If just ticking the boxes it takes 10 minutes. I found the questions fascinating and spend longer on it answering in the optional text boxes. I think you will find completing this survey well worthwhile – it makes you think.

www.schizophreniacommission.org.uk

The thing is that I can’t stop thinking about medication.

I took psychiatric drugs from 1997 to 2011. The way the drugs were supposed to work was not explained and the side effects were not explained. Gradually the drugs made me ill. The haloperidol may me very ill. The next drug made me agitated, then Prozac got me the manic depression diagnosis. The Olanzapine/Zyprexa caused weight gain and a lot of other things. The lithium damaged my kidneys and a lot more.

Rather than waiting until I stop thinking about medication before writing anything on this Blog I am going to post a few things about medication and see if I can get it out of my system. It is stuff you need to know whether you are taking it, thinking of taking it or know people involved with psychiatric medication.

I found a lot of short videos about psychiatric medication here…

http://beyondmeds.com/

“I choose my mood and am in the mood I want to be in most of the time”

I have been surprised that many nurses, social workers and similar participants are definite in saying this is not true for them.

Most participants also feel it is not true for the people they are paid to help.

Surely we should be able to choose our mood most of the time. If we find that our moods are almost entirely depend on our circumstances there is a huge risk that we could become increasingly unhappy and dissatisfied.

If we are going to help others recover from mood disorders and help others with choosing their moods we first need to practice choosing our own moods.

We can help clients, friends and family better when we are able to choose our own moods.

Increasingly people are reminding me that we are all supposed to be “Human Beings” rather than “Human Doings”.  I remember a client telling me how his wife used to tell him to “Just have a little be” – meaning just stop doing things for a while. It is difficult because doing becomes a habit. It is also difficult to understand all those millions of ‘beings’ who seem to believe everything can work out fine whilst doing nothing. Of course most of the time they are right because while they are doing nothing those of us who are busy people are keeping the world going.

Will things really get easier if we all stop too?

The phrase I thought of the other night after an ex-bipolar person told me that the greatest thing he had discovered was ‘the importance of mindfulness and the ability to do nothing at all’… my new phrase is, “DO LESS, BE MORE” which replaces a wellness tool I had written on a card for a few years, “DO LESS TO ACHIEVE MORE”.

I am not sure if the BE MORE idea is clever or just has a weird double-meaning. I am becoming aware though that I do need to try this stopping thing. I am shortly going to spend a day in a place where I wont have internet access – that could be a chance to slow down a bit – although I will still have a laptop with me.

It certainly is a challenge when there seems to be so much wrong that needs to be put right – can we really afford to stop?

I have been busy researching, reviewing the proof for Bipolar Disorder : A guide for mental health professionals, carers and those who live with it, and training of course.  Now, I am keen to write about more about eliminating the disorder part of bipolar disorder – just that, (a bit like John Lennon said) ‘life just keeps getting in the way’.

Doubters might say, “That proves he has a mood disorder. He blogs every few days then has to stop for a month – clearly he can’t cope.”

More realistically we all juggle the projects we are involved with, stopping and starting. Recognising how much we can realistically achieve and what can be stopped and restarted is a sign of healthy thinking. If I am at fault, it is in my feeling that I need to apologize for not blogging… This is driven by anxiety not by bipolar disorder.

Have a look at www.rethinkingbipolar.com to see some of the things I was writing during the break from here.

As recovery courses go this one is exceptionally in-depth as Dr Straughan’s approach is to share as much information as possible in something like 64 hours in the classroom.

Of course, the effectiveness of such courses takes a long time to evaluate. It is good to see these evaluations being reported as the courses in Hertfordshire continue. Could it be that Hertfordshire is becoming something of a centre of excellence for recovery from mood disorder?

http://www.recoveryin-sight.com/data-on-9-in-sight-courses-in-herts-2008-11/

A Very Good Book

I have not posted on this site for a while as I was reading in my spare time.

I have reviewed  ’Anatomy of an Epidemic’ by Robert Whitaker at Rethinking Bipolar and on amazon.co.uk.

Anatomy of an Epidemic tells the truth about some medications that cause a lot of problems.

My own solution to being on the wrong drugs was to work with my GP to get to a lower dose. Then I changed GP, which is of course another way to have your medication reviewed.

Smiling makes a huge difference to how we feel. 

Make yourself smile now. Any improvement? Maybe another smile?

The factory manager saw Bill arriving late for work pushing his bicycle and not riding it. He asked Bill why he was late and if there was something wrong with his bicycle. Bill replied, “No, there’s nothing wrong with my bike. I just left home so late this morning I didn’t even have time to get on the bike.”

It is such a silly story that I am told by some that it is not even funny. For me, there is a message about anxiety. The more anxious we become the less likely we are to use the tools at our disposal.

A tool can be anything we are able to use; a bicycle, some web design software, the right sized saucepan, a spade rather than a shovel or even the right medication. These are all tools. Choosing the right tool depends on using a very ‘human’ part of our brains that works best when we are not too anxious.

Reactions to anxiety course:

- Leicester 27th September 2011

- Grantham 1st November 2011

Juggling activities

We need to have aims/goals/projects and yet so many of us take on too much from time to time. An idea I have found useful is to see the many projects I am involved with as juggling balls. I keep juggling, meaning to keep each activity going and keeping the people around me happy as I do my part in our projects. Trouble arises when I start to believe I must never drop a ball. It is as if all the balls are made of glass and could shatter if dropped. An idea that has been around a few years is to recognise which of your projects can be dropped and picked up again. Which balls are rubber and are going to bounce?

These last few weeks with two book manuscripts to be submitted, the blogging had to be dropped. Not an easy choice for me. Having now carefully put down the book manuscript balls with both now with the publishers I can pick up the blogging ball again.

Did I lose readers while I was away? Probably

Does it matter? Probably

Was it still the best option? Probably