Breaking the silence

Where do you go for support? To friends or strangers?

HOW confident are you about speaking up about mental health?
 
Chances are you’re clued up about stigma-busting campaigns, where to find helpful resources and may encourage others to share their experiences.
 
But what about you?
 
If you’re anything like me, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.
 
Sometimes I find it easier to seek the kindness of strangers than address the difficulties I find myself in with those closest to me.

Like many other people, I turn to blogs, forums or online support groups.

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.

Is mental illness funny?

A THOUGHT-provoking video - do you think it makes a valid point?

Don't Mind Me

 Thanks to Judith Haire for taking the time to share her story with us here and tell us about the book she has written about her experiences...

I'm 54 and at the age of 37 I experienced an acute psychotic episode which saw me hospitalised for six months. I was catatonic, mute and refused all food and drink for the first eleven days so I had to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act. 

The consultant told my parents he was saving my life rather than my sanity. I had six treatments of electro-convulsive therapy while sectioned. 

I'd grown up in a dysfunctional family and at the age of fourteen my grandmother died and I was not allowed to go to her funeral. I became depressed and, as a grief response, started to hear voices.

Without my knowledge, my mother arranged an appointment for me at the Child Guidance Clinic and one morning, when I thought my father was driving me to school, I was taken there against my will.

I was too frightened to reveal what was really going on at home and so was my mother so I was medicated and labelled a psychiatric case.

Essentials magazine: Health insight - 'the secret we need to talk about'

THIS month in Essentials magazine four women tell their stories of experiences of mental distress and explain why they feel we should all be more open.

I'm one of them.

My headline reads: "At last it made sense, I wasn't mad or weak - I was ill."

I'm featured discussing past episodes of depression alongside Sasha talking about post-natal depression, Barbara who details her OCD and Siobhan who explains how she has been affected by bipolar disorder.

The photo shoot was hilarious and full of fun. It's not a day I will forget in a hurry thanks to the warmth of the Essentials team and the laughs I shared with the inspirational women featured, not least Barbara who had me in stitches. I'm also delighted that the piece, the brainchild of journalist Alison Palmer, includes a plug for  this blog.

If you get chance, I hope you can check the feature out.

Wanted: Mental health blogs

IN the far right column of this blog, scroll down a bit and you will see a pretty sparse list of mental health blogs.

Here are some blogs, however recently I discovered them, that have drawn me back:

Pole to Polar: Secret Life of a Manic Depressive

Cage without a key

Reluctant Memsahib

Schizophrenia, a carer's journal

Mental Nurse

But I want to update the list in the hope of helping find more.

Please leave the name of your blog, if you would like to be included, or any others that you would like to recommend in the comments on this post.

Thank you.

'Don't shun us, we are just like everyone else' Comic Relief mental health video

MORE than a year on, this video still packs a punch.

'It just came out': An untitled poem about OCD

HE acts as my protector
Wrapping me up and placing
A soothing arm around me
But he's slowly destroying me
My mind and body
Deteriorate
The more I give in
The more vindictive he gets
Metamorphosising and finding
New tricks, new torment
I argue with him and almost win
But he's an expert at this game
What if? What if? He says
And so I comply
I feel calm
And he's won