Mental Health Swims: Fighting Stigma Through Cold Water and Community
Mental Health Swims was founded by Rachel Ashe in 2019, after she discovered that cold water and community had a huge positive impact on her mental health. Now, Rachel wants everyone to be able to access these benefits. With the support of volunteers, Mental Health Swims holds monthly swimming meet ups around the country so that others can feel supported and welcomed in their own cold water swimming journey. It is Rachel’s mission to fight the stigma surrounding mental health through cold water and community.
Words by Rachel Ashe, Founder and Director of Mental Health Swims CIC.
This story is about cold water. It is also a story about creating spaces for people from marginalised groups. Both stories start by the sea. Maybe I should begin taking you on a trip to the beach.
It’s September 2019 and I’m standing on Caswell Bay in Swansea holding a bamboo stick with a giant pink pirate flag taped to the top. My arm is stretched out and waving enthusiastically. There are people I’ve never met before walking down towards me and I’m smiling and greeting them as friends with a welcoming ‘hello, how are you? Thank you for coming’. This was the first ever Mental Health Swim. Since then life has never been the same again!
The ‘Looney Dook’
Nine months earlier I had been standing on a different beach. A beach in Edinburgh where there must have been at least a hundred gathered for the New Year’s Day ‘Looney Dook’ and despite the rabble of people, and the raging bonfire it was absolutely baltic. Red faced and dishevelled from the night before, they crowded round the bonfire in different states of undress, sharing whiskey and stories of the night before. Children wrapped in Scarves and winters coats, dogs chasing one another dangerously close to the fire whilst adults squeezed their bodies into wetsuits and others pulled on bobble hats or bright coloured swim caps.
Rachel Ashe is the Founder of Mental Health Swims
I stood to the side waiting on my own, self consciously tugging at the bottom of my M&S swimsuit with integrated ‘tummy control’. The fact I was even on the beach was surprising, even to myself, as an hour previously I had been in my parents spare room staring at the ceiling wondering if I’d ever be okay again.
When the time came the crowd ran as one into the sea. Some diving, some dunking, some tripping then falling. I ran too, using my right arm across my chest to stop my boobs bouncing right out of the top of my swimsuit. Once I had waded in up to my thighs I took a deep breath and let the biting water swallow me whole.
The sparking of optimistic flames
On the walk back up the beach making a path of drips across the sand I started to feel this incredible sensation trickle through me. I was alive and I felt both calm and hopeful.
Deep down inside me something sparked, caught and then blossomed into optimistic flames.
Now, before you start thinking ‘Holy Moses the cold water cured her and now she will never be mentally ill again’ it didn’t. I still live with mental illness and sometimes it’s worse than other times. For me, It is part of who I am.
I am mentally ill. I am also adopted, mixed race, fat and queer. Because of this I really understand what it feels like to not fit in because I often haven’t.
I longed to create the kind of community that I was searching for. A place where people could come no matter how they’re feeling whether it’s manic, depressed, disassociated, anxious or any other feeling. I wanted to feel accepted as I am and for others to feel that too. I wanted to invite people to join me as they are without having to mask their true feelings.
About Mental Health Swims
The first ever mental health swim was at Caswell bay in Swansea. I advertised on social media, brought my pink pirate flag, fought my nerves and was absolutely amazed when nearly 30 people turned up. The person I was after nine months of swimming in the sea was very different from the scared shell of a person I was on New Year’s Day.
Before lockdown we were just an informal group of people meeting on the beach once a month. The global pandemic acted as rocket fuel to MHS growth. We went from having one swim to over 80 in the last year.
We are now a registered community interest company. Our swim hosts are warm and welcoming and will help you feel comfortable and included. Our swims all have the same set structure with a dip followed by hot drinks, chats and then a litter pick. We use what3words and pink pirate flags to make it as easy as possible to find the group. These small things can mean that participants don’t have to deal with some of the anxiety of not knowing exactly where the group will meet and how to know it’s them once they get there. There’s nothing worse than having to go around asking people if they’re a mental health group.
All our wonderful swim hosts go through an application process and then they receive training in things like how to have healthy boundaries, volunteer well being, cold water safety, risk assessment and mental health first aid. You can read their bios on our website so you know a bit about them before you go along to a swim meet.
You can find out more on our website or on our social media. If you’d like to join a swim you can use the interactive map to find your nearest group and read about the swim host.
There are a number of Mental Health Swims groups which can be found around the country
Big plans for the future
We have big plans for the future. We’d like all our swims to be accessed by social prescribing, we have a documentary in the pipeline as well as some exciting research projects. I hope in the future we will be able to connect with lots of other mental health and grass root organisations.
I think Mental Health Swims works because, as humans we long for connection. We want to feel that other people will understand our experiences. We say at Mental Health Swims that we are fighting stigma with cold water and community. We don’t just want to normalise conversations around mental illness. We want to celebrate our differences and share our stories so that others feel less alone.
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