A Day in the Life

Just a short blog this time to say that I may be about to become a film star. Well, sort of. As I am part of the Pathways to Recovery group at the Bennett Centre, I will be involved with the making of a film to show the experiences of the long-term mentally ill. Most of us at the group have diagnoses of either schizophrenia or manic depression and we have decided that the film should be there to promote an understanding of our experiences of those illnesses. There has already been many ideas thrown into the ring about what the film should be about and look like. Many have mentioned the isolation and loneliness they feel, our difficulty in forming lasting relationships or indeed, any relationships at all. But despite this we all seem to feel that the film should also portray a message of hope, that there can be light at the end of any long and dark tunnell and that recovery, coping, living and achieving with such diagnoses is possible. The film, I think, will be funded by the council an...

Thankyou again for your comments on my last blog. I will definitely get back to you. This time I was going to talk about some of the work we are doing at MAGMH as I am finding it particularly interesting at the moment. We are currently researching the possibilty of changing the name of schizophrenia to something a little less stigmatizing. I say a little less, what I really mean is alot less, as I'm sure we all know about the prejudices that surround "that word". Anyway, if you don't know, I shall inform you- consider it educational! For a start, and in no small part due to sheer semantics, people often confuse schizophrenia with a "Jekyll and Hyde", split personality. Of course those of us who know better, know better. But that doesn't stop the general public confusing the condition with something that is more like dissociative identity disorder. Such misunderstandings lead to misattribution of anti-social bahaviours and stigma. Secondly, many of us ima...