The Blog

National Volunteers Week

Picture1So it’s national volunteers week (well it was last week and as it’s only Tuesday i’m counting it as the same thing) and i wanted to take a second to share some work i’ve been doing around the value of volunteering and how crucial it has been for my recovery.

After i came back to Cambridge i was still pretty unwell, i know this because i needed a hair cut and put it off for months because it would require someone looking at me. Because i am a regular human being who wants to use their brain i felt a strange amalgamation of wanting to do something useful that gave me purpose but also to do something where nobody relied on me or expected anything. It is quite hard to find this balance when you would like the challenge to be something other than tidying your flat and after a failed interview at the co op (failed as in did not attend) i figured employment was probably not an option. Continue reading National Volunteers Week

Stephen Fry – #MyYoungerSelf

 

Stephen Fry at the Oxford Union, Oxford, Britain - 05 Nov 2014

Yes Stephen! Some of the things Stephen (because we’re Bipolar buddies we’re on first name terms) has said in the past have grated and there are times where he has overplayed the creativity side of mania in my opinion but this is pretty much spot on

Handy Resource!

Hi guys! A couple of people have asked about meds recently and it occurred to me today this might be a useful resource for some people. I’ve been feeling a little fuzzy headed recently and my boyfriend recommended taking B vitamins (they seem to be all about vitamins in America) but there are some strange interactions with psychiatric meds (echinacea is a no go on Lamotrigine for example and grapefruit juice can be genuinely dangerous on Lithium) so i wanted to check it out. After a bit of a google search i found there weren’t many easy to read med guides that weren’t an extensive patient safety leaflet in teeny tiny writing so i’ve gone back to the faithful link on my local mental health Trusts website. As it’s unlikely to come up in a general search i thought i’d share the link here, enjoy!

Link me to the website!

Frazzled Cafes!

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Ruby Wax has set up a ‘Frazzled Cafe’ initiative with M&S and Cambridge is one of the lucky few to get a look in! Her site describes the set up as:

‘Frazzled Cafe meetings provide a ‘talk-in’ place where people who are feeling frazzled can meet on a regular basis to talk and share their personal stories in a safe, anonymous and non-judgmental environment – a place where it’s ok, to not be ok.
A key factor in helping to overcome those feelings is knowing that we are not alone – there is no substitute for meeting face-to-face and connecting with others. This isn’t just for the one-in-four Britons who will suffer a mental illness at some point in their lives, but for the four-in-four feeling overwhelmed by the stresses of modern life. ‘

Continue reading Frazzled Cafes!

Mental wellness not mental illness

img_2226It’s 4:55 am and I’ve been up since about 4, I’ve recently been taking my sleeping tablets every night in order to ensure I stay well during a bit of a transitionary stage but my stock is running low which means I need to start attempting to sleep on my own like a regular human being. This is the first night of the pain in the ass that is med free sleep and my eyes are burning and I already hate this day but crazy early mornings are always a good time to blog so I’m making the most of this sleep deprived state. Continue reading Mental wellness not mental illness

Erm yeah i’m fine…?

This is SO true, in the UK we’re really bad for asking ‘how are you?’ or ‘you alright?’ and nine times out of 10 we say ‘fine’ or ‘good, you?’. It doesn’t invite more conversation even though it’s open ended because we’re so used to shutting it down; half the time i do it i’m calling it back behind me to my colleague as i head off in the other direction for coffee in the morning. I try whenever possible to ask what someones been up to or ask a direct question about something in their life ‘did you finish watching x factor yet!?’ so that we shut down the auto pilot response of ‘fine’. Realistically just as ‘fine’ is auto pilot for us all so is ‘how are you?’ but if you can make the effort with someone who’s having a hard time it can open up a whole other line of conversation. Continue reading Erm yeah i’m fine…?

Gratitude journal: Jogging bottoms and wise words

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve gotten a bit lax with the journal; for a start there were a couple of days which were truly crappy and i decided that those days required the respect of not trying to find the positive, that it was ok to look at that day and say ‘what a horrible day’. Secondly I’ve found that i have a tendency to berate myself when i don’t do an entry which kind of defeats the point of the journal..that’s basically the opposite of the point of the journal. So i decided that if i didn’t want to do an entry that was totally cool but i would try and put one thing down if i could, one day this was wearing jogging bottoms after a day of being dressed up and another just a really good cup of coffee. I am also trying to keep an eye on the reasons i don’t do it which largely seem to revolve around being too sleepy which for me is super amazing and shouldn’t require celebrating not berating! Continue reading Gratitude journal: Jogging bottoms and wise words

Trying to be chilled about the gratitude journal..

So this past week has been a bit of a weird one; I’ve felt a little low and it’s hard to know whether it’s circumstantial, normal low mood or something to keep tabs on. I’ve been trying extra hard to keep up with the journal whilst i’m in a bummed out mood and I’ve found the best way to approach it is to be fairly chilled and just do it as and when it feels good. I have a very real tendency (and my closest friends will be smiling ruefully at this comment) to place time frames and deadlines on everything which often just puts more pressure on myself when i’m actually trying to create structure and support. Looking back over the journal for the past few weeks i can see where I’ve had particularly bad days and have skipped some days but i can also see where I’ve made a real effort to note the good stuff – even if it’s just a cup of good coffee in the morning getting ready for work. So here are some snapshots of the past week or so!

 

Happy (hmm?) World Mental Health Day!

Welcome to World Mental Health Day!! screen-shot-get-give-post

Today is the launch of the wonderful new Find Get Give website, the site aims to amalgamate resources and information into one access point. There are blogs, vlogs, information on the site and links out into the ether to other resources and information. My favorite part is the  autonomy given to the public and existing services who can upload themselves onto the site and put their blogs forward for consideration. I imagine in the long run this will be a very exciting source of information as it continues to develop and grow. Continue reading Happy (hmm?) World Mental Health Day!