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January 2015

Mental Health Focus: I’ve Been One of the 1 in 4

By HealthNo Comments

At any one time, 1 in 4 people are experiencing poor mental health, albeit to varying degrees of severity.

I have experienced poor mental health at different times in my life and to varying degrees, as have many other people I know. Depending on what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling, I’ve used a number of strategies to manage my own mental and emotional health, including:

  • Reminding myself that my mental or emotional state is temporary and will change.
  • Monitoring my mind and mood to look for improvement or deterioration.
  • Keeping my negative internal voice in check – including silencing it, being kind to myself and thinking positive thoughts to counter the negative voice.
  • Asking from help, support and understanding from family & friends.
  • ‘Off loading’ to friends.
  • Distracting Myself.
  • Sleeping – I guess you could say avoidance here.
  • Taking time out to rest and relax.
  • Meditating.
  • Imagining and Visualising a better future – giving me hope that things will get better.
  • Reading for Pleasure
  • Having an up-beat music playlist.
  • Being creative to connect with my soul.
  • Visiting my GP.

How do you manage your own mental and emotional health? Leave a comment below.

I’ve wrote a series of Mental Health Focus blog posts to help to #EndTheStigma around mental health and to encourage others to talk openly and honestly about their own mental health.

If you are experiencing an episode of poor mental health, two useful websites are: Mind and SANE. If you are feeling suicidal please visit your nearest A&E Department for crisis support.

Blog soon,

Antony

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I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Friday 16 January 2015

Mental Health Focus: 5 Brilliant TED Talks About Mental Health

By HealthNo Comments

Here are five brilliant TED Talks about mental health:

1. Ruby Wax: What’s so funny about mental illness?

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2. Elyn Saks: A tale of mental illness — from the inside

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3. Eleanor Longden: The voices in my head

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4. Mark Henick: Why we choose suicide

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5. Kevin Breel: Confessions of a depressed comic

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What’s interesting is that none of these speakers is British. I think we are too worried about the stigma. I’ve wrote a series of Mental Health Focus blog posts to help to #EndTheStigma around mental health and to encourage others to talk openly and honestly about their own mental health. Each week in January, I’ll be posting one of these Mental Health Focus blog posts.

How do you manage your own mental and emotional health? Leave a comment below.

If you are experiencing an episode of poor mental health, two useful websites are: Mind and SANE. If you are feeling suicidal please visit your nearest A&E Department for crisis support.

Blog soon,

Antony

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I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Tuesday 6 January 2015

Book Review: Speaking Out – Queer Youth in Focus photography by Rachelle Lee Smith

By Books & Authors, Gay, ReviewsNo Comments
speaking-out-book-cover-rachelle-lee-smith Speaking Out is a collection of photographic portraits of LBGT young people (aged 14-24 years old). 65+ young people, mostly from the USA are photographed. On each portrait young people have shared their thoughts, feelings or an experience. The young people have been honest in sharing their joys and tribulations of being an LGBT youth in a heterosexual world.

In Speaking Out photographer Rachelle Lee Smith took the portraits, handed young people a sharpie pen and left them to write what they wanted. Among other topics, young people wrote about: stereotypes, identity, homophobia, self-love and romantic love. Young people identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered. It was great to see transgendered young people represented, however the vast majority of the young people identified as lesbian.

Years later, some young people reconsidered their portrait. They wrote about how their lives had changed and what they would write now. It was enjoyable to read these reflections from young people and the book would have benefited from having more of these. Several pages of the book felt wasted as they contained quotes that either praised the photographer or the book its self. Never was there any praise for the young people who were actually brave enough to share their stories.

Speaking Out is presented well, it’s a large book with 127 glossy pages in full colour. There is the odd page where a young person’s hand writing makes it difficult to read what they’ve written, but at no point is it unreadable.

Speaking Out is an enlightening book that shows how we are all the same, rather than how we are different. It should be available in every school, college, library and youth club.

Review soon,

Antony

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Sunday 4 January 2015

Review: Sun Jar by Suck – Disappointing & Flawed Design

By Amazon, TechnologyNo Comments
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My Photo of the Sun Jar I bought myself.

 A Jam Jar stores Jam.
A Sun Jar collects and stores Sunshine.
So that you can use it at Night.

…Or so the Sun Jar box says.

The idea is great: use a solar panel to charge a rechargeable battery during the daytime and then when a sensor senses that it’s dark use the battery to power a small LED light bulb.

The Sun Jar features:

  • Two modes: Auto mode and Charge mode. In auto mode the sensor is supposed to detect when it’s dark and power the light bulb.
  • A solar panel, rechargeable AAA battery and LED light bulb.
  • Waterproof – meaning that it can be used both indoors and outdoors.
  • Comes in a choice of light bulb colours: orange/yellow, blue and pink.
  • The frosted material gives a glow to the light.

But unfortunately, due to a flawed design the Sun Jar is disappointing and essentially useless. The Sun Jar isn’t bright enough to be used on it’s own as a night light; but switching on any sort of artificial light causes the sensor on the Sun Jar to switch off the LED light bulb. Making the product essentially useless.

What’s annoying is that Suck, the creators of the Sun Jar, could have easily solved this problem. They could have had three modes on the Sun Jar: Auto (use of the sensor), On (sensor off but light bulb lit) and Charge (sensor off and just charging). It’s shocking that they didn’t discover this fundamental design flaw in the product prototypes.

The Sun Jar could be significantly improved by alternating the colours of the lights. This could have been done through each Sun Jar unit having a number of different coloured LED bulbs. It would be even better, if through a switch, the customer could choose what colour light will be produced or set it to random.

My final thought on the Sun Jar is that it was expensive, costing £20. I don’t think I would have felt this was expensive if I had been able to use the product as I intended: to be a night light, along with another night light to give adequate light.

The Sun Jar is available to buy on Amazon, but honestly, I wouldn’t bother until they’ve made significant improvements to the design.

Review soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Saturday 3 January 2015
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