Breaking the silence

Doctors should take more care in prescribing anti-depressants: Alison's story

Photo by Ice.bluess on Flickr

ALISON contacted me because she wanted to tell her story. She wanted to share her experience of stopping her medication and why. Here's she describes the two and a half years she was on anti-depressants and how they made her feel.

I WAS put onto medication for my depression about four months after my son was born.

The doctor’s view was unless I started taking something, I would have to go into hospital. I reluctantly started taking ADs and awaited my appointment for counselling.

Exclusive Corrie prints to boost mental health drama project

TWENTY exclusive portraits by Coronation Street actor and artist Steve Huison are for sale to help boost funds for an innovative mental health project.

The artwork, which also includes written notes on the stars' insights into life and acting, is being sold in aid of the Shoestring Forum's Hospital to Home project, just outside Keighley in West Yorkshire.

Weatherfield favourites including William Roache, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Michael Le Vell, Bill Tarmey, Sue Nicholls, David Nielson and Steve himself, who recently filmed his last scenes as Gary Windass, are featured with breathtaking precision.

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.

Media request: Women who "had a breakdown" in their 20s

JO Adnitt from Look magazine says the following.

Please note she needs to speak to someone by tomorrow (Weds) afternoon by the latest and would need 15/2o minutes on the phone.

Please email Jo if you can help. Please don't get in touch if you don't feel up to being named or having your photo used -- they want to use a 'collect' pic which means you would be asked to supply a snap rather than having a new one done.

I'm looking for a woman in her twenties who has had a breakdown.

I'm trying to find someone who had the breakdown for the first time in her twenties due to lifestyle issues - maybe linked to work, too much pressure in all areas of her life etc and it led to her being hospitalised.

 

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.

What should you do in a mental health crisis? By a psychiatric nurse

MENTAL health services in this country are not perfect.

On the whole they are run by well meaning people trying to do the best they can with the resources they've got.

However, like it or not, the system is what we have to deal with. And so it's useful to know where you stand within it.

I thought it might be useful to outline how the system deals with people in a crisis, and how you can use that system to ensure you get the most effective service.

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.