Gum on My Shoe

By Andrew Turman Painting by the author. In this day and age, it perplexes me as to why Electroconvulsive Therapy, or electroshock, still seems to get a bad rap. Some people not only question its use, but also call for the ban of this controversial treatment. I, for one, can attest to the efficacy of its use for not only depression, but also mania. Just last week, I underwent shock treatment three times to control my mania, upon which the use of very dangerous psychotropic medications do not seem to have any effect. The treatment itself has seen little change since it was first developed: it involves brief electrical stimulation of the brain while the patient is under general anesthesia. This stimulation induces a grand mal seizure in the patient, which under close monitoring, is harmless. This seems to “reset” the brain, much like rebooting a computer. Extensive research has found ECT to be highly effective for the relief of major depression, as well as being an effective tre...

I’m going to talk about a few things said to me over the years by people who have what I do not: lived experience of mental illness. They’ve been hard to hear but I’m grateful because I’ve learned something valuable each time. “You don’t understand” They say we all have mental health but as Fran and I describe in our book High Tide, Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder there’s a fundamental difference in experience between someone like Fran who lives with mental illness and someone like me who never has. Well or ill, we are all people. Nevertheless, it is naive, disrespectful, and dangerous to downplay the impact illness has on those affected by it. Those who are ill […] have particular life experiences, perceptions, expectations, and needs. To use Fran’s terminology, she is the ill one in our relationship; I am the well one. Nothing more or less is implied by our use of these terms. High Tide, Low Tide , Introduction So when someone tells me I don’t un...

By Brad Krause What we do on a daily basis to take care of ourselves is the number one determining factor in our overall mental health. Many of us live under unhealthy amounts of stress, financial burdens, and physical and emotional strain from juggling home and professional duties. When we think about self-care, it’s easy to overlook the basics . Here is what you should focus on today. Muscle Relaxation We think a lot about chilling out and relaxing (mentally), but we often fail to consider physical relaxation. If you have a demanding job or like to hit the gym regularly, muscle relaxation and massage should be a part of your self-care regimen ( the benefits are vast ). You don’t have to go out and spend a fortune every week on massages. For example, when it comes to the all-important foot massage, great home models will work just fine. Focusing on Sleep Quantity and Quality For many, sleep is just a thing you have to do for the next day to start. Even if you love to sl...

There’s a common perception that we cannot truly understand someone’s situation unless we’ve ‘walked a mile in their shoes.’ An equivalent experience may help us relate to one another but it carries its own responsibilities and cautions. The main danger lies in assuming that our experience is relevant to the person we’re trying to help. If I’d ever been clinically depressed myself, for example, I might imagine Fran experiences depression the way I did or that her needs are the same as mine were. Consciously or unconsciously, there’d be a tendency for me to focus on those parts of her story which fit my personal model of what it’s like to be depressed. I might push her towards approaches I’d found useful and steer her away from things that hadn’t been helpful to me personally. However, there can be specific advantages. Never having shared equivalent experiences allows me to ask Fran the ‘dumb questions’ others might not ask (believing they know the answers) such as how exactly doe...

Simply put, the Law of Attraction is the ability to attract into our lives whatever we are focusing on — I like the basic idea of the Law of Attraction. I think it kind of works, sometimes at least. If you’re focused on what you want and open to opportunities you’re more likely to achieve what you’re after. By way of an example, I used to have nobody to meet up with locally for coffee or a drink or to go to events with, and didn’t know how to change that. Then I started finding myself in situations where in the past I’d probably have thought oh that’s not for me , but decided to give it a try. I’m thinking of the Literary Salon which is on once a month here in Newcastle. I haven’t been in a while — it no longer quite fits what I want to be doing — but I got a lot out of going over the past year or two, including the confidence to stand up and speak in front of an audience. I met some great people too. Something similar happened with other local events and groups, and these day...

Check out our top posts for the past month. Posts are listed by number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first. Six People I Admire in the Mental Health Community An Open Letter to My Bipolar Best Friend Hidden Histories: Mining in the North East Don't Be a Jerk: How to Respond Responsibly on Social Media Our Top Posts of the Month (May 2019) Announcing Hidden Histories: Mining in the North East Our Top Posts of the Month (February 2019) Weepy, Angry, Catatonic: Three Kinds of Depression and How You Can Help In Bloom Not Broken In the Beginning Our most visited pages were: Contact Us Resources About Us Our books News and Appearances Testimonials  

Press Release A new mental health portal www.themindmap.co.uk launched 3 July 2019. This innovative new platform focuses on providing young people, predominantly aged between 16 – 30 access to subsidised counselling, the ability to find and book free mental health services and resources as well as access to a magazine that shares articles and interviews with well-known musicians and sports athletes regarding mental health, all in one place. Launched by Liverpool-based mental health organisation The Mind Map, the platform is the result of a three-year research project carried out between The Mind Map and leading organisations with Mental Health at the centre of their agenda with contributions from Liverpool John Moores University, Imperial College London and the NHS amongst others. Founder Phil Bridges, a Youth Mental Health First Aid instructor and Adolescent Mental Health university lecturer said: We all have mental health — good or bad. But our research uncovered what we su...

As I wrote recently one of the things I’ve learned from fellow mental health blogger Aimee Wilson is to celebrate every achievement and make the most of each moment because you don’t necessarily know what’s coming up next. I’ve been thinking about this and I’ve realised there’s more to celebrating our successes than I’d ever imagined. A Thing Worth Celebrating It might seem obvious that we tend to celebrate good, happy, positive things. We celebrate things that are special, infrequent, or unusual; and we celebrate big things more than we celebrate little things. What’s perhaps less obvious is that there’s an unofficial list of “good, special, big” things which are deemed successes worth celebrating. The list includes: Graduating from school or college Becoming engaged or married Becoming pregnant The birth of a child A new job or promotion Moving into a new home This is fine if it fits with our aspirations, desires, and abilities but what if it doesn’t? If we are n...