My head and other animals
Saturday 10 October 2020
World Mental Health Day 2020
Saturday 21 March 2020
Corona no dae that? A rant about Covid-19
Saturday 23 November 2019
The Blog With Nothing To Say
Thursday 10 October 2019
World Mental Health Day
I have seen a number of posts referring to the importance of World Mental Health Day. Rightfully so. It's a frightfully important subject and it's only right that awareness is raised.
But it's simply not enough.
Going through my social media I've seen stories of people seeking urgent assistance with their mental wellbeing only to be met with a 34 week wait. I myself have only recently started a course of CBT over the phone after seeking assistance for over a year.
What is the point in encouraging people to open up when there is nobody there to help them? I would never want to do anything to put people off discussing their mental health but it is not enough to just encourage this. More has to be done to help.
Since 2011 mental health trusts - in spite of frequent government promises of record spending - have suffered in real terms losses of their annual budgets, the number of people dying by suicide has more than doubled in some areas and the resources available to those who reach out are rapidly diminishing.
But the UK Government have come out and launched a new campaign with a catchy new name and probably a good hashtag so that'll help.
If you're struggling please do reach out. Please do talk about how you are feeling. But do not think it is acceptable for you to be treated as a second-class citizen. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be healthy. You deserve to exist.
You're more than a hashtag. You're here and you matter.
Fuck it and fight it
X
Saturday 24 August 2019
The Unforgiven
I feel like I'm a walking waste of potential and there's nobody to blame but myself.
I have ideas I want to pursue but talk myself out of them before even trying. I get halfway through job applications then just abandon them because I know I'm not going to get it. I have creative ideas I want to try out but don't because I'm terrified of having it confirmed to me that they're shite ideas, executed in a shite manner because I'm shite.
I'm stuck in this awful loop. I'm terrified of being a failure which means I don't try things which means nothing changes which makes me feel like a failure. I'm just stagnating and can't find the motivation to get out of this rut and I hate it.
I really fucking hate it. And it's my own fault I'm in this rut. Because every time things seem to be going well I find a way to kick myself back into it.
I never give myself any credit and don't see my achievements as achievements but rather as glorified failures.
I'm not flying, I'm falling with style.
And I don't know how to stop thinking this way, which just makes me frustrated and irritable and not fun to be around.
I want to get better. I want to be more positive. But I don't know how or where to start. I will keep fighting and trying because what other choice do I have?
I'm starting CBT soon, hopefully that'll help. Hopefully it'll help pull me out of the mire I've got myself stuck in again. Hopefully I'll be able to overcome this mental block and get back to doing things. Because I'm not willing to give up yet. I'm not dead yet. I can still fix this. Then maybe I can forgive myself.
What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never be
Never see
Won't see what might have been
What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never free
Never me
So I dub thee unforgiven
Fuck it and fight it x
Monday 5 August 2019
Leigh Leigh Super Leigh
On Saturday I took my dad to the Celtic - St Johnstone match as his Father's Day gift. Throughout my struggles with my head my family have been a tremendous source of love and support, and I love being able to spend happy times with them because their have been a lot of less happy times.
It was Flag Day - the first game of the new season, an opportunity to celebrate the success of the previous season and, considering how much the two of us love Celtic, a great day out.
The match ended 7-0 Celtic with a number of great goals scored but one in particular meant more to me than the others; the final goal, scored by Leigh Griffiths.
It was Griffiths first league appearance for Celtic in 8 months after taking time to recover from mental health issues - not something often discussed in football. Since his return to the squad Griffiths has opened up about his mental health and shared his experience in the hope that it will help others to open up and help them with their battles.
The goal he scored he took well but it was a cherry on top - the game had been won long before his shot hit the back of the net - yet it meant so much for me to see him back on top of his game.
I always love seeing people who have been in a dark place come out the other side of it, be it friends finding happiness in a new career, or a new relationship, or finally achieving a dream which once seemed so far out of their reach. Seeing others do it helps me know that I can get through the darkness as well. Celebrating someone doing that with 50,000 others appreciating that same fact was something that felt very special. Sharing that with my dad made it even more special.
Fuck it and fight it.
Hail hail.
Friday 26 July 2019
We're (Over) Halfway There
We're coming to the end of July and this year has been a weird one so far.
It hasn't been a bad one, although there have been a lot of frustrations and rough patches, but it hasn't been great.
I don't feel that I've developed much at all, in terms of professional life, personal life and my mental health. I feel that I have stagnated and let myself fall into a familiar hole. And despite the fact it's a familiar hole, I never seem able to find the bloody ladder out.
I've reached out for help again, and put myself in for CBT over the phone. Maybe not as appealing as doing it face-to-face, but a 4 week wait was much more appealing than a 34 week wait (at best). However, the wait in getting started has served to increase this frustration. Another thing that, for now, isn't improving or changing.
I'm still an expert in beating myself up, and find myself in a state of dissociation far more often than I would like. Either nothing matters all that much or the smallest thing going wrong feels like a complete and utter catastrophe. This only ever seems to work when it comes to negative things, never positives. My achievements don't feel like achievements, but rather glorified failures.
I know that I need to rewire my brain to try and get out of this mindset - I have been told this often enough by a number of different people. I just don't know how to. I desperately want to but I don't where to start.
Fuck it and fight it.
X