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People Promising Simplistic Solutions to Mental Illness

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I am sick to death of people who give simplistic solutions to long-term serious mental illness. Even good-hearted people ignorantly do this. I have been told: Yoga will cure your depression Meditation will cure your depression Diet x will cure ALL mental illness Supplement y will cure ALL mental illness This medication will cure your depression Running will cure your depression You just need to... Therapy z will cure all your problems (CBT is included in this list) People need to grow up and realise that mental illness (even the same mental illness such as depression) has multiple causes. Some depression will be mostly genetic, some will be mostly upbringing, some will be mostly based on someone's current environment, and for many people a mixture of all these. Even professionals haven't woken up to the realisation that the causes are often varied and complex, as are the solutions. Most people peddling a solution is after money or has been taken in by some cu...
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Toxic Friend on a Road Trip

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Overview: Some people are toxic to most people Some people are just toxic to us (due to incompatible values, or they just treat us badly) Some good people sometimes do toxic things (ourselves included) I had an experience recently where an old friend needed a lift from me. He was willing to pay, for my trouble. I haven't seen this friend much in the past couple of years. On the few hours I spent with them, I learned that they have changed for the worse. They have become rude, disrespectful and arrogant, and have derogatory views about people with mental illness. He probably fits in category 2. above, although I suspect he agitates and puts down all the people in his life. I heard him being derogatory to his grandmother. Strangely, he dearly loves her, but is unaware of the way he puts people down. I sent him some messages to tell him what I thought. This can probably be considered unwise, and in many ways it was, however in the past when I've bottled things up, I...
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Excessive Bureaucracy Destroys People Who Aren't EXTREMELY Organised!

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About 6 weeks ago I started a City & Guilds teaching course. After 6 weeks I quit due to excessive bureaucracy. Here is the email I sent to my tutor, City and Guilds and the education minister in the UK. It is totally authentic and probably very rude and out of order. However this is TOTALLY how I feel so I feel I have a right to express my truth. Notice I say MY truth. Other people might disagree and that is OK. This is just MY take on MY current reality: Hi [NOTE: I have forwarded this to my tutor, City and Guilds feedback email, and the education minister]. I was recently doing a City and Guilds course entitled PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Sector). I decided to quit today however because I discovered that the course was mainly (probably 95%) about legislation (e.g. health and safety, equality, assessment), and only about 5% of the course was about learning to actually teach. Not EVERYONE wants to go and teach for a college or schoo...
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Healing by feeling

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Emotions and feeling are messages from our true self. If we stand on broken glass, we get a message of pain. This message means, please inspect and clean the wound, and be more careful where you're going! Emotions are no different to this sort of message. If you are unhappy then this is a message to make a change. If you are happy, this is your true nature telling you that you are right on track. Every time we suppress an emotion, we are ignoring our true self or true nature. Learning to listen to ourselves is key to recovery. All these messages we receive are useful, ESPECIALLY the unpleasant messages! Our true nature knows what we really need. Depression comes from when we constantly override these messages. You see our true self will shout louder and louder until it's heard. Depression is the loudest shout in existence! This whole process of total authenticity requires a lot of self-compassion. I hope my message to you might alleviate some suffering. Please message me ...
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Better Out Than In

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I haven't blogged the last few days or so. This is because I've been busy. However as I say down to write something I realised that I didn't have much to say today. I think this is because I have emptied a lot of pent up anger and frustration on this blog so far and this has emptied me a lot. I feel much better having written a lot of stuff down in this blog. Quite a few people had told me to start writing my thoughts and feelings down, as they had also found it very beneficial. So if you aren't doing so already I'd definitely recommend the cathartic process that is known as blogging. However any form of writing is good. One friend of mine said that her depression lifted when she started writing poetry about how she felt. Her poetry is often quite witty and it helps her laugh at tough situations, as well as helping her release the pent up energy. So a short blog today. Try writing and let me know how you get on.
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Department of Health (Reply)

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Here is a reply from the Department of Health regarding my concerns about the huge lack of support for those with mental health: Dear Mr Youell,  Thank you for your correspondence of 22 October to the Department of Health about mental health.  I have been asked to reply.  The Department recognises that many factors influence a person’s mental health.  Evidence from population surveys, in which people were asked to rate their own happiness or mental wellbeing, shows that although Britons have become richer over the last 50 years, overall mental wellbeing has not improved.  This would suggest that many of the things that are commonly assumed to improve wellbeing, such as greater wealth, more possessions and expensive holidays, do not on their own lead to a lasting improvement in an individual’s mental health.  Over the last 20 years, new evidence has emerged about the factors affecting mental wellbeing, and this evidence shows that the actions we tak...
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Offloading, Accepting, Transforming

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I've just finished speaking to a lady on the phone from a local charity that helps people with mental health issues. As I might have mentioned previously I had tried to make a GP appointment (with a new GP) in order to access this very charity (they require a diagnosis or doctor's letter). The receptionist had said the only available appointment was 3 weeks away. I initially accepted this but later went back to ask for an earlier appointment, as I felt that they had let me down earlier. I was assertive with the receptionist which did make me feel better, as I was attempting to get my needs met (authenticity again). We had left it that I would talk to the GP practice manager to get an earlier appointment. Anyway I had been quite angry about the delay. However after a bit of a rant online and the assertive feedback to the receptionist (I wasn't that bad honest!), and a couple of days doing other things, I have calmed down quite considerably (I guess I had emptied and also...
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