I belong to the generation who were young adults during the tribal tattoo phase – and who also saw the time when tattooing became common even in small towns. I got my first tattoo after my best friend committed suicide in the year 2000. I had just turned 18 back then. Her death came as a […]
Listening to Susan Calman’s Mrs Brightside over the last few weeks and it’s good to talk (or in my case – listen) to others talking about their mental health and knowing that I’m not alone.
I know a lot of people still don’t want to talk about mental health issues and everyone’s mental health is different, even people with anxiety and depression have different issues which trigger their symptons.
I don’t do crowds at the best of times and sometimes will have such a major panic attack that I want to just scream out “Leave me alone”. That might not sound strange in itself but no-one is trying to grab me, and no-one is aware that I am struggling to keep calm and not lose my head.
The thing that people don’t get about mental health issues is the way we cover up. The person struggling the most with mental health issues is generally the one laughing loudest, smiling widely and cracking jokes to stop people getting how badly they are feeling. In the words of one of the guests on Mrs Brightside no-one wants to be around someone that is miserable.
The thing is, when we feel at our lowest we will try and keep upbeat so that people don’t get that we want to crawl into a hole and die. That’s why you always hear people saying that they never would have thought so and so was feeling so bad, they were laughing and joking around just before they killed themselves.
The thing is not everyone feels so bad all the time that they can only think of killing themselves. Suicide is not the end result for everyone who is depressed, it does occur to those of us with anxiety and depression from time to time to kill ourselves, even that doesn’t mean that we will follow through and jump off a bridge, cliff or other high structure with a rope tied around our necks.
I can only talk about my own experiences, just the same as no-one else can feel the way I feel. I can’t feel anyone else’s pain, I wish I could, I can empathise with people who have mental health issues because of having these myself. I think we find it easier to empathise with others who are telling us they have similar incidents to ourselves, if we have been there then we know how it feels for us and can find it easier to get someone else.
Can we empathise with someone who is feeling something alien to us? Yes, sometimes we can, and some people are natural empathisers and can show empathy with others whether or not they have personal experience with what ails the other person. It’s often the case with some of us that we will work as long as we can until we burn out. 7 days a week often, because we worry that if we say no then there will be a time when we stop being asked.
Music today is from Destiny’s Child with a song from Lara Croft Tomb Raider which helps me to cope when the darkness descends.
Amazing story telling, if you enjoy it let the author know.
Very few people realise exactly what being a poet entails. They assume that it’s all sipping wine and eating sugar pasties and dropping the occasional cultured quip into the conversation. Of course they realise that poems don’t write themselves but still, they seem to think that our lives are easy.
They don’t see half of it. Admittedly there are times when I am working where I can just sit back and let the event flow around me. This is a sign that I have everything in hand and that the apparently endless planning has at last paid off. Alas it is rare that this happens. I have to work with the tools I have and these are normally the household staff of my patron.
Ideally they would grasp the spirit of the occasion and come up with something witty and spontaneous. Alas, bitter experience has taught me that spontaneity needs…
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Thought provoking and funny a good combination…
Don’t touch that dial. You’ve landed on Lisa Burton Radio. The only show that brings you the characters from the stories you love. The world is balancing on the head of a pin today, and my special guest has some insight into the problem and a possible solution. “Welcome The Old Lady of Alexandria to the show today.”
“Thank you. I am very tired from having my home restored after a fire. It is good to rest a while and do what I like best.”
“Well, I suppose you can smoke in here. You know it’s bad for you, right?”
“At my stage in life, what does it matter? Would you like one?”
“I’m sure they’re fine cigars, but I don’t even have lungs. Sorry. My little bio says you own a bookstore in Alexandria. I assume something you read brought some insight into the problem we’re facing today.”
“As…
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It’s time again to speak out against hatred and division. There is a movement afoot to have the Orange Marches banned in Glasgow. These marches purport to be peaceful and supportive by marching through a community which is predominantly catholic by a group of Protestants, celebrating a victory in the 17th Century by a Dutch Protestant over the Catholic Irish. What does any of this have to do with Scotland?
Answers to that question please on a self addressed unstamped elephant to the usual suspenses.
Anyone seeking to promote hatred, division and violence should rightly come under the microscope and if found to be complicit in any crime then the organisers should be held accountable under the law for the acts of their followers. In case anyone is in any doubt as to the reason for today’s chosen track they should remind themselves what was happening in Northern Ireland when it was written in the late 1970’s. Sectarian violence was the norm and it always seemed to be the working classes who were killing and being killed. Declan McManus (or Elvis Costello as he is better known) turned this into a hit without explaining who or what Oliver was.
If there can be no Orange March without sectarian violence then surely it is high time that these Marches were cancelled and removed from the calendar forever. Regular readers will know that I have never condoned violence (yes I have used violence in the past to protect others and would gladly do so again in the future). I believe that all it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing, and I refuse to do nothing in the face of evil.
I have never supported violence for the sake of violence but will not stand by idle while others suffer at the hands of a tyrant. As always comments are welcomed and if there are any who disagree with me then please tell me why you think I am wrong and don’t use bad language to get your point across. Dialogue is what makes us better than the rest who would rather use their fists to get their message across.
As always music is from YouTube and I don’t own the copyright in it, that belongs to Elvis Costello and The Attractions and their record label.
I found this again today, I had a tune running through my mind and, I’m not sure if anyone else has this or if it is just me, but I couldn’t place where I’d heard it or what it was. The song was playing in my mind without any lyrics and then I came across a clip of Prince, Tom Petty and Dhanni playing it. The song While My Guitar Gently Weeps written by George Harrison and included on the 1968 album “The Beatles”.
I then remembered the version I had playing in my mind was the one included here by Carlos Santana. But any way I digress with this snippet from the real reason for today’s blog, the things that kids say and how wonderful they are for picking up on things we don’t notice or think of.
I was reading through some little words of the types of things kids say and it really got me thinking about the rules concerning water-sheds and adult themed material. Kids don’t view things the same way we do and (yes I agree some things are necessarily kept away from them for a reason) and is the water shed really necessary? Good parents will control the content they allow their children to watch or listen to, bad parents will not, and with the advent of the DVR then content can be watched at any time not just when it is “live” on tv.
My point is that no amount of programming will reflect when it is available to view by the audience and that audience need not be the intended audience. Surely in the interest of keeping our children protected from the excesses of current tv shows (I’m talking about Sleepy Hollow here and not NCIS) then it is down to parents to not allow their children to watch these and to make sure that children can’t access these shows and watch them unsupervised.
Innocent children never notice the things we pick up on, however, too much adult themed horror, violence, nudity, sex and drugs is not a good thing to allow children to view. If the parents allow the children to view content and have access to their PIN they are not controlling what the children are watching. Similarly, watching shows like Sleepy Hollow, American Horror Story and the like may be entertaining to us old enough to realise the stories are just that – stories. Children could end up having nightmares or worse becoming unhinged by being subjected to adult themes they are incapable of understanding.
I picked up on Sleepy Hollow as it is being shown again on tv, there is also Grimm which is being given an airing with nightly episodes. While these shows, from an adult perspective are entertaining I know that my son would not have been able to cope with the themes shown when he was a lot younger. He may not be able to process them today but he does understand the difference between real and make-believe. There in lies the crunch I think, knowing the difference between what is real and what isn’t. Children shouldn’t be made to grow up too quickly as I remember my childhood as a time of experimentation, imagination and being allowed to have fun.
Childhood prepares us for the worries of adulthood, it gives us time to process things and that’s why children see things differently. Anyway, the fact I’m trying to get across is that even with parental controls not everything can be kept away from children that should be. Please don’t let your children watch what they want by giving them your PIN, we still have to protect them from the world and the longer we can spare them the horror of war, violence and abuse the better their lives will be.
Yesterday was Friday the 13th and it certainly lived up to its reputation for me. There was a power cut for about an hour, followed by the news that my pension fund have now transferred the funds into my new scheme. When I left to do some shopping from the Metro centre I realised that I had forgotten to put my watch on so was distracted when crossing a road. I looked round to see a car heading straight for me then I was picking myself up from the road.
Within a few seconds there was a crowd gathering asking if I was ok, the driver of the car offered to drive me home or take me somewhere to get checked out but I don’t do crowds so I just waited to get my bearings and left. I hope that she is ok and not worrying unduly about me.
I woke up this morning and couldn’t get comfortable so ended up getting up at 6:00 and I am still in a lot of pain making sleep an impossibility. Anyhoo enough about Friday 13th.
I recently found a blog here and the young lady spoke to me (not just me but her post helped to lift my dark mood that day) so a huge shout out to my new friend who wrote about sending clones of a happy self into the past, future and help with bad times that happened or are about to.
What a lovely thought of sending happiness through time and space to yourself to help with low moods. I’m very tempted to take that idea and run with it to see where it may lead. Watch this space.
Sounds about right, do you agree or disagree?
If you join change please sign this petition. Drivers who use mobile phones and do not use care and attention while driving are dangerous, just as much as those drinking and driving are dangerous.
Using a mobile while driving meant that one family were left devastated when the driver jumped a red light and ploughed into an old man and his nephew. The boy was full of life but is no longer able to do anything for himself. The driver was let off with a suspended sentence and community service for pleading guilty.
The charge should have been attempted murder and the sentence imposed should have reflected the severity of his crime. If someone wants to use a mobile then they should not be driving, he should have his licence revoked and be jailed for a minimum term of 25 years, if the old man had not been crossing on the green walking man he would not have been in the path of this idiot who showed no remorse for the devastation he caused.
Please let’s get justice for families ruined by drivers who do not use due care and attention while at the wheel of a dangerous weapon.
barclaydave 