Welcome to Mind's blog
Each week we'll be posting items on a whole range of topics relating in some way to mental health. We hope to stimulate debate and get you thinking about mental health and Mind's work in a new way.
We welcome comments and questions on our posts, but have a few ground rules to keep the site welcoming and interesting to every body. The first rule is the most important: be respectful of other commenters and bloggers. Read the rest of our comments policy.
Please note that some blog posts may not reflect official Mind policy.
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8 March 2010
Little boxesDo you have too much sex? Or not enough? Either way, you’re obviously mentally disordered! Or you very well might be in 2013 when the DSM-5, the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, is published.
Indeed, you may even be classified as mentally disordered if you don’t think about sex as much as you ought to, though the same will happen if you think about it too much too. Of course, the proposed new inclusions in the DSM-5 aren’t all about sex, though you do have to wonder how a psychiatrist will define at what point someone tips over the threshold of having too much or too little sex and at what point, like Goldilocks and her porridge, your sex life becomes ‘just right’?
The most notable feature of the proposed changes is the way in which it widens the scope and lessens the threshold for diagnosis. In real terms, this means that more people will find themselves diagnosed with a mental health problem or personality disorder, pathologised, stigmatised and medicated. Hey, you could even be classified as having a mental health problem if you have Restless Legs Syndrome! You think I’m making this up? I wish I was....
Still not given up smoking? Why, you have Nicotine-Use Disorder, especially if you smoke “larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended.” I wonder how many cigarettes you are supposed to smoke? Perhaps it should start saying on the packet? Talk in your sleep? That’s Rapid Eye Movement Behaviour Disorder!
Got a child who you think might at some point in the future go a bit mad? Get them labelled and drugged now! Although only a small fraction of children at risk of psychosis ever develop it, that hasn’t stopped the working group of the DSM-5 wanting to introduce a Psychosis Risk Syndrome. But maybe your child just has tantrums? No worries, get them diagnosed with Temper Dysregulation Disorder with Dysphoria and they’ll be medicated up in no time. Sorted!
It seems ironic that when the general trend outside of psychiatry is focused on ‘wellness’ and ‘recovery’ in mental health, psychiatry is heading in the opposite direction of wanting to label more and more people with psychiatric diagnoses. This isn’t a new trend of course, with the last edition of the DSM seven times thicker than the first edition, published in 1952.
Unlike other areas of medicine, though, the new conditions are not a result of scientific breakthroughs. How people are diagnosed is essentially a subjective value judgment rather than anything based on scientific evidence. Even so, certain symptoms tend to be grouped together and labels stuck on them. That, however, sounds clearer cut than it actually is, since the same symptoms can be used to diagnose different conditions.
This can be due to a whole number of reasons that have no validity at all. Exhibiting identical symptoms, you’re more likely to be diagnosed as having bipolar if you’re middle class and schizophrenia if you’re working class. You could also be diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder or schizotypal personality disorder. Whatever diagnosis you end up with, the impact on your life, your health and your long-term prospects is going to be very different, in some cases devastating.
It would make sense surely to aim towards drugging and labelling less people rather than more, but sense and psychiatry sometimes make uneasy bedfellows. Once labelled with a mental health condition, you are never cured, the closest you will get is being in remission. Once branded, you are never truly free again. But as more and more people find themselves diagnosed with a mental health problem, perhaps one day it will be so common as to lose all meaning and all the stigma associated with it will disappear with it? I suspect, however, that it will never quite get to that stage.
It does though beg the question of why psychiatry has such an obsession with medicalising, categorising and compartmentalising natural reactions to what has happened to us in our lives and the environment we find ourselves in. To then try to find biological reasons for those perfectly understandable reactions makes no sense at all. If psychiatry were a person, it would be diagnosed as suffering from an obsessive compulsive disorder with delusional tendencies.
Perhaps the most sinister aspect of all this is the underlying pressure to conform. Don’t smoke, don’t misbehave, don’t be unhappy, don’t rebel, don’t make a fuss, don’t have spiritual experiences, and don’t harm yourself unless doing so in a socially acceptable way. Indeed, one of the many proposed alterations to the definition of personality disorder is to specifically mention a lack of cooperativeness as a diagnosable symptom. So, theoretically, disagreeing with your doctor or not taking a medication that isn’t doing you any good could get you diagnosed with a personality disorder.
Rather than creating more and more categories of mental distress and personality disorder, shouldn’t the DSM-5 urge psychiatrists to destroy all previous editions and simply treat people as individuals? Categorization leads to people becoming dehumanised and objectified, forced into little boxes, some labelled as schizophrenic, some as depressive, some as personality disordered, none of them individuals with unique experiences that have produced the people they are today, deeply troubled, distressed and hurting sometimes, but no less human than the psychiatrists who are supposed to be helping them.
Shaun Johnson
Shaun is a Trustee of Mind and has been involved in the service user / survivor movement for many years. He was a member of the NICE Guideline Development Group on Medicines Concordance and has a varied background in writing, publishing, art, music and journalism.
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5 March 2010
"Mental Health, It's Everyone's Business"Submit entries for Mind Journalist of the Year 2010
Almost a year ago, I rocked up at the Royal Institute of British Architects for the Mind awards with my colleague Kerry Grove. As local journalists working in a particularly unglamorous part of Sutton, it would be fair to say it's not hard to impress us. Usually we regard it as a bit of a treat to pop to the greasy spoon over the road for a bacon sandwich - or on an extra special occasion, we'll splash out on a Sainsbury's sandwich.
So it was a bit of a surprise to be greeted by a sweeping staircase, concert pianist and about 300 very well turned-out people. Even more amazing was that we won Mind Journalist of the Year against all the brilliant national journalists there that night. The event unfolded like some strange dream - from the moment I heard my name called to the late hour I called my family with the news.
I can't begin to say how much of a boost that night gave me and my colleagues in our office. In a year where local journalism had been ravaged to its bare bones by the recession, that award made me dare to hope that journalism did still matter - that it was worth fighting for.
The award was in recognition of articles written for our newsgroup's campaign, "Mental Health, It's Everyone's Business". We published fortnightly features which aimed to destroy the myths surrounding mental illness, something we learnt much from ourselves. The articles explored a range of illnesses including body dysmorphic disorder, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Through interviews with experts and case studies, we were able to create concise, fact-based articles which we felt raised awareness of mental illness while showing the local community where they could go to for help.
One year on, so much has changed. I'm now a senior reporter and health correspondent at the Wandsworth Guardian, and I've been working on some really exciting side projects too. We still go to the greasy spoon, but now we're indulging in the Sainsbury's splashes more regularly.
Our campaign is finished, but we're keeping the spirit alive. These days, I'm finding more and more people in the community coming to us with their mental health stories - people who perhaps would have been too scared to approach us before. It's meant those people now have a voice, and we've been able to hold local services to account more effectively.
I jumped at the chance to write about mental health because it had always frustrated me how little I myself had known about it as a youngster. Several people I cared about developed a mental illness, and yet no-one realised until it was very advanced because they didn't recognise the symptoms.
Just ten years later I've noticed such a huge difference in awareness about mental health - and that's partially down to all the amazing journalism which has appeared in that time. I'm very much looking forward to being on the judging panel for the next Mind awards and reading all the fantastic articles submitted this year.
If you're a journalist, why not submit your work, or the work of another journalist, for entry into this year's awards? And if you're a member of the public, let us know if there's an article that you think represents excellence in the coverage of mental health issues.
Eleanor Harding
Start the discussion -
4 March 2010
Do you Mind?Right, well this is my first venture into the blogosphere so be gentle with me, fellow bloggers.
Get involved: Do you know what to say if a candidate knocks on your door?After what seems like a lifetime of talk about elections, we are now only 10 weeks away from the general election, expected on Thursday 6 May 2010. To mark the final countdown Mind has launched our Do you Mind? general election campaign.
If opinion polls are to be believed, this election will be the tightest in recent memory. Last week polls put the Conservatives at a nine point advantage over Labour, but a recent poll over the weekend closed that gap to a mere two-point lead.
Over the past year, I’ve been in meetings with representatives from the three main political parties who have all agreed with Mind that mental health is on a tipping point which could see a permanent and lasting break through into mainstream public policy and politics. We’ve also had lots of nods of agreement about the need to make sure the lessons of the past recession are not repeated and we don’t see another generation consigned to the wasteland of long-term unemployment.
While these developments and nods of support are to be welcomed, now is the time for us to see the meat on the bone and for politicians and the plethora of candidates pounding the doorsteps up and down the country to essentially put their money where their mouths are.
With so many MPs standing down and marginal seats likely to change hands, this expected intake of new MPs will be huge. Rather like us campaigners, most people enter politics to change the world for the better – we simply choose different routes. We don't always agree, and it can take years and millions of people like you speaking up and making yourself heard. But when we do come to see eye to eye, those agreements can bring about real and lasting change to society and for individuals.
So when those candidates come knocking at your door, take the time to really press them about their own attitudes and views on mental health and what they will do to make a positive difference. Let’s make sure we elect a group of MPs who will lead the way in challenging stigmatising and discriminatory attitudes and behaviours to mental health, not add to them. It’s not much to ask for is it?Novice blogger Vicki Nash is Mind's Head of Policy and Campaigns
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1 March 2010
Mental illness and violenceBy Marion Janner, founder of the Star Wards campaign
Note: this post was written before the transmission of the Why Did You Kill My Dad? documentary.
This is a very difficult blog to write, stimulated by the programme on BBC2 tonight, Why Did You Kill My Dad? (follow the link to watch it on BBC iPlayer).
Firstly there’s the unusual problem of it being inappropriate this time to rabbit on about my dog, Buddy. The issue is inescapably complex, fraught, widely debated and relatively well-researched. Balance is crucial, and this blog post's contribution will probably be through irritating or infuriating people with highly diverse opinions, equally.
Some might think that it’s not very balanced to comment on a programme I haven’t seen. Very Mary Whitehouse (for those of us old enough to remember the excitement of electric typewriters being invented.) But I’ve read a long and multiply-upsetting article in the Daily Mail by the film-maker, Julian Hendy, about his father’s killing; an understandably highly emotive, provoked and provocative piece, so I’ve got a rough idea of what’s to be unleashed.
Before even getting to looking at anything substantial, there’s the language hurdle. Referring to people as ‘service-users’ is generally OK, but in the context of mentally ill people killing ourselves or others, it’s ridiculous.
As Paul Farmer says in Mind’s press release: “The common thread in all the cases in this programme is the failure of mental health services and other agencies to work together to engage people who have complex multiple needs…”. Because Paul covers the most important factors around safety so well, I won’t duplicate these within the three aspects the blog covers: substance abuse, stigma and sense of self. (So nothing about sun, sea or sausages.)
Research in 2009 about the relationship between schizophrenia and violence revealed that it was the additional element of substance abuse which was the primary factor. Why then is this crucial aspect so under-represented not just in media accounts but also within the mental health field? (Interestingly, the newspaper article by Julian Hendy did say that the mentally ill man had a history of excessive use of drink and drugs.)
Statements about ‘the media’ are almost as problematic as those about ‘the mentally ill’ or ‘the Middle East’. The Daily Mail is not The Guardian, blogs are not the BBC. (Er, unless they’re the BBC’s blogs.)
How ‘balanced’ is it reasonable to expect different media sources to be? Is there a difference between the responsibility within a short news piece and a lengthy article in a colour supplement? Should journalists and broadcasters be conscious of the stigmatising impact of concentrating mainly or exclusively on the exceptional? Or is putting each story into its own immediate context without sensationalist language and images sufficiently professional and ethical?
And what degree of responsibility, if any, do those of us with mental illness have in challenging stigma? It’s hard enough just getting through each day, trying to access the services we need and cope with medication side-effects we don’t need. (Oh. And bringing up our kids, earning a living, trying to get our dogs to eat out of a bowl rather than insisting on being hand-fed. She’s such a scamp, that Buddy.)
There’s an interesting issue with anti-stigma campaigns arguably over-looking or denying the legitimacy of concerns about the behaviour of mentally ill people. Many of us who spend time on inpatient wards talk about how unnerving it can be when those around us (and we ourselves) are behaving in a highly ‘unconventional’ or unpredictable way. These extremes of behaviour don’t switch on when we’re admitted and off when we’re discharged so there are plenty of times when people see us in a disturbed and disturbing state.
Perhaps there’s a parallel between the disproportionate, stigmatising effect of the media concentrating on the exceptional and newsworthy, and anti-stigma campaigns avoiding the painful reality that mental illness is often characterised by some of us being irrational and behaving in ways which seem or are highly risky?
A fundamental marketing rule is to start where your ‘consumers’ are. This applies at least as much to ‘social marketing’ campaigns. So if the majority of people you’re hoping to persuade have a particular view (eg mentally ill people are worryingly unpredictable), however unreasonable this may feel, it’s essential to recognise and address it in all its complexity.
Explaining that mental illness is very common and that only a tiny minority of us are dangerous is analogous to telling smokers that cigarettes could kill us. That’s certainly true, but health promotion has moved way beyond that in recognising the complexities and individualities of people’s addiction.
Finally, how do programmes like tonight’s affect our sense of self? I’ve absolutely no idea because there’s four hours to go until it’s inflicted on me. But I’ve seen similar programmes and, beyond the obvious about the gut-wrenching tragedy for the individuals left bereaved, they make me feel a bunch of very painful things about my own illness and about me.
My naughty internal twins, Guilt and Inadequacy, usually start dominating, and their companions Despair, Distress and Frustration tend to soon join in. It’s shame by association, helplessness by overwhelm.
I do have murderous compulsions but because of my particular illness, borderline personality disorder, I am fortunate that it is entirely self-directed. People with gentler conditions (and of course others with BPD), will between them have the full array of responses but it’s very hard not to internalise the stigma that the whole ‘mental patients are violent’ imposes.
Perhaps the programme will turn out to have at least elements which are both factual and constructive.
Marion Janner
Why Did You Kill My Dad? was shown on BBC2 at 9pm, Monday 1 March. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer.
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24 February 2010
Eating disorders are not a lifestyle choiceA guest post by Ilona Burton, who blogs in the Independent Minds community and campaigns for greater awareness of eating disorders.
At the age of just seven, my new year’s resolution was to lose weight. I began to hide food, throw it away, stuff it in my mouth and spit it out, and give it away to other people. Not a particularly conscious decision, not the result of bullying or a reaction to an obvious trigger – just something that very gradually, inexplicably became habitual and horribly addictive, an illness that ended up affecting over three quarters of my life.Contrary to popular belief, the development of my eating disorder, as with the majority of sufferers, was not a vain attempt to lose weight in order to resemble skinny models or celebrities. This was a time when the Spice Girls were a picture of health, nobody knew who Nicole Richie or her stylist Rachel Zoe (later blamed for the size zero epidemic) were, and I was shopping at Tammy Girl, completely unaware of size zero, size 6 or any fad diets.
Anorexia slowly became what I perceived to be the larger part of my identity, it was just what I did, what I was, who I was. During high school, despite worries raised by my friends to teachers that were passed on to my parents, I did everything I could to deny these allegations that I was ill or in danger, and as I wasn’t on death’s door, even my GP passed me off – the same story with too many other people in my position.
Not surprisingly, the situation worsened while I was at sixth form. Skipping lunch was a non-issue to me by then as it had become so normal, so I moved on to skip as many other meals I could, ever the inventive, creative excuse-giver – my intake became lower and lower, and consequently, so did my weight. Clothes hanging from my pelvic bones, I would walk an hour or so to college and back come rain or shine and despite worries and concerns from loved ones, there was little anyone could do at this stage that would stop me from being wrapped up in my anorexic behaviours.
University time – freedom, independence, but for me, a tragic waste of what should have been the best year of my life. Instead of leaving home and drinking myself into oblivion, I isolated myself and slipped quickly into a routine which involved spending most of my time wrapped in a dressing gown, weighing myself obsessively and living off an oh so fun diet of Diet Coke, celery and sugar free jelly.
While my flatmates were out socialising and dancing till dawn, as students are supposed to, I was in my room, alone, writing depressing angst-ridden poems and seeing how many stomach crunches I could possibly do – the number increasing every day. By the end of that first year, I looked like a poster girl for the line between life and death.
In the second and third year of university, I set my heart on getting a first Class degree, was the lead singer in a band, became a DJ, made an amazing group of friends and had a damn good social life – signs that things were better, especially as the previous summer I had been threatened with hospitalisation and had therefore gained enough weight to escape that.
But behind all this, my anorexia had made a little friend in bulimia – whenever I wasn’t busying myself with all the above, I was going to more dangerous lengths (vomiting, laxative abuse, diet pills which contained ephedrine, banned in most countries) to somehow feel better about myself. Of course, no matter how much weight you lose, it is never enough and it certainly never brings with it the promised state of ‘feeling better’, not even close.
It took me a three month stint in a specialised unit, a year in outpatient care and another nine months in hospital to get me to where I am now. Even after all that effort, hard work, stress and strain of fighting against an illness that clings to you, not wanting you to ever let it go, I still am at a low weight, still fighting every day to stay well enough to get by.
I am and feel a million times better and less scared, trapped and controlled by food, but I hope that my story will highlight a few of the truths behind some of the many misconceptions that are made about eating disorders.
Eating Disorders are serious mental health illnesses that affect approximately 1.6 million people – male, female, young, old, gay, straight, vain, plain – in the UK.
Eating disorders do not discriminate – they can affect anyone and anytime for any reason.
Eating disorders are not glamorous, nor are they the result of glamourisation through the worlds of fashion or celebrity – although social pressures may contribute to a disorder, they are rarely ever the cause.
Eating disorders are not a lifestyle choice or a diet gone too far.
Eating disorders CAN be beaten – though secretive in their nature and unbelievably hard to recover from, full recovery is possible. The support is there, just reach out.
Ilona Burton
Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2010 runs from 22 to 28 February. It is run by the charity Beat, which provides helplines and other support for people with eating disorders.
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19 February 2010
Do TV hospital dramas reflect reality?To what extent do TV hospital dramas reflect reality? Not much, according to Antony Sumara from Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. He particularly targets BBC dramas, but I doubt they are alone in ignoring good practice, patient confidentiality and attention to hygiene in the search for a gripping storyline, as he claims. Perhaps writers don’t feel that an episode of someone waiting for treatment or extolling the virtues of hand washing will draw those viewers in.
How well versed are you in what you can expect from your hospital stay? Every local NHS organisation is expected to produce a guide to local services and deliver that to all households in their area. This one is from Milton Keynes (PDF).
Have you read the NHS Constitution so you know which waiting times have been enshrined within it – no longer than four hours in A&E, for example? The constitution says that you have a right to be treated with a professional standard of care, though to be fair it doesn’t explicitly say that staff shouldn’t be sorting out their love life in corridors when they’re not treating you.
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information
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17 February 2010
Services for servicemenI’m angry. I’ve just finished reading another article on the armed forces. In this one, the story revolves around the "fact" that women are "more likely to suffer mental problems" than their male colleagues. After spending over a year working on Mind’s Men and Mental Health campaign, I’m smarting at this statement.
›› Attend our free conference on men and mental health.
›› Tell us your thoughts on how the mental health needs of men can be met.It’s not that men are less likely than women to experience mental distress; it’s that men are much less likely to seek help for it. It’s just this kind of approach – only looking at the figures and not the reasons behind them – that leads to services not adequately meeting the needs of its users.
But that’s not all that I’m angry about. Whatever your political point of view, I imagine that we can all agree that the human cost to our servicemen and women as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been devastating. At time of writing, the wars have taken the lives of 440 UK troops and left many more injured. But this is not the half of it. What about the injuries that aren’t so visible? Taking into account the stress they are put under, it’s unsurprising that many servicemen and women experience some form of mental distress, post-traumatic stress disorder in particular.
And so we come to the source of my frustration. Despite the mental trauma military personnel experience, there is only one main specialist mental health organisation in the whole of the UK for ex-services personnel - Combat Stress. In 2008 alone they worked with 2,500 ex-services personnel, of which 1,160 were new cases. And figures from the charity suggest that the rate of mental distress among veterans is rising.
Although Combat Stress provides an amazing amount of support to a large number of people, they cannot and should not be responsible for all ex-services personnel. But other services just aren’t always available.
Things are so bad that even some of the Army’s brightest starts have criticised the government’s treatment of ex-soldiers. Last year, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, the most decorated soldier in the British Army, spoke out last year about the “disgraceful” treatment of soldiers experiencing mental distress. And only last week another ex-soldier came forward to denounce the ‘complacent attitude’ shown to veterans that end up in the prison system.
Things may be about to change. In January, the Government announced plans to improve NHS care for veterans and said that this would include mental health services. Perhaps this is only lip service. But, even if something is delivered, steps to improve treatment for veterans will only succeed if the particular needs of soldiers – and the needs of men (the majority of ex-services personnel are male) – are properly taken into account. Without such consideration, these plans really could be too little, too late.
Mariam Kemple, Policy and Campaigns Officer
Get involved
››Attend our free conference on men and mental health.
››Tell us your thoughts on how the mental health needs of men can be met.
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12 February 2010
Is the medical model really so evil?A guest post by Zarathustra of the Mental Nurse blog.
Before I became a mental health nurse, I spent a few years as an over-educated, unemployable humanities graduate - hey, I'm not knocking that; being an over-educated, unemployable humanities graduate can be a lot of fun.
I also had quite firm views on psychiatry. I was a huge fan of RD Laing, the radical 60s psychiatrist. I'd tell anyone who would listen that psychiatric diagnoses are a subjective construct, that drugs aren't the answer, and that the medical model of mental illness is irredeemably reductionist (yes, I was the kind of humanities graduate for whom "reductionist" is the ultimate word of abuse).
Comparing these views with what I think now, I get the impression my younger self would be rather disappointed in me. Admittedly I haven't changed my views entirely. I still think there are problems with some forms of psychiatric diagnoses, and these problems are inevitable due to their subjective nature. I still regard the psychosocial aspects of mental health as absolutely vital, and I still regard the drug reps as servants of Beelzebub.Even so, I also now think the medical model has its merits as well as its flaws. Diagnostic categories do seem to have some usefulness and validity, and psychiatric medication can at times work wonders. The twentysomething, BA-educated version of me would shake his head in sorrow.
So, what's changed my mind on the medical model? Well, the most obvious answer would be that I went into the belly of the beast and trained as a mental health nurse. Certainly cold, hard clinical experience has had a lot to do with it. I can't swan around saying that the drugs don't work, because all too frequently they do work. Admittedly the meds work haphazardly, and sadly all too often with unpleasant side effects, but the bottom line is I've seen too many people benefit from medication to be able to dismiss those benefits.
Crucially though, the people who've most effectively challenged my previous hostility to the medical model have been patients rather than doctors.I have a friend with bipolar disorder who's also a very intelligent, independent-minded lady. Not the sort to be brainwashed by an evil cabal of shrinks and Big Pharma. She's tried yoga, mindfulness, CBT, person-centred counselling...all of which have had some benefit, but she's also learned to her cost that, unless she takes the meds, all those benefits are immediately cancelled out. Her response to anti-psychiatry is to angrily insist, "Look, I don't have a problem in living, or a social construct, or an existential crisis. I have an illness which is called bipolar disorder, for which I take medication."
"Your diagnosis is this, and we're going to treat it like this" is an explanation that works for a lot of a people. Those people shouldn't be hectored on how they're dupes of the medico-pharmaceutical complex simply for finding the medical model helpful.While much has been written on how psychiatric diagnosis can label and stigmatise people, you can also demean, belittle and patronise people by telling them they don't have an illness, and that it's all just a social construct/problem in living/spiritual crisis.
Of the anti-psychiatric authors, Thomas Szasz in particular writes with an unpleasant moralistic tone that reeks of, "You could just snap out of it and pull yourself together if you really wanted to."
Ultimately though, any argument about, say, "medical model" versus "psychosocial model" shouldn't be an either/or issue. It's perfectly possible to make use of diagnosis and medication while also taking into account psychological and social issues. And yes, while also being aware of the political and philosophical controversies that psychiatry generates.Any model of psychiatry, be it medical, psychosocial, existential, social contructivist etc, describes an aspect of the truth from one particular angle. We need to be able to move between the models as and when they become useful, rather than loudly privilege one model while denouncing the others.
Speaking of models, a consultant psychiatrist I know has a fondness for saying that we follow an "ecobiopsychosocial model". I'm gagging for him to say it to me so I can quip back, "That's easy for you to say."Zarathustra
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11 February 2010
Keep the Cyclo-Therapists in Mind
Myself and three friends, all with a spirit of adventure, and united by a love of the outdoors and riding bikes, are hoping to tackle the Drambuie Pursuit this May. The Cyclo-Therapists – otherwise known as John Henderson, John Shippey, Rob Cochran and Barry Burnett – have signed up to compete in this awesome challenge.The Drambuie Pursuit is a test of extreme physical and mental endurance. Five teams, voted for by the public (please vote for us!), will battle it out in the Scottish Highlands to be crowned Drambuie Pursuit Champion.
The teams will complete a series of nine adrenalin-fueled stages from running, climbing and abseiling to mountain biking, and from rafting to buggy and speedboat racing. But competing as one of the teams in this epic challenge is not the only goal; this year the team with the most votes will win £2500 for their chosen charity.
We have nominated Mind as our charity, as each of us has seen the effects of mental illness on people close to us, some of whom have sadly passed away. We are in an ever-changing world and something that also needs to change with that is peoples’ attitudes towards mental health. No health issue should be taboo, least of all a mental health issue.
To be eligible to compete in the Pursuit, the Cyclo-Therapists need your support! In just two weeks we have been able to drum up votes from over 600 people, mainly through our Facebook and Twitter pages, but to be the team with the most number of votes, and therefore secure a £2500 donation for Mind, we need at least 3000 more votes. We would be honoured to work with Mind and are really grateful for its support. We hope you can help us too.
We are all pretty fit, train regularly and are fanatical about cycling Between us we have cycled to Paris, swam to the Isle of Wight, competed in marathons and triathlons, and are training to compete in a Half Ironman (comprising a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run) later this summer.
The Pursuit is a perfect opportunity to train even harder, and try our hand at a few new disciplines in the great outdoors, which we love. We find that exercise and fresh air help us feel good in both body and mind.
To register your support for the team, go to the Drambuie Pursuit website, select the CYCLO-THERAPISTS and click the red ‘vote for us’ button. Closing date for votes is 12 noon on 31 March 2010.
John Shippey
The Drambuie Pursuit runs from the 7 to 9 May 2010. Five teams voted for by the public race from the Isle of Skye to Inverness. Selection will take place at noon on 31st March 2010, and only votes before this date will be valid.
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8 February 2010
“Keep an eye on her, she’s crazy”A guest post by Izzi, who writes the How to Juggle Glass blog
I was in a pharmacy and handed in my prescription and went to loiter around the shop while they made it up for me. Now, the thing you should know is that I take some “serious” medications and it appears the pharmacist had noticed this. I was minding my own business, looking at lipstick or some other tat, when I heard the pharmacist whisper to the assistant:
“Keep an eye on her, she’s crazy”
It would appear that the pharmacist thought that I was going to steal something or maybe start proclaiming myself to be Jesus in the shop. I have no idea what was actually going through his mind at the time, but come on; I’m just trying to get through life/uni/work etc. I’m not out to make some kind of scene in your pharmacy.
No matter how hard I try to ignore the “crazy” comments and get on with my life, there are some that hurt deep down. I try so hard and yet sometimes I still feel like I will always be “that crazy person”. If I had a broken leg then it would be fine; but because I have something that cannot be seen and people don’t fully understand then it will have an impact on how people treat me and how I can live my life.
This feeling haunts me wherever I go. I’m always waiting for the next time someone treats me like this.
Izzi
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1 February 2010
The value of volunteeringFor people with mental health problems, isolation and loneliness can become an ever present problem, leading to a reduction in their wellbeing. Ninety per cent of respondents to a survey by Welsh mental health charity Hafal said that loneliness makes the symptoms of their severe mental illness worse - depression in particular.
This is certainly the case for me. After many years of mental ill health, I felt separate from people my own age because I was not working or studying. I’m sure there are many people around the UK who face being alone for many long hours during the day.
Mind Cymru has a group of volunteers who work in their Cardiff office, supporting the work of staff. I joined them over a year ago and have never looked back.
As well as gaining office work experience, I have greater confidence and higher self-esteem from meeting new people, having somewhere to go and feeling that the work you are doing is useful, bringing the sense that your life has a purpose.
Beating loneliness and isolation is just as important to the recovery of people with mental health problems as treatments such as medication and talking therapies.
Volunteering of any kind not only helps the organisation you are working with, but brings the possibility of new social contacts and a new way of relating to the world. Go for it!
Katherine Dutson, volunteer, Mind Cymru
7 Comments -
29 January 2010
I'll be there for youObviously I am always fully professional and look at the number of comments on Mind’s blogs from various contributors as a sign of what interests people and not as a popularity contest. Yeah right! After careful consideration, I am just going to review the antics of cute cats.
Why should it matter? Why do we need to know how many followers we - or others - have on Twitter or friends on Facebook?
A BBC article informs us that the average number of friends is 150 and that the ideal number of close friends is between six and 12. Your popularity at school is positively linked to your wage level in later life – excepting, perhaps, those people who are unpopular at school and then go on to pen/produce high school misfit movies. To add to the pressure there is now the necessity of having the right number of friends on Facebook (it’s 302) to have the most appeal to others.
It is widely accepted that having social support networks can reduce your likelihood of developing mental health problems or help promote recovery when you do experience mental distress. So stop taking the time to count and start taking the time to follow the advice of Raymond Tallis and cherish those precious friendships.
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information
6 Comments -
25 January 2010
Why I love being an inpatientA guest post by Marion Janner, founder of the Star Wards project
Hmm. Perhaps the only uncontroversial words in the heading are those with a character count below 4. That’s 3 of them (I’ve just started ‘tweeting’ on Twitter and am now obsessed with character count as each tweet has to be haiku-like petite, under 140 characters. I usually find it hard to express myself in under 140 minutes).
Anyway, returning to my own character, it’s been totally fucked over in the last seven years by the explosion of borderline personality disorder. BPD is actually as common as schizophrenia but most people have never heard of it. I hadn’t until many months after I became inexplicably hyper-depressed and started, completely bewilderingly, self-harming as a way of managing extreme plunges in mood (I go on and on about this in my website Mentalising). And when my partner of 20 years walked out on me, a month after our civil partnership ceremony and having forgotten to mention her plans to me, the suicidality started.
You might be familiar with OCD-type compulsions – hand-washing, germ-avoidance, safety rituals. My compulsion to kill myself is broadly similar. Although obviously with the opposite intention in terms of life preservation. It’s pretty exhausting (not least for my extensive team of therapists) trying to contain this force and all gets very messy when I decide to take an overdose as a way of flirting with death and simultaneously gaining a sense of being able to control my destiny when I sheepishly land in A&E to get the overdose reversed.
So. The chance of a break from having to internally manage my self-demolition urges is irresistible. Butlins is great, what with all the entertainment, slot machines and good grub, but it’s a lot to ask them to manage my suicidality. Whereas my lovely local, St Ann’s in Tottenham, may not have the slot machines, but they do lock me in and remove all tolerable methods of disposing of myself. Such a relief.
I’m a bit of a regular at St Ann’s, and the familiar staff team greet me with hugs and welcomes, perhaps temporarily forgetting that I’m a nightmare patient for them. For example. I’m 4’9” so not very tall, but while being ‘specialed’ via 1:1 staff with me 24/7, I’ve still managed to unscrew a lightbulb from the ceiling and use it to self-harm. All very David Blaine and presumably infuriating for staff. Yet they manage to respond to my relentless self-destructiveness with patience, understanding, non-judgementalness (?) and to use an old-fashioned term – compassion.
I love it there. I don’t need to worry about work or my weird eating nonsense or looking after my foster sons or (not) answering the phone or writing blogs or going to meetings or acting cheerful. I know from my work running the Star Wards project that St Ann’s is scarcely in the Premier League of hospitals, indeed it’s going to be knocked down and replaced. But it has exactly what I need, and what my friends and family need, to keep me safe and provide a little break from the overwhelming task of keeping it all together. There are very few days when I’d rather be at home than in hospital.
Marion Janner
Marion was awarded an OBE for services to mental health care in the New Year Honours list 2010.
20 Comments -
20 January 2010
Eating disorders - not just a female issueA guest post from Sam Thomas of the Men Get Eating Disorders Too website and campaign
Eating disorders is an issue that is often considered to be a female only issue, but it seems conditions such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder are on the increase among men, quite possibly at an alarming rate. Thus suggesting men are under more pressures than ever before.
Last September, a professor in St Georges Hospital in London had reported seeing more male than female anorexia cases. He said he thought that there was more prevalence in the women and girls than there was in males but that there is a particular increase among young men getting referrals. In a ward of 20, there were three male inpatients on average during the summer months, whilst in previous years it would often be the case that there were no men at all.
The NHS Information Centre published statistics last year suggesting that 2.7 million people in the country have some kind of disordered eating and men make up a quarter. This is a significant rise from the figure of 10 to 15 per cent of cases only ten years ago.
The reasons why more men are developing eating disorders is complex. Research carried out by the leading eating disorders charity B-eat has suggested that many cases of male anorexia are down to excessive bodybuilding and exercise. Various pieces of research have shown that men are getting increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies. The cultural endorsement of the ‘perfect body’ in men’s magazines could play a significant role.
Other possible triggers could include: family and home life, relationships, sexuality, faith, money and work issues. You may remember MP John Prescott revealing he was bulimic throughout his years in office as Deputy Prime Minister – this shows even the most seemingly tough and powerful men are susceptible to developing an eating disorder.
Earlier last year, I began a mission to address this need by establishing Men Get Eating Disorders Too, a website and campaign aimed at raising awareness of eating disorders in men, to enable men to seek support.
Having had bulimia throughout my teens and early adult years, I knew first hand the difficulties men experienced getting professional help. Many of the websites I had come across seemed to be targeted at women and I realised that this may put off men as it may make them feel they have a ‘woman’s illness’.
The website provides information and advice on eating disorders that is specific to men, and acts as a bridge to support services available. It's also a platform for men to tell their stories and get their voices heard, with a forum where men can share experiences and offer and receive peer support.
Sam Thomas, Men Get Eating Disorders Too
2 Comments -
19 January 2010
Mental health stigma alive and well and on the airwavesThe news that Manchester radio DJ Steve Penk played the Van Halen song ‘Jump’ for motorists delayed by a road closure when a woman attempted to take her own life from a bridge, is a stark reminder of the distance we still have to go to tackle mental health discrimination.
Apparently the request for the song came from local motorists inconvenienced by the closures, which the Revolution DJ honoured moments before she jumped. Although he is in no way to blame for what happened, few people would argue that his actions weren't in incredibly poor taste.
He has since stood by his decision saying "I don't regret playing it for a minute" and that he empathised with the inconvenienced drivers. It is a sad state of affairs when as a society we start to view someone else’s tragedy as a personal inconvenience. Surely if the frustrated motorists stopped to think that this was a human life at stake, someone's daughter or friend, they would not be so flippant. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one to suicide will know how terrible the affects are for family and friends.
Over 100 people a week take their own life in the UK. The fear of stigma means that many people experiencing mental distress feel unable to speak to loved ones and as a consequence they suffer in silence. I only hope that the publicity surrounding this event might make the public question their own understanding of mental health issues. In the 21st century, is it too much to ask that we show compassion and understanding for people who are in the depths of despair?
Mind and the Samaritans will be complaining to Ofcom about the show, and we urge you to lodge your own complaint. Please include the following information about the programme:Name of the show: Steve Penk at Breakfast
Radio station: 96.2FM Revolution Radio
Transmission date: Thursday 14 January 2010Please note that the Ofcom site wil not find any information for Revolution Radio. To make your complaint, just select "Continue" below the message that you get about this, and then on the next screen select "I saw/heard the programme".
Alison Kerry, Head of Media
17 Comments