Each week we publish blog posts on a whole range of topics, relating in some way to mental health — written by Mind staff, service users and health and policy professionals. Some blog posts may not reflect official Mind policy.
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.
Despite only recently recovering from an ankle injury, Kate will be running the London Marathon today in memory of her dad. Here, she blogs about her journey to the starting line.
Start the discussionThis Sunday, Liz will run the London Marathon in memory of her mum, who took her own life 12 years ago. Here, she celebrates all those who've been by her side as she prepares for the challenge.
2 CommentsCarl is taking part in the Great North Run as a tribute to his Uncle Jim, an army veteran who served as a 19-year-old in the Falklands War and recently took his own life.
3 CommentsI have been a keen and competitive runner and triathlete for about 15 years. In those years, the role racing and training have played in my life has ranged from minor diversion to life-dominating obsession and back again, but they’ve always been there.
Start the discussionI’m on two journeys simultaneously. One is a journey through mental distress and the other involves a bicycle. Extreme anxiety, depression and elements of borderline personality disorder have plagued my adult life for 35 years. I’m two people; one whole and complete, the other dissociated, vulnerable and traumatised.
2 CommentsCharlie Watson tells us why she's running the London marathon in memory of her friend Vic.
On the outside my housemate, Vic, was a good looking, friendly, sporty, outgoing 20 year old university student. However on the inside he was silently battling bipolar disorder.
4 CommentsWhen my children were in primary school we made up a team with some friends and became the ‘Nice But Dims’.
We would alternate between our school quiz and our friends’ children’s school quiz. This went on for all their years through school until they left and the Nice But Dims went into retirement.
In March my husband, Mark Hanson, killed himself after battling with anxiety and depression for 13 years. I knew about his illness, but I was one of the few, the only others being the doctors and counsellors Mark had seen.
3 CommentsThis weekend marks the start of Time to Get Moving week where thousands of people across England will get together to get active and challenge mental health discrimination. Mind volunteer Andy talks about the benefits exercise has made to his own mental health.
2 CommentsIt’s 8am and I’m on holiday. The temperature is already climbing to the mid 70s. And I’m running down a track surrounded by olive trees and being chased by a couple of friendly(ish) dogs.
2 CommentsMy mum battled with depression for many years and in 2009 sadly took her own life. She committed suicide by walking out of the house one morning in the dark and freezing cold, walking a mile from home in a flimsy nightie, with no shoes on and plunging herself into the deepest darkest lock of a local canal. Anyone who knew the strong and wonderful person my mum was would realize how ill she would have to be to do such a thing – how irretrievable she must have felt her life had become.
3 CommentsAt the time it seemed like such a ludicrous idea. Having been diagnosed as suffering from depression and anxiety in mid-September last year, when a friend of mine suggested in early October that I ought to look at joining a gym I could not think of anything I would be less likely to do.
13 Comments"Why?" My friend asked me as I told him I'd entered the Royal Parks Half Marathon "you hate running".
"Why?" Asked my colleague as she printed off the training schedule and looked at me rather nervously. I have to admit as I got up at 6am yesterday to go on a training run (well training jog would be more accurate) that I was thinking the same thing. I'm not exactly built like Mo Farah, Britain's latest athletic hero, I do a busy full time job and have a family. Finding time for anything is a challenge, let alone a challenge of this scale…
But there's a wave of athleticism in Mind at the moment, with our hard-working staff doubling up as fundraisers and literally supporting the cause every minute of the day - my colleague Becky is training to swim a mile in Lake Windermere (I didn't even get my 50 metres badge – this is serious commitment). Our Media Officer Vicki is cycling to Paris, and Head of Policy Vicki also doing the Royal Parks. So what's going on?
Well, here are five reasons why entering the Royal Parks Half Marathon is a great idea:
I've been to a number of London Marathons to watch and thank our Mind runners – now this is serious and fantastic commitment from people who just want to help us. I'm totally in awe of them, but also felt I should play my own small part. Leading from the front if you like – although in this case it's rather more like leading from the back.
And as I was puffing my way around the Bunny Park in Hanwell, I could begin to see the attraction of running, but also the scale of the task ahead of me.....
Paul Farmer is Mind's Chief Executive. He'll be blogging regularly during the run up to the big event. If you want to join Paul and hundreds of other runners at the Royal Parks Half Marathon, you can join the Mind team by signing up here.
3 CommentsCharity shop volunteer Luke Gaunt, 25, is a volunteer at the Mind shop in Brighouse. Luke has been helping out for two years after being diagnosed with a brain tumour that left him partially sighted and unable to work.
Hi, I’ve been volunteering at the Mind Shop Brighouse for the last two years and I’ve found it to be a really positive experience. I started after I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour when I was 22. A month into treatment my eyesight deteriorated and I was left partially sighted. Five months later I began to volunteer.
My work involves sorting the donations that the shop receives. I find this rewarding because not only does it help raise money for Mind, it’s also helping through recycling items no longer wanted. The saying “one person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure” couldn’t be more true.
I also enjoy the opportunity to meet and talk to new people; as having a visual disability can be isolating at times. The fact that I’m contributing to the charity and society raises my self-esteem. Something that suffers when you are unemployed and on benefits.
Luke Gaunt, Mind shops' Young Volunteer of the Year and runner-up for the Association of Charity Shops Young Volunteer of the Year Award 2010 at yesterday’s award ceremony.
Start the discussionA guest post by Marion Janner, founder of the Star Wards project
Despite enormous progressive changes over the last decade, there continues to be ill-informed prejudice and perplexing stigma, inferring or conferring inferiority on those associated with it. My immunity to this stigma for the seven long years that I’ve been severely mentally ill has recently collapsed and I am using this opportunity to bravely come out in public. [Clears throat, extends herself to the full available 4’9” and announces:]
I go to a day centre. A day centre for mentally ill people. A morning a week, sanity permitting.
When I’ve told friends about this, all but one have laughed merrily and started to make requests for baskets for their picnics, pets or poker sets. I asked the dissident why she didn’t regard me going to a day centre as being a bad move, and she replied: “Why wouldn’t I be enthusiastic about you volunteering at a day centre?” When I cleared up the misunderstanding, she laughed merrily but stopped short at placing a basket order.
I have to confess that I was also a bit iffy about day centres before I started going to one. I knew that the relatively few that have survived changes in fashion and funding don’t actually have hundreds of people sitting at assembly benches, in gloomy light, bunging widgets into tiny plastic bags. But I did have lurking doubts about whether there was something – er, inadequate about these services and even perhaps the people that use them. There had to be, really. Progressive services don’t ‘congregate’ people who happen to share a label. My approach was Marxist: I didn’t want to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members, just like Groucho didn’t.
And then I went to a meeting with some of the big-wigs at Jewish Care to discuss Star Wards. It ended rather inconclusively in relation to work, but with me deeply enthusiastic about starting to go to one of their ‘well-being centres’. And two months later, I’m benefiting way beyond what I’d hoped for by going to Kadimah, their Hackney centre. Kadimah is Hebrew for ‘forwards’, usually slightly shouted in a “Let’s go”, or “Onwards” sort of way. It’s also the name of the centrist, liberal party in Israel. I like it that my centre is similarly inclusive and accessible to such a diversity of people, located in one of the heartlands of the ultra-orthodox community, Stamford Hill, but happily embracing everyone from the traditionally garbed to those adorned with tattoos, self-harming scars, bling…. Black, white, old, young, train-spotters and trainee potters.
The staff are wonderful - expert, warm, funny, human/normal/friendly. And completely accessible. Unlike so many services where we have to gear ourselves up to knock on the office door expecting to be told to come back in x minutes, the Kadimah staff are constantly around in the lounge, schmoozing with us.
There are rules, but mainly along the lines of we must feel able to come as frequently or occasionally as we want, take part only in the activities that we’d like to do that day etc. (Of course, eating lots, telling jokes and overstating the achievements of the kids in our life are core expectations.)
The groups are very enjoyable, from a mellowly therapy-lite women's group to the Jewishish film group where everyone's talking at the same time and there's no shortage of opinions. And brace yourselves for this one! We’re welcome to take part in the activities of the day centre for elderly people in which Kadimah is based. Not only do I not find it peculiar or let alone stigmatising being based, lunching and hanging out with ancient Jews, but it feels inclusive and heimisch (homely). And the elders have great guest speakers, music sessions and nice sweets in the bags dangling from their wheelchairs.
Kadimah’s magazine, Shemesh (sun) is remarkable. Edited by the award-winning, geniusly witty and creative member, David Filabon, its 32+ pages are full of articles I feel motivated rather than obliged to read, are a visual pleasure and another regular boost to my patchy morale. Star Wards is hoping to have the honour of publishing Shemesh on our website. (A few more high-calorie enticements for David and team and I hope to have clinched the deal.)
I’m lucky to be well-endowed with social and psychiatric support, but Kadimah combines the best of all these and is now an essential part of my life. Friends have stopped the basket jokes and several are openly envious of my being able to go whenever I want to what feels more club than centre, where I can relax with interesting, friendly, supportive people, enjoy the activities and recharge. With a continuous supply of food and jokes.
Marion Janner
Marion was awarded an OBE for services to mental health care in the New Year Honours list 2010.
6 Comments