Uncategorized

Day 907

Posted by

2

IMG_0618

The national conversation on mental health and wellbeing is growing. Tackling stigma, raising awareness and providing help for people with mental health challenges sit on top of the agenda. Big names take the lead. Royals of state and sport speak up. Banners shine and flags fly high.  The CEO of Virgin Money, the main sponsor of the London Marathon speaks on national radio about her perinatal depression.

Heads Together Charity has been set up by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge along with Prince Harry to ensure that people feel comfortable with their everyday mental wellbeing, feel able to support their friends and families through difficult times, and that stigma no longer prevents people getting help they need.

Rio Ferdinand, Katherine Welby Roberts and many others come forward to make short films about their experiences of bereavement and depression. Jonny Benjamin gets awarded an MBE for his work. Newspapers and TV are more open to discussing these issues.

It’s happening. The seeds have been sown. There is hope.

Ref:

Calmzine. Marathon Special : https://www.thecalmzone.net/get-involved/calmzine/

Heads Together: https://www.headstogether.org.uk/

Jonny Benjamin: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38477747/jonny-benjamin-how-i-went-from-suicide-attempt-to-mbe

Day 906

Posted by

0

Last September I started writing a case study on patient safety for an academic paper. For every sentence, it required evidence. Unfortunately, the level of evidence for some of the material is not high because of the nature of the subject. Secondly, research in mental illness is poorly funded in the UK.

I am reminded of a young friend who is looking for a job but she can’t find one as they require her to have experience which she cannot gain unless she has a job. A classic chicken and egg situation.

So, the deadline has been extended time and again and finally we are going to have another attempt at submitting it before the end of this month. The lowest level of evidence to be found is Level 5 – ‘Case series or studies with no control’.

Here is one that I am going to use to support my statement: “Almost everyone who is suicidal is ambivalent. They don’t necessarily want to die. They just want the pain to end.” Hopefully it will be accepted. 

Kevin Hines is one of less than 1% of people to survive a jump from the Golden Gate bridge in a suicidal attempt. He is now a mental health advocate and works actively towards suicide prevention.

“The millisecond my hands left that rail, I thought, ‘what have I just done? I don’t want to die, God please save me’, and then I hit the water,” he said.
“You fall four seconds, you hit the water and get vacuum sucked down 70 or 80 ft – when I opened my eyes I was alive. “All I desperately wanted to do was survive – suicide experts call this being ‘shocked into reality’.”

Ref:

Kevin Hines:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-29995470

Youtube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcSUs9iZv-g

Website: http://www.kevinhinesstory.com/bio/

Day 905

Posted by

0

443c65093a99a8ed30d6bb9b0a78729f

Where is the news of Union with you that I shall give up life.
I am a holy bird of Paradise, from the world’s trap shall rise.

By your love, I swear that if you call me to be your slave,
I shall give up the mastery of life and the world.

Oh Lord, let the rain fall from your guiding clouds,
Before, like dust, I rise and vanish from sight.

When you come to my grave, bring wine and the lute to me,
So that I, delighted to see you, from the grave dancing shall rise.

Though I am old, hold me tightly one night to your breast,
Then, in the morning, from your bosom, young shall I rise.

On the day of my death, give me a minute’s time to see you,
Then, from the world and life, I will be set free.

  • By the Persian poet, Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī

Day 904

Posted by

0

Depression2_Ashely

“Ut amem et foveam” (To love and cherish) reads one of the tattoos on David Beckham. “Quod me nutris, me destruit” (What nourishes me destroys me) reads one of Angelina Jolie’s. Dragons, spiderwebs, birds, butterflies and many other forms and words cover many a body, silently relaying many stories. Mine simply reads ‘Saagar’ – an uncompromising statement, ink sealed beneath the skin as a permanent marker of what matters most. I got it in this very town on the 3rd of October 2016 (Day 718). Yes. It was painful but well worth it.

Tattoos once signified tribal affiliations and hard line expressions of devotion to a particular gang or cult. They serve as potent conversation starters and quiet sources of strength and hope. Some people with depression pick themes such as ‘Amour’, ‘Stay strong’, the picture of an anchor, “Grace’, a butterfly signifying if I could get through this I could become something beautiful on the other side, a dream catcher and ‘Sometimes you’ve got to fall before you fly’ and many such quotes and song lyrics.

They are a form of self-expression but when all over, I wonder if they are also a form of self-harm as they do hurt, especially when combined with multiple piercings. They certainly are an effective way of covering up scars from self-harm and may inspire people to invest in treatment and recovery.

A 2015 survey of tattoo owners in Britain showed that 40% of them regretted at least one of their’s. It is no surprise that tattoo removal parlours are the largest growth sector in the cosmetic industry.

I suppose it means different things to different people. Some say you can never stop at one but I am happy with one and I know that I will never regret it.

 

Day 903

Posted by

2

320px-Almeida_Júnior_-_Saudade_(Longing)_-_Google_Art_Project

2 days since we landed in Portugal and 2 days of feeling like I’ve been hit by a tonne of bricks. Great weather, lovely company, fabulous food and still this strange feeling of heaviness. Maybe it has something to do with the lunar cycle. May be it’s the accumulated tiredness of the past few months finding an outlet. Unsure of what to make of it, I speak to my friend about it and she tells me about ‘saudade’. It’s the Portuguese name for an emotion that lives in this land, its people, music and culture.

It is a wistful longing, drenched in sorrow, for something that can never be had again. It is nostalgia, but melancholic. It is longing, but knowing it cannot be. A type of self-delusion. So, “saudade” is a feeling of lost connection with the most important feeling or thing you ever had, a desire for something that you lost – a country, a grandmother, youth, a son, a lover.

In English, it means ‘to miss’. It is a verb.
In Portuguese, it is a thing. A noun. Saudade.