Get talking!

You’ve probably seen one of the Time to Change adverts on TV right now encouraging people to talk about mental illness. People with mental illnesses are human believe it or not, and we won’t burst into flame if you ask us how we’re doing. A simple “Hi, how are you?” is all it takes to start a conversation. A couple of chocolate digestive biscuits help, too.

Here are some more tips about supporting and talking to someone with a mental illness. It’s important to make time to talk about general, every day things too. Nobody wants to get bogged down talking about their struggles all of the time!

Be sensitive, but don’t tread on eggshells. We can tell if you’re doing that! Don’t prod and poke for information, we’ll talk about what we feel comfortable with. It’s important to let the other person talk in their own time about what they are comfortable sharing.

Now you’re armed with some good tips, go and get talking!

How to keep your mind healthy.

It’s currently Mental Health Awareness Week and so I thought I’d compile a list of my top tips on how to keep your brain (and mind) healthy.

1. Eat breakfast

Many people skip breakfast for a variety of reasons, but you’re not doing yourself a favour if you do this. Your brain needs fuel to get started and isn’t going to perform very well if you’ve got a busy morning at school or work but are running on empty. Try to eat, even if you just grab a banana on your way out of the door.

2. Sleep well

Sleeping is essential for us as it’s during this time that the body carries out repair work and our mind rests. Everyone needs different amounts of sleep, but the average amount of sleep an adult needs per night is 7.5 hours. If you find it difficult to fall asleep then practising good sleep hygiene is the way forward- try a relaxing bath before bed with lavender, have a warm milky drink, don’t watch television an hour before you need to sleep (and certainly don’t watch television in bed!) and reduce caffeine. As prescriptions for sleeping tablets are on the increase, it’s important to promote good sleep hygiene.

3. Make space to relax

Stress is also on the increase, and long term this can lead to high blood pressure, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and isn’t good for mental health. It’s important to create time for yourself during the day to relax, whether it’s physically getting out of the office during lunch and sitting in the local park, or switching the television off after dinner, taking the phone off the hook and picking up a good book for an hour or two.

4. Keep talking

I think it’s important to talk through any worries or anxieties with someone you trust instead of keeping them locked inside where they can fester. It’s also important to keep a check of your emotions- are you feeling ‘blue’? Are you more anxious than usual? This is so that you know when you need to see a doctor if you think you may be getting depressed or experiencing any other mental health symptoms, after all, one in four of us will experience some form of mental illness at some stage during our lives. Getting help is not a sign of weakness- it’s a sign of strength.

5. Exercise

We all know it’s important to exercise, but if you’re like me, this conjures up images of PE at school and cross country runs. Exercise doesn’t have to be a scary experience! Anything that gets your heart going and makes you slightly out of breath is exercise. So try taking the stairs instead of the lift (and walk briskly up them), get off the tube or the bus a stop early or even try riding a bike to work (environmentally friendly too!), take the dog for a longer walk, or borrow a friend’s dog. You can even buy pedometers fairly cheaply- these are a good way to monitor how far you walk each day and then you can set yourself targets to increase the distance.

Some opinions can hurt more than they help

Yes, perhaps it’s a bit late to be writing a blog entry, but I’ve just watched Malcolm Bowden’s 4thought video clip titled “Is faith a remedy for depression?“

Bowden says that mental illnesses are “deliberately decided by that person” and he believes that “depression is a behavioural problem rooted in pride, self centredness and self pity.” He goes on to say that ”a true Christian should not ever be depressed.”

I think it is a very damaging opinion to both religious and non religious people. I am a Christian but I certainly do not share the views of Malcolm Bowden. I believe that Christians experiencing mental illness are not doing so because they have chosen it, or because they are not a “true” Christian, but because mental illness is something that affects 1 in 4 people, regardless of factors like religion.

To suggest that anyone suffering with a mental illness has chosen to be that way is in the same territory as telling someone to pull themselves together or just get on with things. Those opinions hurt more than they help.

I doubt Bowden has truly experienced depression or any other mental illness personally. If he had first hand experience of depression, of the sheer struggle to simply get out of bed and the barrage of negative thoughts, he would not be so quick to say that Christians are choosing to be depressed because they are too proud.

I sincerely hope that any Christians out there are not stopped from asking for and receiving the help they need because of Malcolm Bowden’s closed minded opinion.

The roles we play

I recently watched this Open University podcast about the Stanford Prison Experiment and it got me thinking again about the roles we play in life; the ones we unconsciously slip into and don’t question.

In the Stanford Prison Experiment people were randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners and put into a mock prison environment. It didn’t take long for them to settle into their roles and play them out. The experiment had to be stopped after a matter of days due to the abuse of the prisoners by the guards.

To what extent does this happen in real life? If it does happen, is it ignored?

Last month I had a short stay on a psychiatric ward, and I observed myself falling into the patient role after a matter of hours. The nurses hold the keys and are literally the barrier between you and freedom, and I am not entirely sure if they realise the power they hold. Of course, the person with the most power is the psychiatrist. Until you have seen one, you are not allowed to do anything. If the psychiatrist runs out of time to see you before a bank holiday weekend, then tough luck. You’re stuck on the ward.

I resented it.

I couldn’t stay angry for long though because I was not entirely sure if they had ever been in such a situation themselves, where someone else was holding power over them. Surely if they realised what it felt like then they’d make more of an effort to see all of their patients before they left, right?

I do feel privileged though, in a sense, that I experienced it. The utter helplessness of being a prisoner, okay, a patient, with no control. I like to think that when I am fully trained as a psychologist I will not take my position of power for granted, or use it over anyone else.

The lunatics have taken over this asylum

In The Guardian today is an article written by Mike Slade entitled Why ‘putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum’ can work. It outlines a new peer support scheme being set up and being used by mental health services across the country whereby people with experience of mental health problems become peer support workers to current service users. Rethink and the Institute of Psychiatry have joined together on this project and next week brings a three day Research into Recovery conference exploring the benefits of those with experience of mental illness helping others through their recovery.

To some people I’m sure this sounds like an absurd idea, like the blind leading the blind. How can someone with a mental illness possibly help another person with a mental illness? Do they sit in a corner and giggle away to themselves? Well, no. That’s a rather outdated and stereotypical view of mental illness. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts  I have experience of mental illness, and yet if I walked past you in the street you wouldn’t be able to tell.

I am firmly of the view that with the best will in the world you cannot truly understand mental illness unless you’ve been there yourself. Textbooks can only tell you so much. I am currently trying to find some clinical work experience to complement the psychology degree I am studying for, and yet I fear as soon as I mention that I have been a patient on a psychiatric ward in the past I get dismissed. However, the fact remains that I hold a unique insight into life on a psychiatric ward and how seemingly mundane events can impact a service user. I also have a story to tell: I was where you are, I’d say, but it does get better. I am walking proof of that. If that’s not a good advocate for the peer support system then I don’t know what is.

Transitioning from child to adult mental health services

Today the Guardian published an article on the new Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) guide on transitioning from child to adult mental health services. The guide outlines the importance of planning for the transition at least six months before the transition is made, and that the age of transitioning from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to adult services has been raised from 17 to 18.

The guide emphasises that the young people need to be fully involved in all aspects of their transition, and their wider needs also incorporated- such as school, family, friends, housing and so on.

Adolescence is a tricky enough time without the added complexities of a mental health problem, and it is vital that the young person receives continued support from their designated mental health worker to ensure that they do not get ‘lost’ in the system, or disengage entirely from mental health services.

The main principle of the SCIE’s guide is that the transition should be “a flexible, managed process, with planning and assessments, continuity of care and follow-up. A period of shared or parallel care is good practice.”

All of this sounds excellent in theory, but my experience is an entirely different matter.

I was involved with CAMHS from the ages of 15 to 17. Unfortunately I did not build up a rapport with my key worker and no real progress was made on either of our parts. In my personal opinion, the psychiatrist I saw there did not listen to what I had to say and instead relied entirely on the opinion of my mother (subsequent assessments from other psychiatrists proved me correct) and so I was effectively discharged from CAMHS with a suggestion to try counselling, in a place I could not travel to, and even if I could, it would have interfered with my A levels.

What followed was nothing like the transition that SCIE are outlining. In the space of a few months after being discharged from CAMHS, I found myself in an adult acute mental health ward, feeling lost, scared and bewildered. I was 17 years old. I had no key worker from the adult services, I did not like my new psychiatrist and the average age of the patients on the adult ward was around 45.

Where was my flexible, managed process? Where was the planning and the continuity of care? I was allowed to slip through the cracks of the system. At 17 I had no idea that the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALs) existed, or an advocacy service. I did not know that I was entitled to a second opinion from another psychiatrist. Nothing was explained to me and so I could not have a proper say in my care. To my knowledge, during my time at CAMHs, I never even had a care plan. Most of my sessions took place with my entire family present and so I did not have an outlet to vent my feelings privately.

I was, after two weeks, transferred from the adult ward in south east Essex to an adolescent ward in London. It was less frightening, but also managed to remove me from my home town and place me in the centre of London, where I knew no-one and my family found it much harder and time consuming to visit me.

I also went from being the youngest patient to the eldest patient. The adolescent ward had a school room and two teachers, during the day we had a number of classes to attend plus occupational and individual therapy. The problem was that most of the patients were still following the secondary school national curriculum or studying for their GCSEs whereas I was in my final year of A levels. There was not anything to stimulate me as the hospital school did not cater for patients doing their A levels. I felt very frustrated, and ultimately, bored.

It has been my feeling for a long while now that there needs to be more bridging services between CAMHS and adult services. Even transitioning at age 18 to adult services is scary, especially if you need to be hospitalised. I propose that there needs to be an intermediary service for 18-25 year olds, effectively drawing the transition out over seven years for those who need the sustained mental health input.

It would also help those patients who first become known to mental health services at 18, who have not had the benefit of CAMHS. Entering the mental health system is scary, no matter how old you are. You feel scared and frightened because of the symptoms you are experiencing, and then you have to see a bunch of strangers and explain to them in great detail the darker recesses of your mind. It is nerve wracking and exhausting. But it can put undue stress on you, if at the age of 17 or 18, your first experience of the mental health system is being surrounded with much older, acutely ill patients. An 18-25 year old service would eliminate that factor, not entirely, but as much as possible. It would ensure a smoother transition and a less frightening experience for those just entering the system.

 

The E Word

It’s that time of year again. You know. The E word. Exams. No, don’t say it out loud! It doesn’t look like a scary word, just written down like that. But believe me, they ARE scary.

I am trying to revise. You’d think the act of remembering things is fairly easy. I’ve managed to remember my own name and date of birth for 22 years so I know my brain works! It’s just that my brain likes to do the opposite of what I tell it to.

“Okay, brain, today we are revising Behaviourism. See, you remember Watson and Rayner? BF Skinner? Thorndike? Simple.”

And my brain throws a tantrum and goes “But today I wanted to revise Freud. No, I’m not listening any more. La la la la.”

See what I have to put up with?

Christmas!

Wow, it has been a long time since I last updated. Now the Christmas holidays are upon us I actually have the time to write something!

I’ve been pretty busy, okay that’s an understatement, I’ve been extremely busy with uni work- class tests, book review, lab reports and so on, and I moved out of my flat in London and moved back home to Essex. I decided to unpack all of my boxes, put everything onto my bedroom floor and then left it that way for a week as I finished my assignments. I just finished clearing up today!

I’ve got two exams in January so no doubt the panic will set in soon, but for now I am enjoying having nothing to do and looking forward to Christmas.

The trailer for Doctor Who was released today and so I am feeling very excited!

Doctor Who trailer

Doctor Who never fails to cheer me up- even just hearing the theme music makes me feel happy! I’ve got tickets for the Doctor Who Experience in London and so I shall be going in the new year. I think that I am more excited than most children to have my photo taken by a replica of the TARDIS!

Westfield

I accidentally on purpose got the tube to Westfield at Stratford City after university today. I literally could not stop myself! It was a quick in and out visit to get a couple of christmas presents before the rush hour and peak times on the train started. I was quite impressed, everything had that sparkly new feeling and there are some good highstreet shops mixed in with designer outlets.

My Transsexual Summer

It takes a lot of courage to decide to take part in a documentary, especially if it is about a “controversial” topic. I have a lot of admiration for those who are currently appearing in My Transsexual Summer, a documentary about a group of people who are taking the step to change their gender.

I appeared in a documentary broadcast on Channel 4 in 2006 called The Cutting Club. It was about a group of people using a self harm recovery website and their struggle with self harm. I was 15 at the time and I took part in a couple of days of filming in various locations, but in the end I was not featured much in the final documentary.

There is 15 year old me, standing up wearing the black blazer.

A lot of people do not realise that you don’t get paid for appearing in documentaries. I was fortunate that back in 2006 when The Cutting Club aired, Facebook didn’t really exist. Some talk about the programme was generated on Myspace, but there was not the buzz that surrounds My Transsexual Summer. I only had one person on the bus say they recognised me from the telly, but I worry that the lovely people featured in My Transsexual Summer will be getting a lot of negative attention that websites like Facebook can generate.

In his blog, Maxwell Zachs talks about taking part in My Transsexual Summer, and how the editing process has meant that a lot of content has been left out leaving the documentary lacking in a lot of important issues, “Where is Fox talking about being mixed race, about his art and about how he sees himself as two spirit? Where is the exploration of Donna’s male and female identities as she navigates the personal relationships that mean so much to her? Where is the discussion about how [Maxwell rejects] gender binary and sexuality and still live an observant Jewish life at the same time?”

That’s always the risk you take when signing up to appear in a documentary, the editing process may leave you looking very different from how you actually are and leave out a lot of important views and opinions. I hope that through Maxwell’s blog and from the rest of the Trans* community we can hear more about the important issues they face.