A journey through mental health ups and downs, grief, religion and being LGBT+
I was inspired by the wonderful http://boostesteem.com/ written by a friend of mine. Her lovely blog put some sunshine into my day. I hope that if I tell my story I might pay forward the favour to someone else. See 'My Story' for further details. I have no idea why this photo of me with …
Continue reading "Welcome everyone :)"
Now - I'm not trying to have a go at people who genuinely want to help here: but I think sometimes people just don't know the best thing to do. Whether that's when someone close to us dies, or when we have a mental health crisis and have to go into hospital the open ended …
Continue reading "Let me know if there’s anything I can do…"
That's the problem with mental health or ill health really isn't it - that you can't see it. I often think it would be a lot easier if we walked around with big bandages around our heads. This is the kind of injury that everyone understands. Sometimes I might get up and have a better …
What is your reaction when you go out and you offer a friend a drink and they say 'oh I'm not drinking'. If my experience is anything to go by you get a barrage of questions: 'Are you ill? On antibiotics? Pregnant? Can you not handle your drink? Are you an Alcoholic? What's wrong with …
My last post on therapy was back in 2015 I thought I knew a bit about counselling and therapy then - but I've done even more of it now! Some of it still stays true but there is a bit more I would like to add. 1. There is more than one type of …
Today I and some friends attended a special inclusive LGBT+ and allies inclusive Christian service. The initial question I imagine is why is this type of service even needed? It's needed because many LGBT+ people have a chequered relationship with their faith: have doubted whether they belong, may have even been told as much in …
Continue reading "The importance of LGBT+ inclusive Christian spaces"
A friend of mine recommended this TED talk and I think it is spot on. It really highlights the dangers of putting any community in boxes, labelling them, stereotyping them. The dangers to the community themselves how that pressure can be insurmountable. It can come from within the community (and very powerfully so); or from without …
So this is something that's been on my mind for a while (for years in fact). However, it's only now that the changes to my life are going to become a reality. I'll stop speaking in code. Two years after asking to be referred by my GP to the Gender Identity Clinic, I am going …
Imagine you've woken up having had a bit too much to drink and your head is pounding and everything is louder than it should be, or migraine suffers amongst us that you're just starting a migraine. This is how I experience most days - it is tiring. Let me give you an example: I'm in …
So I take medication to help me with physical health conditions and mental health conditions. Health professionals are often nowadays being criticised for handing out anti-depressants in particular much more frequently - or their usage has gone up anyway. Prescriptions for 64.7m items of antidepressants – an all-time high – were dispensed in England in …
There probably aren't many of you who haven't heard me rant and rave about our benefits system lately. Why? I guess because like a lot of things - until it touches our lives directly perhaps we don't realise how truly unjust and unfair the systems are. This isn't a sob story - I'm extremely lucky …
