It's hard to focus anything relating to work when I'm too anxious and depressed to leave my house most days and trying to focus on not throwing myself Infront of a truck.

In order for people with mental health conditions to work there needs to be employers willing to hire and pay them. They never talk about that part.

If I had a gov that colluded, lied, cheated and hid so they could throw innocent folk in jail, for crimes that don't exist. IE the postal scandal. I would have anxiety and depression. WTH

I wonder if it ever occurred to Stride that people having to work for terrible wages with terrible employers that barely give them enough to survive on, never mind thrive on, are causing a lot of these mental health issues which leads to people being signed off?

Mel Stride's comments are squarely and deliberately aimed to appeal to a cohort of older voters who believe that younger people are lazy, and just need to strive and graft more. These older voters who benefited from the Social Democracy of the post-war consensus and then also cashed in during Thatcherism have no concept of how difficult things are for younger people these days, and have no appreciation of how a lack of the security and prosperity that they took for granted can impact on people's mental health. Myself and my partner who work harder, and struggle more than they've ever had to in their lives are experiencing this very attitude from older relatives at present. These people have a bewildering and maddening lack of understanding and empathy.

I’ve been concerned for a long time now, that disabled people are getting abuse and used as scapegoats. I have two autistic children, their school years have been a misery. They have mental health issues not surprisingly with the lack of support, lack of empathy and lack of understaning within education system. When they become adults, they’ll be blamed for not pulling themselves together and getting on with it.

Why are mental health issues surging? Wokeness? Or 14 years of grinding austerity and gaslighting? Hmmm.

For these politicians, we are just a number, who have to work ten hours a day and, if necessary, work for low wages or for free!

Why is it people like Mel think they know more than doctors, what arrogance makes someone like that. Someone who think with zero education has the same as an expert in the field.

I've had to have 4 or 5 lengthy periods of absence due to acute anxiety. I've been lucky to work for companies who have helped me get access to therapy. Even with that going back to work has been a struggle. The longer it takes to get the help you need, the longer it takes to get better. If you can get better at all by then.😢

The thing I disagree with is this makes it sound malicious and intentional, when really it's been proven time again that people no matter how privileged will alway believe they've put in the work to succeed as much as they have, it's not a conscious justification but seems to be a unilateral conclusion ever person comes too, is it wrong, yes absolutely but it's the way people always think and that will never change

It's just an excuse to Sanction people, like the terrible Health Secretary (who knows nothing about health) said when she said "I’m looking into how we can change the conversation from getting a sick note to getting a fit note". And previous conversations about how The DWP would now decide more who was ill, not GPs (which is astonishing).

James, you've hit the nail on the head. Couldn't agree with you more. Unfortunately your the only person I've 'heard sticking up for mental health problems, and that is shameful for humanity.

If you're comfortably wealthy, you're less likely to have anxiety problems. If you're not comfortably wealthy, pull yourself together and get back to work! 😮

Did Frank Hester phone in?

If you're looking for people who have stopped working look at this government

I can't thank you enough, James . You are speaking for so many voices that never get heard.

The only mental health problem that has gone too far is the people still voting Tory and those thinking Deform have their best interests at heart.

This is the best of James, brilliant!

J O'B mad is my lifeline assuring me that I'm not the only one. Thank you.

Is there an election looming???

The events themselves aren't anxieties. Anxiety is how your body reacts to it. Nausea and vomiting, palpitations, sweating, fatigue, migraines, aches and pains, trembling, etc. I have struggled with this all my life and the resulting depression it causes. I continue to work in education (v.stressful) watch my lifestyle, and take medication. However I have still had time off in the past. I wouldn't wish this condition on anyone.

MP's expenses claims are no different to benefits.

The tories are the biggest ponces in Britain.

"You prune" could not have put it better myself! 😂😂😂

Delusions of Adequecy!

Of course, i have chosen to be clinically Depressed ,of course, I have chosen to be so mentally ill that the majority of antidepressants dont work for me anymore, of course i have chosen to get progressively worse over the 25 years i have been diagnosed with clinical depression and extreme anxiety . Oh, and through the majority of it all, i actually had a job, but due to my physical health issues and giving birth to two children with adhd and complex special needs on top of both being autistic i had to leave due to them telling me to be "more flexible "and" we have kids too why do you need to take them to so many hospital appointments " or they would try fire me .

My mental health usually suffers when I have been in a job to long and have no choice but to work with people I can't get on with. Twice in my life I have quit my job because I stayed in it to long (more than 4 years) I quit my last job to go into 'retirement' over 4 years ago and am really pleased that I have contributed no tax to the dying days of this government. People with mental health issues at work can damage the business, reduce productivity as well as having problems themselves, so it is in the governments interest and the businesses interest to deal with it. And that doesn't mean firing them.

My mother was once sectioned it can happen overnight to anyone ..enough GE

This is whats happens when a problems is defined in terms of how much a Government wants to spend on it so the definition of the problem is adjusted to limit the 'size' so that the amount of allocated to it might just about provide sufficient services to address it.

To wonder what MP Steve Baker will say of Stride's assertion

I think this is what i needed to hear to finally finish my life.. im not going to be made homeless and im not gonna take this shaming of me anymore. Today Iafter hearing this i think tonight im gonna take all my anti depression medication with a bottle of red wine ive been looking at in the Co op ive saved enough to afford it.. GOODBYE WORLD.. ITS BEEN HORRIBLE I HOPE I DONT COME BACK

I was eleven years old when I started experiencing anxiety to the point where it impacted my mind, my body and my life. Not once did I think I didn't want to work, I wanted to study and learn and become a professional in something but it was my anxiety and lack of knowledge of mental health that stopped me.

Well said James, sadly all very true, what a country this has become, in every respect

As a mentally ill person myself I have noticed an increased prevalence for labelling things as mental illness - people saying doing something "gives them anxiety" as opposed to makes them feel anxious and in a situation where feeling anxious is normal. That being said I dont believe this government prat is talking about misuse of terms. Conservatives have always viewed mental illness as simply indolence, apathy, laziness etc. as opposed to a debilitating disability. Anxiety is a byproduct of my condition but a powerful one. I feel unable to leave my house most days and haven't seen my friends in years. It isn't fun. When it comes to the cabinet we're now into the dregs. On any day if you take out the MPs who are too old and the MPs who are too young you're left with just enough MPs to fill every cabinet position. If you also remove the MPs who have been in the cabinet already and failed so hard they can't be brought back into it or have such terrible reputations they're almost persona non grata in parliament there’s virtually no one left.

Mel stride says '... some people may struggle with the ups and downs...'. I'm sorry, please point to all the 'ups'. Yeah, there aren't any. Mel Stride needs to get a real job. If he can.

Another idea (given the current tories are all-knowing (whilst actually knowing very little about anything)) might be to you know, do the things the public elect you for, you know, running the country in a satisfactory state. Given the quality of the current government, the best we can help for is a stop in decline. I shall not hold my breath though. Also given that anxiety/conditions allied to anxiety is generally associated with higher levels intelligence, I imagine very few tory MP's have ever had to worry about it. Notwithstanding their privileged upbringing, I doubt their level of intellectual function is anywhere close to anxiety being an issue.

Typical Tory dogma,if you look at all the people who have been in Government since 2010 it makes you think that public schools aren’t worth the money. I think that mental health problems are important but I’m concerned that some of the so called mental health problems are just normal situations of life you should be able to deal with.

Give us 40+ hours of your time every week and give us 90% of your wage and we will make sure you stay destitute and 1 pay check away from being homeless! 🤣 I wonder why people are refusing to go to work

I dont know hes not right. Iv been off for 3 months now for depression. Im probably not actually depressed but my life is caving in a bit and i need a break. My wife passed 2 years ago and i have small kids. My work/kids balance isnt working and I'm at a bit of a loss. Im not sure everyone is clinically depressed. But the country and the world on a day to day beats us down at present. A bit of help is all we need.