How not to annoy your patient
Today I saw a rather old Independent article on Twitter. I’m surprised I haven’t come across it before – it’s been out there since 2010 – but now that I’ve seen it, I can’t unsee it. Entitled How not...
View ArticleWho’s listening?
It’s no fun being trapped in a pit. You were walking along in the forest and you just kind of… slid. And now you’re on your own in the darkness, looking up at the moon through a circle of dirt. You...
View ArticleBed/crisis
In past times when I have been very ill a bed has been found at my local unit – and quickly. I think one was sourced within the day the first time around, and the following day at the start of my …...
View ArticleSome people find psychiatry helpful… and that’s OK
I grew up very close to a Victorian asylum. It began to close in the late 1980s, when I was in my teens, but even as a child I was aware that some of the people I saw wandering the … Continue reading →
View ArticleReview: Ellen Forney’s Rock Steady
I started out by really, really wanting to like this book. I adored Ellen Forney’s graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me, which came out a whole six years ago. So I was...
View ArticleRevolving door
TW: references to suicide methods I remember the first time I was in hospital I was sitting on the floor chatting with my friend Phil, when he spotted somebody he recalled from a previous admission....
View ArticleThe pam fam: the demonisation of benzodiazepines
“Diazepam.” A single word tweet. Regular readers or Twitter followers will know what that meant: I had hit an intolerable level of anxiety which I was managing with a prescribed benzodiazepine. One...
View ArticleOn having a “carer”
By now I am a veteran at completing application/review forms for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP). ESA is for people who are too sick to work, while PIP is...
View ArticleRunning up that hill
Trigger warning: this post contains descriptions of suicidal thoughts, including methods. Please don’t read on if you are feeling at all vulnerable. I want to run. I am desperate to run. When I wrote...
View ArticleCrisis? What crisis?
I’ve thought about blogging so often in recent weeks, with several abortive attempts. I considered writing about the therapeutic benefits of having a companion animal – if you don’t follow me on social...
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