Breaking the silence

Independent feature: Is depression actually good for you?

I RECENTLY blogged my reaction to this question after being asked for my view. I'm included in the resulting article published today in The Independent.

It's a well balanced and researched piece by my freelance colleague Rebecca Hardy, reporting on research that says depression can make your life better.

Well I may be a simplistic so and so but I can't envisage a similar piece about any form of cancer any time soon...what is it about mental illness that makes people think it's something that can just be shaken off so you can 'get on with life'?

I'm reported saying depression hasn't made my life better and expressing a view that such reports can add to a perception of suffering that is a million miles from reality.

Here's my previous piece and comments from more people who feel the research doesn't reflect their experience:

Does depression make your life better?

 

Mental health and the internet, a report from The Mind Sanctuary

SINCE I started blogging about stuff to do with mental illness, the connection between the internet and our state of mind has remained of interest.

This is not least because on the one hand, the web can be a place to find understanding and support, while on the other a cloak of anonymity makes it easier to say hurtful things, which can cause a lot of emotional pain at a time when you are feeling low.

Sometimes the people behind those cruel words may be ill themselves.

An insight into mental health provision, what resources would you add?

HAVE you read many accounts from people who have experienced mental health services first hand? I haven't.

My impressions of mental health provision were based for a long time almost entirely on ignorance.  As a fan of so many TV detectives I sometimes whimsically imagined that mental health treatment only happened at fresh-lawned stately homes with personal trainers jogging merrily about and affable academics and psychiatrists at every turn.

Then there's the other images of psychiatric hospitals portrayed so often in our media, from the desperation of olden days asylums on Who do you think you are? to the bullying oppression of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

So never mind these oudated cliches, what of the reality?

The reality is this:

Mark talked about one man who had walked out of the ward at the end of his stay to nothing, with no contacts, not introductions.  He said he wasn’t surprised to hear how the man had got himself back by standing in the middle of the road, directing traffic.

One in four suffer mental health problems - where does that figure come from?

HOW many times have you read that one in four people in Britain are affected by a mental health condition? 

Just over a week ago, as the coalition government's No Health Without Mental Health strategy was launched, care services minister Paul Burstow said one in four people will suffer a mental health problem during their lives, while one in six do so at any one time, with an  estimated yearly cost to society of up to £105 billion.

Back in 2001, The World Health Organisation reported that one in four people will suffer mental health problems at some point their lives.  It said 450 million people worldwide were suffering from mental or neurological illnesses and were being failed by their communities.

Blogging at NHS Local for the West Midlands

THANK you very much to Jo Ind at NHS Local for asking me to blog about mental health.

Jo has given me a very warm welcome.

My first post is entitled Why depression isn't a designer illness.

I'll be posting regularly when time allows so I hope to see you there.

Concerns raised over new government strategy on mental health

THE government's new strategy No Health Without Mental Health was announced on Wednesday, with £400m being pledged over four years to extend the IAPT scheme (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) so that talking therapies, including counselling, will be more widely available - especially to children and young people.

Read what counsellor Frances Weston has blogged about the plans.

Half a story about a hospital fire

© Copyright Keith Havercroft and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

I'VE been writing about mental health lately on this blog as well as for the magazine One in Four.

This has largely involved helping people tell their stories of mental distress.

Posts by Suzie Grogan about her family history and Deerbaby who wrote about a fleeting moment etched on her memory inspired me to find out more about an institution I mentioned in our recent carnival of blog posts about mental illness.

And I've discovered half a story. It's the sort of story the me of 15-20 years ago would have jumped on. I may still do that. Perhaps I could pull a more in-depth report together.

Shortlisted for a blogging award, thank you

THIS isn't a blog you will see topping any lists compiled by marketing agencies or consultants to highlight 'mum blogs' or that's read by thousands of people a day.

But it is a blog that (forgive the cliche) I'm passionate about so when someone tells me they have appreciated something written here, or that it has helped them, to say it makes my day is a bit of an understatement.

Time to Change experiment tests mental health stigma

WOULD you date someone with a mental health problem or share a flat with them? This experiment from Time to Change shows us how most people would answer that question.

Sopranos actor stomps the stigma of mental illness

MY partner loved The Sopranos. I think I'd love it too but I've never got round to watching the set of DVDs. So forgive me, I wasn't all that familiar with actor, director and producer's Joe Pantoliano's work.

But like Glenn Close, 'Joey Pants' is a US actor using his celebrity to shine a light on mental illness.

His No kidding, Me Too! charity has gathered massive support in America, with the likes of Harrison Ford also speaking up and Robert Kennedy Jnr dubbing him a Martin Luther King of the movement.

I found this trio of videos interesting and inspirational so thought I'd include them here. Pantoliano is also the producer of Canvas, a film I'd love to see.