Equilibrium Magazine for Wellbeing - Issue 45

Page 1

2012

SUMMER

>> Nicknames >> City sights No.1 >> Claralympics >> Edible Landscapes >> A review of ‘Epidemic’

SUMMER 2012 / ISSUE 45

ISSUE 45

MAGAZINE FOR WELLBEING


Equilibrium Patron Dr Liz Miller Mind Champion 2008

Front cover artwork: Deanna Harrison transitionfinsburypark.org.uk/NurseryBlog

disclaimer Equilibrium is produced by service users. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly forbidden without the prior permission of the Equilibrium team. Products, articles and services advertised in this publication do not necessarily carry the endorsement of Equilibrium or any of our partners. Equilibrium is published and circulated electronically four times a year to a database of subscribers; if you do not wish to receive Equilibrium or have received it by mistake, please email unsubscribe to equilibriumteam@hotmail.co.uk

web alerts If you know anyone who would like to be on our mailing list and get the magazine four times a year (no spam!) please email: equilibriumteam@hotmail.co.uk (www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium). Equilibrium is devised, created, and produced entirely by team members with experience of the mental health system. Photo copyright remains with all individual artists and Equilibrium. All rights reserved. 2011

Design: www.parkegraphics.co.uk

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editorial We’re all wearing fictional yellow jerseys here at the Clarendon to celebrate the Brits trumping it at the TdF and eagerly hunkering down for the Olympics. Our very own Claralympics is about to happen (current events are anarchist rounders, the banana race, egg and spoon and flowerpot-on-head race) and medals to be awarded to all. Catch the sun, enjoy the vibe, and here’s to a smashing edition of Equilibrium – hot topics including cats, nicknames, brains, mindfulness and Northern Irish landscapes. P.S. One of our team, Dev, will be in the opening ceremony of the Paralympics!

the team Facilitator: Polly Mortimer. Editorial team: Pumla Kisosonkole, Angela, Siham Beleh, Dev Chatterjea, Meg Kelly Graphic design: Anthony Parké.

contact us Equilibrium, Clarendon Centre, Clarendon Road, London, N8 ODJ. 02084894860, equilibriumteam@hotmail.co.uk. We are in the office on Monday afternoons 2-4, but you can leave a message at other times and we’ll get back to you.

contributions Wanted: contributions to Equilibrium! Please email us with your news, views, poems, photos, plus articles. Anonymity guaranteed if required.

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newsbites

i Bipolar UK National Conference 2012 Squinted at the slides from the Bipolar UK National Conference 2012 on Diagnosis. Nothing revolutionary and still stuck in the dark ages treatment and cause wise, but good to see some thought was being put into how things may look in the future – fluidity of‘diagnosis’ , emphasis on the individual etc. But all pretty pharmacological.

i New Books The Fix by Damian Thompson sounds like a must-read. Charting the (among others) stories of 21stcentury addiction – including the young people in the States addicted to Ritalin and Adderall (18 million prescriptions a year). Hope to review in the next Equilibrium.

i Bullying and self harm Although not yet completely researched and therefore only a preliminary conclusion, the suggestion so far is that a child who is bullied is more likely to self harm. From a purely objective angle this would make sense in that there is a need to vent anger but there is also a fear of reawakening any external anger, so the subject takes pent up emotions out on him/herself, internalising the issue. The research was established by studying twins of age 5 to 12 and included interviews with the children’s mothers. Pumla

i ASYLUM MAGAZINE: out now - includes – Rachel Perkins and hairdressing, Why do doctors still prescribe neuroleptics?, CBT on trial, and a hideous expose of ‘caging’ in Czech hospitals. Subscribe now! http://www.pccs-books.co.uk

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Summer/ Issue 38


newsbites

i St Anns Hospital Future! Join the consultation on ST ANNS FUTURE! Pose your questions and thoughts. http://www.beh-mht.nhs.uk/future-health-services.htm

i Evangelical Christian Malcolm Burden ‘Evangelical Christian Malcolm Burden claims depression and other mental illnesses are very deliberately decided by the person suffering from them and the former (depression) is a behavioural problem, rooted in pride, self-centredness and self-pity.’

i Outdoor mental health therapy service expands A Scottish mental health initiative that encourages people to learn basic wilderness skills and undertake conservation activities is expanding into new territory. The Branching Out programme, which is run by Forestry Commission Scotland, has announced its first course in East Renfrewshire. The 12-week course, run in partnership with East Renfrewshire Council and the Glasgow Association for Mental Health, will see participants take part in site walks, tai chi, forest photography, hut building, tree identification and willow weaving among other outdoor tasks. Research has shown people who make use of green spaces significantly increase their physical activity levels, improve their confidence and self-esteem and tend to enjoy better mental wellbeing.

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

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Exhibition at the Wellcome Centre Nutshell: Horrible! Footage of an ECT session (with a health warning to the viewers..what about the patient??), an ECT machine from the 40s (severer the shock the better they thought..and the muscle relaxant (curare) often came without accompanying anaesthetic. Monstrous testimony of the experiments in Nazi Germany on children in an innocuous looking sanitorium (still in use). Brain ops, the apparently ludicrously heavy brain of a criminal, etc. No rhyme or reason to the show, and minimal curating.

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Summer/ Issue 38


Mental Discrimination Debate

June 2012

During the debate Croydon MP Gavin Barwell announced that he will be introducing the Mental Health Discrimination Bill into the House of Commons next week, to overturn four pieces of discriminatory mental health legislation. He said, ‘Currently the law tells you that if you have a mental health problem your contribution to public life isn’t welcome…this has to change.’ Four MPs spoke at the debate of their mental health issues – which was a bold and useful step. One spoke of his OCD and another of her post-natal depression. Now we need someone who has been sectioned, or been on the receiving end of ECT.. But the fabulously

The Dignity Challenge A new initiative in Haringey Cards are now available with ten vital points: High quality services that respect people’s dignity should: 1 Have zero tolerance of all forms of abuse 2 Support people with the same respect you would want for yourself or a member of your family 3 Treat each person as an individual by offer ing a personalised service 4 Enable people to maintain the maximum possible level of independence, choice and control 5 Listen and support people to express their needs and wants 6 Respect people’s right to privacy 7 Ensure people feel able to complain without fear of retribution 8 Engage with family members and carers as care partners 9 Assist people to maintain confidence and a positive self esteem 10 Act to alleviate people’s loneliness and isolation

thoughtful MP Paul Burstow has

More Info: 020 8489 1400, Iat@Haringey.Gov.Uk, Adult

really made his mark and is really

Safeguarding: 020 8489 3106,

attempting to change things.

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

Become A Dignity Champion Today, www.Dignityincare.Org.Uk

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What’s in our intray: News from OXFORD about mindfulness:Prof

those who had had three bouts of depression

Mark Williams from the Oxford Mindfulness

were 44 per cent less likely to suffer another

Centre part of the Department of Psychiatry

episode.

Drukpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Mindful-

His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa projects a

ness is based on ancient Buddhist practices –

common message: Reduce attachments to

and is a western adaptation of eastern

burning emotions, contain the ego, accept

practices.

yourself and discover compassion. Mark Williams calls mindfulness ‘secularised spir-

The clinical term for mindfulness is Mind-

ituality’. ‘Mindfulness is a mode of awareness

fulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT).

that is available to us all.’

Researchers have found that those who regularly meditate feel happier and can alter the

Mindfulness sounds like a wonderful and

physical structure of the brain. Trials showed

powerful nonpharmaceutical tool to become

that after an eight week course of MBCT

mentally healthy. Worth finding out more.

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Summer/ Issue 38

Photo: Polly Mortimer

image: www.thenewpursuit.com

has been conversing with the head of the


Effects of

anti-depressants

Andrews and his colleagues

sexual stimulation, sperm

examined previous studies

development, digestive

about the effects of anti-

problems such as diarrhoea,

depressants and determined

constipation, indigestion,

that even taken at their

bloating, abnormal bleed-

best, most anti-depressants

ing and heart ailments in the

compare poorly to the risks,

elderly.

which include premature death in elderly patients,

The researchers reviewed

according to a McMaster

three recent studies showing

statement.

that elderly anti-depressant users are more likely to die

Copyright New York Daily New Please always consult your GP before changing medication

Anti-depressants are designed

than non-users, even after

to ease depression by increas-

taking other important varia-

ing the levels of serotonin in

bles into account. The higher

the brain, where it regulates

death rates indicate that the

mood. The vast majority

overall effect of these drugs

of serotonin that the body

on the body is more harmful

produces, though, is used

than beneficial.

for other purposes, including digestion, forming blood clot

“Serotonin intimately regu-

at wound sites, reproduction

lates many different proc-

and development.

esses in the body, and when you interfere with it you can

Researchers found that anti-

expect, from an evolutionary

depressants have nega-

perspective, that it’s going

tive effects on all processes

to cause some harm,� says

normally regulated by serot-

Andrews.

onin in the body. The negative health impacts include elevated risks, such as, developmental problems in infants, problems with

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

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I

will out myself before I write this review as someone very skeptical about a lot of aspects of psychiatry, especially those within the profession who claim to know all about the origins of mental distress and who fixate on diagnosis and the consequent pharmaceutical ‘treatment’. This is still very much the case in 21st century USA with the DSM wars, the hugely corrupt role that the pharmaceutical industry plays in the over medicalization of near normality, and the over diagnosis of children, young people, adults and the elderly inappropriately with various psychiatric disorders. The US psychiatric profession (or ‘alienists’ as they used to be called) has, in its short documented history, thrown up probably more than its fair share of differing movements, terrible interventions, examples of neglect, ignorance, sidelining etc

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Summer/ Issue 38


This book, thicketty and academic, does bear persistence . It’s written in a not-exactly-jaunty style and does demand a large measure of commitment. The triumvirate at the heart of this odd piece of history are Adolf Meyer, Emil Kraepelin and Bleuler. Germany was feeding ideas through to the US at the turn of the 19th century. The whole idea of ‘disease’ was being challenged. For years illness was thought to be caused by a ‘disruption of natural balance’ - maybe a ‘miasma’ (fog, or filth), ‘imbalance of humors’, or heredity. Occupation and personal habits were seen as causes of disease too (‘governess psychosis’, ‘milk fever’ etc). Then came the ‘specificity of disease’ theory – focusing on biological mechanisms. Neurologists reigned, claiming professional jurisdiction over ‘functional ‘ nervous diseases such as ‘neurasthenia’ and ‘hysteria’ . Asylum doctors were the alienists. Asylums were overcrowded, apathy had descended and the length of stay had drastically increased. Alcoholism, paresis (caused by syphilis) and depression and ‘dullness’ seemed to produce chronic patients. The popular thought then was heredity so psychotherapeutic efforts were limited. Medical students were untrained in psychiatry. Heavy drugging with hypnotics and sedatives took place (plus sa change..) – bromides, chloroform. morphine, cannabis and hemlock among others. Those in homeopathic hospitals had a much higher recovery rate and lower death rates. The county asylums were filthy, cock-

roaches as well as infectious diseases such has typhoid and diphtheria were rife. Fast forward: This book tells the story of the sudden appearance of the diagnosis dementia praecox by 1912, when in 1895 there had been no cases. Then by 1927 it was fading away. Eventually it was replaced by schizophrenia. It is a dramatic story and Noll shows the codependency between a disease and the scientific status of the profession that treats it. Kraepelin named dementia praecox ‘corresponding with hebephrenia’. It marked a patient as incurable and transferred patients to asylums for the long haul. He equated each condition with ‘natural disease entities’. It also meant that psychiatry could reject ‘brain psychiatry’. He still believed in biological basis for mental diseases but he didn’t believe all causes were in the brain. Thus we weave through the many vicissitudes of diagnosis, conditions, explanations and conclusions. Meyer critiqued Kraepelin and so it went on. It pingpongs back and forth from a very ‘medical’ interpretation to a psychological one – nearer to Freud and co who were airing ideas at the same time. It’s a tough read but fascinating. Nothing really changes in the polarization of ‘cause’ and subsequent treatments. All through the 20c theories have swung from highly medical to societal and stress-injured. Time please for a swing towards the stress based model for origins. Polly

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Edible Landscapes

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Meg Kelly


Images: courtesy of Deanna Harrison

H

idden away in the corner of

find out what they were up to. And to see

a corner of Finsbury Park is a

in the flesh plants I had only read about

gardening project with a differ-

before – like the marvellous walking onion!

ence. On other community growing sites you might find neat rows of tomatoes,

On my first visit the pouring rain offered

potatoes or leeks. At Edible Landscapes

a good reason for an extended lunch,

London Caucasian spinach scrambles up

including, as afterwards I kept telling

a tripod of knarled wood, walking onions

anyone who would listen, ‘the most amaz-

brandish their crop in tight bunches in the

ing salad I’ve ever tasted’. Sedum, wild

air and sarsaparilla produces beautiful

rocket, fennel, sorrel, marguerite leaves,

deep purple flowers which turn to feath-

and much more – all just picked from a

ery seed heads.

plot overflowing with colour and taste.

What are these weird and wonderful

On subsequent visits the rain held off a

plants for? Are they just for decoration?

bit, but the amazing salads and shared

Do they need special looking after? Why

lunches continued, around tending the

not grow useful, traditional crops?

garden. These plants may be good at looking after themselves, but there is still

The answer is that not only are these

work to be done - especially as one of the

plants beautiful and interesting, they are

ways ELL promotes robust and tasty plants

also (and these are the criteria for being

is through its work as a community plant

grown in this garden) good to eat and

nursery, raising new plants and distributing

easy to look after. And Edible Landscapes

them to local food-growing projects. After

London’s (ELL’s) aim is to teach the wider

just a few visits I had helped with propa-

community how to grow and eat them.

gating sedum and fuchsia, spent an enjoyable half hour untangling bindweed

My interest in this kind of gardening

from a small hazel tree, and painted up

began when I came across Plants for a

a sign explaining the uses of a hop plant

Future, first published in the early nineties:

(the young shoots can be steamed and

a fascinating catalogue of a vast range

eaten).

of different plants which I would have never dreamed could be eaten and the

Many of us have edible plants growing

result of years of growing and research

happily in our garden without our even

by its author, Ken Fern. So when I found

being aware of it. Roses, sedum, fuch-

out that there was a group raising some

sia, lime trees, hollyhocks, campanula,

of the plants I had read about right on

nasturtiums: parts of all of these plants

my doorstep, I was keen to go along and

are edible (check which parts before you cont...

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

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cont... start eating them!). All of this has much more than just amusement value. There is a growing recognition that producing our food locally is an important way of reducing our carbon emissions, as well as often being much healthier than buying tired, plastic-wrapped veg in the supermarket. Forest gardening, which ELL’s plants are ideal for, has a lot to offer, especially in the face of climate change. Not only is a forest garden more ecologically sustainable than a conventional vegetable patch, it is also more resilient in extreme weather conditions: trees protect the smaller plants from strong wind, and permanent root systems hold water and nutrients in the soil, protecting them from drought and flooding. This kind of gardening is also less work, with gardeners spared the repeated tasks of digging over soil, weeding, replanting and regrowing plants each year. If any of this catches your interest, there are several ways of finding out more. Edible Landscapes London has volunteer days on Mondays and Fridays from 10am to 3pm, and also runs courses on plant identification and tree grafting. Check their website for details: http://transitionfinsburypark.org.uk/NurseryBlog, which also has

directions to the site in Finsbury Park. And if you want to find out more about forest gardening, you could start with Martin Crawford’s How to Grow Perennial Vegetables, with clear advice and plenty of colour photos.

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Summer/ Issue 38


Images from Northern Ireland Lucy Fisher

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

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No Lone Zone

at the Tate Modern Reviewed by Meg Kelly

S

adly, by the time you read this it will

ing the strings until the last few seconds of

be too late to visit No Lone Zone. The

the clip. Secondly, as the harpist played,

exhibition provided powerful glimpses

he, his instrument and the camera slowly

of the work of three individual artists and

turned, allowing a gradual 360° view of the

one art collective, all from Latin America. I

surrounding scene. Presumably by chance,

was lucky enough to catch it on its last day

the CCTV camera looking down on me

at London’s Tate Modern, though it was then on display at the Sala de Arte Pública Siqueiros in Mexico City until 15th July. A ‘no lone zone’ is an area too sensitive or unstable for any one person to be present

from above the projected video added an extra dimension: I was being filmed as I watched the faces of those filmed as they watched the harpist in Huayno.

there. It’s a military term that may also be

The harpist’s music was as enthralling as the

applied to laboratories, banks, casinos,

market bustle surrounding him: a cheerful,

or any highly vulnerable or risky environ-

delicate tune. It was hard not to hum along,

ment. Stepping into this particular sensi-

though I stopped short as I read that the

tive environment – “accompanied” by

stately flag hanging just beside me had been

the gallery attendant in the next room – I

stained that distinctive reddish colour with

was immediately captivated by David Zink

‘blood and other fluids’ from execution sites

Yi’s video installation, Huayno and fugue

in Mexico. This piece is the work of Teresa

behind. I found myself looking out onto the

Margolles, who continued the juxtaposition

bustle of a market place: a fast food stall, market-goers making their way through the crowd, traders touting their wares. But this view was particular in two ways. Firstly, my window onto the market was crossed by vertical, multicoloured ‘bars’ – the strings of

of the alluring and the horrifying later in the exhibition. Her Score Settling series consists of items of expensive jewellery in brightly-lit display cases. They turn out to have had their jewels removed and replaced with frag-

a harp-like instrument, whose player’s hands

ments of glass from the windscreens of those

moved constantly in the foreground, pluck-

killed in drug-related shootings.

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Summer/ Issue 38


Top: Untitled David Zink Yi Photo: Thomas Muller Middle: Score Settling Teresa Margolles Courtesy the artist Below: Score Settling 5 Teresa Margolles Courtesy Galería Salvador Díaz, Madrid

In the room between Margolles’ bloodied flag and broken glass jewels, a giant squid sprawled, collapsed on the gallery floor in a pool of blue-black ink. The focus of the exhibition was on violence and politics in Latin America, but I found myself wondering how the ideas it touched on might relate to experiences closer to home. Could it be that each of us has our own potential ‘no lone zones’ – experiences or memories too powerful and intense for us to bear on our own? That if we find ourselves with no way of articulating these experiences to others we may, in distress and confusion, end up expressing ourselves in ways that are labelled psychotic or neurotic or abnormal or crazy? And if this were the case, for recovery to be possible might it be necessary for others to be open to listening to what we have to say, for us to discover new ways of speaking and being with ourselves and with each other? In other words, could some distress be the result of our having had to venture alone into dangerous ‘no lone zones’?

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Epidemic: a piece of community theatre mental health and obesity through the story of Marlon, a young man battling with schizophrenia. Ambitious topics and an ambitious production, Epidemic was designed to tap into the current zeitgeist: the strain of London public health, an unsteady NHS, and overburdened, under-resourced mental health services. The title and performance also strongly alluded to the ‘epidemic of opinion’ brought to us by new social and news media, particularly how this ties in with our views on mental health and obesity. The narrative interweaves the stories of Marlon (aka ‘#busnutter’), Iris – an elderly

I

t’s a warm Wednesday evening in May

lady suffering from dementia, and Lawrence

(remember those?) and a crowd of us have been seated in the darkness of a tunnel

running under Waterloo station. We have gathered to hear a story, relayed to us by a team of nearly two hundred, addressing the public health concerns of the people of Southwark. We are here to see the fruits of eighteen months research and development, brought to us by the Old Vic New Voices; we are here to encounter an Epidemic. A new musical by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Suzy Davies (produced by Steve Winter and directed by Alex Ferris), Epidemic is a piece of community theatre – a musical, exploring

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Summer/ Issue 38


Kate Massey-Chase

– an obese American. Panicked by paranoid

lucky you’ll breeze through easy – chances

fears of hospitalisation, Marlon has stolen the

are you won’t, ‘cos that’s life’. Far more

mobility bus parked outside his G.P. in which

‘we’re all in this together’ than Cameron and

Iris and Lawrence are waiting to be taken

Osbourne will ever be. My only recommen-

to a day centre. What follows is a poign-

dation would be that Old Vic New Voices

ant, at times hilarious, and always affecting

take this show not only around UK schools,

tale of hope and fear, community and isola-

but also to the House of Commons. Although

tion, stigma and acceptance, as the three

presented theatrically in a world of height-

embark on a journey to the beaches of

ened reality, there was an authenticity to this

Norfolk, to escape the lives and labels that

performance which spoke of real people,

entrap them. Thelma and Louise meets One

real experiences, and real battles with serv-

Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, the production

ices and stigma. Although a very atmos-

combined music, dance, theatre and mixed

pheric setting, Epidemic – like the characters

media to bring the characters and issues to

– should be brought out of the darkness (of

life in a way that was never didactic and

the tunnels or of fear and shame) to take the

avoided easy answers.

world head on and show it what it’s made of.

Some of the most memorable lines came from the songs (occasionally a little too jazzhands for my liking, with a chorus of very pretty young “actoooors”), including a rousing rendition of ‘Bugger the bankers and politicians. Bugger the bureaucrats too. Bugger the buggers who make up the rules, and if you’re one of them bugger you!’ Another favourite was the finale song, ‘Life, in all its complexities’, which, to me, encapsulated the heart of the piece: ‘Life, with all of the highs and the lows, the yeses and noes, the joys and the woes, the maybe I don’t knows. Life, the passion the glory, the strife, if you’re

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

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Gail Hornstein, Revisited Agnes’ Jacket

police advisors and Wiltshire aristocrats .

by Gail Hornstein, Rodale

She patiently listens to archival testimo-

Press 2009.

nies in the British library sound archive and scales fall from her ears. She is discovering

It took a long while to

meaning in psychosis, heard voices, mutism

read this book – each

and all forms of distress that too many

morning this August (I was

professionals write off as gibberish.

‘between jobs’!) if it was sunny I would take my breakfast into the garden and savour a few pages of Agnes’Jacket. I found it a truly compelling , as well as harrowing, read. The essence of this book is the overwhelming importance of telling one’s story and that story being heard. Agnes Richter’s jacket was sewn in the late 19th century while she was in an asylum – all over it is text in Deutsche Schrift – a script almost unintelligible to anyone, even experts. ‘What if Agnes’ Richters jacket and other madness narratives are like this? Her embroidered garment and the diaries and memoirs of other patients aren’t actually so different; ’text’and ‘textile’ do come from the same root. These texts have all been woven into patterns we can’t make sense of on our own. But what if we had someone fluent in the language of madness to translate what seems beyond understanding to the rest of us?’ So she sets out – through the US and Europe – to survivor’s groups, Hearing Voices gurus and group members, to the basements of academic libraries, psychiatric day centres (the Clarendon!), to displaced individuals,

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Reprinted from Equilibrium 2009 Autumn New edition now out in paperpack Published by pccs books

I

hadn’t been prepared for Gail’s individual and personal style. She is consummately professional, yet allows her

grumps and grumbles and individual reactions to filter through, thus lifting and rounding the whole experience of reading the book. She ferrets and sherlocks her way through her journey towards understanding and grips the enthralled reader. Near the end of the book, she visits the Rosetta Stone engraved with ancient hieroglyphics in the British Museum in an attempt to gain inspiration about deciphering the text on the jacket. Many people had tried to decipher the marks until a brilliant polymath Champillon managed to crack the mystery. ‘Even brilliant, dedicated scholars can be blinded by incorrect assumptions. Because they rejected the idea that hieroglyphics made sense, Champillon’s competitors

Summer/ Issue 38


Polly Mortimer tally wrong assumption about how to understand mental distress?’ Part‘tec, part humane listener, part psychology prof, combined with her forensic ear for detail and what’s important in the fractured lives of those she writes about, makes for a fascinating author. Finally she sees the real jacket. To me this was the most moving part of the book. It was like finding Tutankhamun’s treasure. ‘My white-gloved hands carefully ease the jacket from the protective paper it’s wrapped in. Sliding the storage box to one side, I lay the jacket out on the counter, its sleeves fully extended. Bettina has given me a magnifying glass and I hold it up to the intricate writing on the left arm. The room is silent. I’m holding my breath.’ Everyone needs to tell their story. From Arturo Bispo di Rosario’s huge cloak (Equilibrium 2008) covered with his life, to Hungarian apron patterns prevented themselves from figuring out the meaning of ancient Egyptian texts. What if today’s biological psychiatrists are stuck in an equally misleading train of thought? What if their PET scans and genetic studies are based on a fundamen-

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

to protect against unseen forces, to Agnes, from draughty church halls to autobiography, from blogs to balladeers, making sense and recording that sense and having it heard, seen, touched or read is supremely important. Read this book!

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Dyslexia

T

Dev

he name dyslexia can be described

not linked to the other side of the brain.

as a learning disorder which causes

This means that the information from one

difficulty in areas of reading, writ-

side to another takes more time to travel

ing, and numeracy. Or nontechnical

between hemispheres.

known as word blindness. This is a general term, because for each person it could

This does not mean that dyslexic can not

be different. For example one person

do well. The thing is you have to remem-

maybe good at math’s and physics like

ber that it is very frustrating for us. When

Albert Einstein, another maybe good at

we are in “normal society” we try to fit in

language like William Shakespeare, and

but sometimes it takes several tries to get

someone else maybe good at creative

into our heads. So what happens we have

things, whilst being bad in other areas. In

to use visual methods (colors, drawings,

this case both of them had Dyslexia.

videos, flowchart etc) to help us? In some

Another description which I find more

cases we use humor to get ourselves

appropriate is abnormal brain may have

noticed. Dyslexic do not want their weak-

ten neurons connected to both sides

ness to hinder them in their chosen fields.

of the brain allowing the information to

Many dyslexic thrive in their respected

move in between both sides of the brain

fields. Now a day’s dyslexia is found and

more frequently. Where as a dyslexic

treated very early. There are however

brain have may have the same amount

some people who do not find out till their

of neurons but some lets say half were

later years.

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Summer/ Issue 38


What is recovery?

A

Charlotte Fantelli

t different points

when I walk past a bin and fear taking my

in my journey

son to school, as in my eyes those lovable

‘recovery’ has meant

class mates are germ ridden snot rockets

something different. At

waiting to infect...

my worst, recovery to me meant being able

In the eyes of the world I am still ‘odd’.

to sleep for more than

But do their eyes matter? Really? If using

an hour at a time. To

my sleeve to open a door means I can

go a day without a panic attack. To feel

conquer what is behind it. If having my

alive and not like a shell of a person.

husband do the school run means I can be

To eat a meal without seeing it as poison.

a brilliant, chilled out mum that does other

Being able to deal with pain without cutting

things with my son, if using gloves in a petrol

my body or taking to another’s bed. To not

station means I can drive hundreds of miles

feel trapped by invisible walls...

on my own to meetings and presentations without feeling dirty... Their eyes do not

When I was agoraphobic, recovery meant

matter.

being able to go to a local shop and buy a pint of milk. When I was recovered enough

YES I could go through a door without a

to go to a local shop, recovery meant

sleeve. YES I could fill up without gloves. YES

being able to go to a supermarket.

I could take my son to school. BUT as a wise

When I dared to dream beyond this, recov-

man reiterated to me yesterday ONLY if the

ery meant being able to hold down a job,

benefit from doing so outweight the fear/

socialise, or dare I think, start a family..?

difficulty. And surely it is only for me to judge that?

Seven years into my recovery, I have achieved all of the above. I am no longer

Do I long for a day that isn’t a fight? Yes.

a shell, but a person who loves life, who

Do I wish I could be free from all the little

embraces all that life has to offer. I get up

fears that try and screw up my every day?

every morning to a happy marriage. I have

Of course. Do they make me any less of a

a beautiful son that lights up my world. I

person? Absolutely bloody not!

hold down a full time career, a business and

I’m proud of where I am, happy with what

a part-time role also. But am I recovered?

I’ve got, and embrace the next stages on

Yes I use gloves to put petrol in my car.

my journey of recovery... Because that’s

I use my sleeve to go through doors. I hand

what recovery is to me: a journey, not a

gel every time I touch something someone

destination.

else may have touched. I hold my breath

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

Excerpt from Mentally Healthy blog

EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM 23


newsbites

i ASYLUM magazine ASYLUM magazine sprinting up the ladder of success – excellent new issue – Summer 2012 Vol 19 no 2

i Bipolar UK National Conference Squinted at the slides from the Bipolar UK National Conference 2012 on Diagnosis. Nothing revolutionary and still stuck in the dark ages treatment and cause wise, but good to see some thought was being put into how things may look in the future – fluidity of ‘diagnosis’ , emphasis on the individual etc. But all pretty pharmacological.

i GlaxoSmithKline - fined! GlaxoSmithKline has been fined £1.9bn after admitting bribing doctors and encouraging the prescription of unsuitable antidepressants to children. They paid for articles in journals, flew psychiatrists to resorts on freebies, and misstated the safety of Paxil for children. Wellbutrin an antidepressant for adults was promoted on a radio show for unapproved uses.

i Vitamin D A natural wonder drug we’re all avoiding? Anna Coussens wrote a paper for Mill Hill Essays published by National Institute for Medical Research extolling the benefits of Vitamin D for mental health. Worth trying!

i Tremendous

blog

Tremendous blog from the far right (usually) Peter Hitchens – exposing the truly scandalous behaviours of major pharmaceutical companies and the extreme dangers drugs can pose. http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2012/07/they-sold-us-happy-pills-but-allwe-got-was-suicide-and-misery.html

i Terrific Stories Terrific stories of those who managed to bust through the granite wall s of the psychiatric status quo to …recover! http://beyondmeds.com/recoverypsychosis/

Photo: Anthony

EQUILIBRIUM 24


What’s in a name?

N

icknames are a common place; many cultures use this to refer to

Dev

the person’s identity. Mostly it’s done by using speech marks to show that it is not their name.

without mentioning the person’s

forename. Sometimes names come are reference to their physical aspects a friend of mine used to wear large square glasses, hence he was called See fax another friend was built as an tree and was called Franken-

stein. As for me I used to be known as Spam-head because my fore-head was as big as a pigs behind, spam meaning being 90’s terminology, or known as Gorbachov (former president of USSR).

Sometimes it is as I mention above it could be about the way they behave. For instance a person with only his legs moving and the rest standing still could be called Beeny. Or even a person who cracks jokes all the time could be known as the Joker. Even a person who can not keep a secret can was known as Microphone. On a serious note it could be used as a way of insulting a person with out saying their name i.e. Mop-head, specs, butter fingers even fat head. These types of reference are stated to directly insult a person. To the person doing that it makes him or her feel bigger. Sometimes people give people silly names like Coochipoo, Bubbles, Hunky, Tweetypie, Sweet lips, Hunky- pie and many more. I do not why they use these names. But it is obviouse that people will find out that so and so has that name, and would cause them embarrassment.

With each age group the type of nickname changes but they are sometimes dependant on a persons actions or the way they behave. For example a person that is too much into technology like me maybe called tecy in the 2000’s or a geek, 90’s term or square eyes in the 80’s. At times it could be used as a point of reference with out using that person’s name. This could be used to protect

This is not just used in one single country but globally. And in each country they use their own nick names indigenous to their country. Sometimes it could be used to hide a persons identity if they are doing something illegal i.e. hacking, robbery, grafity etc. Sometime to hide they are using a sudanim (nick name), they call it a tag. If you look at grafity all they are is the persons tag name. To be honest nicknames should only be used as a point of reference either if you are protecting a person or you don’t remember their name.

EQUILIBRIUM 25


What we notice in the city: The Cat Meg Kelly

She’s grey: soft dust-coloured, but brighter, and she has tabby markings. I spot her on the other side of the railings, tilting her head to chew tall stems of grass. The traffic roars on the road behind me, exhaust fumes taint the air, and at first she doesn’t notice I’m there. She is somehow larger than the cats I’m used to seeing, as if her bones were on a different scale. She looks up, and our eyes meet. Hers are a luminous pale green. She pauses, holding my gaze. I hold hers. I greet her. She pads towards me, up to the railings, and I wonder whether she’ll mew, ask me to stroke her. Not a bit of it. She is sussing me out. I move away, walk round the corner, though the gate and into the grounds of the church. With no railings to separate us, I approach her again, cautiously. The same challenging gaze meets my curioff, away from me, unhurried and alert, her body is slung low between her shoulders. There is a wildness in her gait, and a slight awkwardness. Is she pregnant? Her neck is collarless. No one to look out for her but her own untamed self.

Photo: Anthony

EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM 26

Photo right: Polly, Royal London

osity, my wish for contact. As she stalks

Summer/ Issue 38


www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium

EQUILIBRIUM


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