A review of Crazy by Amy Reed – published by Simon and Schuster It’s hard to truly imagine what depression or bipolar disorder is actually like. The language of mental health is woefully inadequate. The word ‘depression’ has become part of the spectrum of everyday language used to describe feeling sad. We’ve all said or…
Tag: Mental Health
Motivation and depression
Exploring motivation, reverse motivation and getting motivated when struggling with depression Mental Health Chat and motivation Yesterday, just as I was finishing work for the day, I noticed that the #MHChat (Mental Health Chat) theme for the week was motivation. #MHChat is a twitter event where @MHChat poses questions on a weekly theme to encourage discussion….
Festive comparisons and the Facebook effect
An article exploring how the media forces us to make damaging comparisons in the festive season – and how we often magnify the effect with our own social media activity. A friend and old colleague Holly was recently published in the Vagenda. Her article was a spectacularly cynical but very funny piece called ‘How to…
Online peer support training with Action on Postpartum Psychosis
Running a training day for volunteers working on a new online peer support service for APP I was really pleased to be asked to help out with APP’s new online peer support programme. APP has been funded to provide peer support to women with postpartum psychosis and their partners. They have been running an online…
Organisational Healthcheck Consultancy for Time to Change
Attending the Time to Change Organisational Healthcheck training and away day I recently attended a training and meet up day for Time To Change Organisational Healthcheck Consultants. As I mentioned when posting about the work I did on an anti stigma campaign for Richmond Borough Mind, there is still a lot of discrimination, misunderstanding and silence…
Articles for ONEinFOUR
I’ve written four articles for lifestyle, health and mental wellbeing magazine ONEinFOUR. Spring-Summer 2013 – managing depression and anxiety in relationships The first was published in the Spring-Summer 2013 issue. It was one of the cover stories and explored managing anxiety and depression in relationships. Autumn-Winter 2013 More recently I’ve written three pieces for the…
Mental Health Awareness Campaign Support
This summer I provided interim support for the CEO of Richmond Borough Mind in the initial stages of organising a campaign for World Mental Health day in October 2013. Reducing stigma around mental health The campaign was focused on reducing stigma around mental health with an emphasis on encouraging employers to consider mental health and…
Online consultation with Mind’s Elefriends community
I first came across the Elefriends community after attending their online peer support training. I was interested in online peer support for adults and wanted to find out more about the impact of providing community members with peer support training. How does this affect their experience? I wrote about this training here. Online community consultation…
Why ‘Depression Island’?
A 2016 update Hello! Just wanted to pop in and add some notes to this post. It’s 3 years since I wrote it and since then my mental health has fluctuated and changed quite a lot. I still manage depression but trying to come off my antidepressants really increased my anxiety for a while. And a complex combination of…
Five good things a day for World Mental Health Day and beyond..
Happy World Mental Health Day everyone! Looking after your mental health If you don’t have a diagnosed mental health issue then you’d be forgiven for thinking that World Mental Health day isn’t for you. But we all have mental health in the same way we all have physical health – and that mental health needs…
What do we need to get help from our GP for mental health? Reassurance, realistic expectations and a plan.
Helping you get help from your GP “NHS services think that they are a series of entrances – but actually they are a series of barriers“ Yesterday, I went down to Brighton for the launch of Doc Ready – a new digital tool (a website and soon to be app) that helps young people get…
Pills and Pregnancy – when careless journalism damages vulnerable people
Pills panic Sitting down at my desk this morning, I opened Twitter for my usual pre work browse. My eye was caught by this tweet, which linked to an article by the BBC ‘Antidepressants ‘could be risk to unborn babies”. Of course, I clicked straight through. My recurrent depression and uneven support and information from…
Happiness – an emotion, a mood, a goal or a way of life?
What would we describe as a ‘happy life’? “The idea that humans can capture a mere mood – ‘happiness’ – and somehow preserve it seems absurd. As an aim for life it is not only doomed but infantile.” Sebastian Faulks – A Possible Life The idea of ‘happiness’ seems to have been popping up everywhere…
Managing depression and anxiety in relationships; early days and long term.
Tips and suggestions for managing depression and anxiety within relationships. A version of this article was published in the Summer 2013 edition of ONEinFOUR magazine. Managing mental health when meeting someone new; the early days of uncertainty and strong emotions. Four years ago I was pretty happy. I felt I was finally managing to keep all life’s…