A Day in the Life

After writing, only in my last post, about the use of drugs and an increase in deaths caused by such things as excessive drinking and smoking, on Saturday, 23rd July, I found out that the brilliant, but troubled singer, Amy Winehouse, had been found dead at her Camden home at the appallingly young age of only 27. I can only say that, as a fan, I was shocked and upset by the news. Indeed, for me, who does not usually become overly-emotional at such things, I was, somewhat to my own surprise, overtly moved and saddened. Perhaps it is because Amy's life was so turbulent that I felt this way. Having had a long battle with drugs and alcohol, Amy had also had problems, it had been reported, in the area of mental health. At one stage she was said to have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, although did not take medication for this condition. She was also said to have had trouble with an eating disorder, and on many occasions appeared painfully thin. Such problems w...

The other day on our local radio station, BBC Radio Stoke, it was announced that admissions to hospital for women aged between 30 and 60 for alcohol-related problems had increased by a third over the last few years. This statistic was taken from hospital admissions specifically related to my own locality of Stoke-on-Trent. Numerous people came on the radio to comment about the issue, and, to me, only one made any sense of this disturbing statistic. She was a woman from the charity, "Brighter Futures", and her suggestion was that we face such economic and social discontent in our area that such figures are not really surprising. She went on to suggest that people have to be given hope for at least some kind of future if we want them to adhere to suggested limits of the ingestion of things like alcohol. Why, she postulated, would people actually want to live in a terrible situation until old age? If you don't have any hope, why bother? Th...

"Many of the battles we fought were over issues of 'representation'- a loosely defined set of grievances mostly lodged against the media, the curriculum and the English language...ours was a politics of mirrors and metaphors." Naomi Klein, "No Logo". At the Media Action Group for Mental Health, part of our stated aim is to "promote positive, accurate and realistic images of mental health and people who live with mental distress." The key word here, perhaps, is "images", for at our charity, we are mostly concerned with what is sometimes termed "identity politics". That is to say, we do not promote actual, concrete reforms in law, for example, but rather, seek to better the "representation" of  mental illness and those with experience of it. Our hope is that by doing this, some social change will take place- knowledge, attitudes and behaviour will somehow transmogrify. As Naomi Klein (above) points out in her book, ...

"Madness became pure spectacle...which was offered as a diversion to the good conscience of a reason sure of itself...Until the beginning of the nineteenth century...madmen remained monsters- that is, etymologically, beings or things to be shown." Michel Foucault, "Madness and Civilisation".   The most recent initiative from the national "Time to Change" campaign, aimed at dismantling the stigma which surrounds mental illness, is called "It's time to talk". The brains behind the campaign think that talking openly about mental health is, to quote from their "Update" magazine, "one of the best ways to improve knowledge, attitudes and behaviour." One of the aspects of their new initiative has been the opening of various "human libraries" around the country, where people with no experience of mental illness can meet those who have had experience and, hopefully, therefore, "see beyond the label and meet the ind...

When a person becomes or has been seriously ill, it is, perhaps, a normal response for the person in question to ask, "why me?" Before the intrusion of such things in our lives, we probably, most of us, go around thinking "it'll never happen to me." I can honestly say that I was the same. The thought that one day I may become what is, somewhat inhumanely, referred to as "a schizophrenic", could not have been further from my mind. I suppose the thought of "losing your mind", so to speak, sometimes goes through the brains of most people, being, as it is, perhaps one of our deepest, darkest fears. But, it would appear, many of us dismiss the idea and we are unable to identify ourselves as ever being "one of them". Thus spring up all the old stereotypes of madness, perhaps the embodiment of our fears, the psychological projection of what secretly haunts us. But, to return to the original question of "why me?", I suppose it is...

So, after 126 chapters, this being the 127th, I have decided to call an end to entitling my posts "Dave's Progress". As the last chapter was a particularly positive one, suggesting that, if not entirely recovered, many of us at the Pathways Group are well into the process of recovery, I have made up my mind that this might be an appropriate place to end calling my posts by that particular name. Indeed, anyway, "recovery" to many is an ongoing process, not with any solid end goal. As many of us in the group have chronic conditions (i.e. they are treatable, but not curable), the suggestion that any of us are totally "recovered", including myself, is perhaps to misconstrue the concept of recovery. So, as an alcoholic might call themselves "a recovering alcoholic", so it is with us. Having said this, there are aims to the recovery process, such as being able to live a fulfilling and meaningful existence even without the complete abatement of sy...

After visiting the Pathways Group on Tuesday, I was somewhat overcome with a great feeling of positivity and hope for the future. Our little group, set up for those who have had some experience of psychosis, has now been running for around four years, and although there have been sad times, with the unfortunate loss of two of our members, the group has remained a steadfast resource for, I believe, all of us who take part in it. I almost cannot get over the continuing positive "vibes" which emanate from our little gathering, and indeed, it seems we have achieved quite a bit since its inception, including making a short film which was screened at our local museum, and recently developing our own website (see link below). The group, then, is not what you might expect from one designed to help those with perhaps the most severe and enduring of mental health conditions. Indeed, we seem to be forever having our confidence boosted by the staff who facilitate the group by them telli...