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Adventure: The Metropolitan City of Wroclaw, Poland

By Adventures, Friends & Family, Thinking, TravelNo Comments

I recently visited Wroclaw in Poland with my brother and his friends for his stag do and his birthday. It was the first time I had met many of my brother’s friends and they are a great bunch of lads. In this post I’ll be discussing my experience of being in Wroclaw.

The first thing to write is that the architecture is aesthetically pleasing. There are many buildings with a Georgian style and many churches that are exquisitely designed. Here is an example of one such church:

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A Church in Wroclaw, Poland.

Here are two photos of fountains I took:

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Fountain (1).
Wroclaw-2-2019

Fountain (2).

Wroclaw is vibrant, youthful and has an upbeat feel. It is a clean city, only being let down by graffiti that is everywhere. There are plenty of places to eat and drink, with some even having English menus upon request. The cost of living is cheap with roughly 10 slotty (about £2) buying a double vodka and diet coke. I did have difficulties getting zero sugar drinks in a number of places, which was a bit of an issue with me being diabetic.

The only Polish word I managed to learn was Kawa, which means coffee. The main square is huge and has flower market stalls that appear to be open 24/7. I found myself listening to Polish conversations as I walked around and appreciating the beautiful sound of the language. Some Polish spoke English exceptionally well whereas others didn’t speak any English at all. I found the Google Translate App really useful.

Without doubt it is people that make a city. All appeared happy, content and liberal. Polish people had less inhibitions when it came to dancing than we English have. Polish people will quite happily bump into anyone in their way in pubs and clubs. This is normal to the Polish, but being British I found it a little rude.

As Poland is known for being Roman Catholic and as such conservative when it comes to gay people and their rights. I decided to test the waters with a Polish man who I had been talking to and getting on with whilst smoking a cigarette. I came out and asked his views on gay people. He said:

“I don’t care, I don’t give a fuck. That’s your choice. We’re all just friends here.”

He described himself as not being religious, male, heterosexual and was in his mid twenties.

Overall Wroclaw is a beautiful city, with wonderful people and a place that I will be visiting again.

Take care,

Antony

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Thursday 31 October 2019

Some Mental Health Advice to Madonna After Her Disastrous Performance at Eurovision 2019

By Health, Music & Radio, The Web, ThinkingNo Comments

Madonna recently performed at the Eurovision Song Contest. Here’s a video of her performance:

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Edit: 20/05/19, 08:45 – I had to change the video as the user had removed the original. There was a Vevo video, uploaded to Madonna’s official YouTube channel however it appeared to have been altered to make her performance sound better than it was during the original broadcast. So I went for this video that is more reflective of the original performance.

Madonna has had criticism since, with many calling it a disastrous and possibly career ending performance. People have described her voice as flat or off key, her outfit and the Christian heavy iconography controversial and unappealing.

I must admit that cringed watching it. But I realised something from it: We’re all human. Even Madonna.

We’ve all had times when things have gone disastrously wrong for us. I don’t know much about Madonna to be honest, but I once did see an interview where she described herself as a perfectionist. So I imagine that Madonna is currently in a mental state of self-denial, or one of rumination with her critical inner voice in over drive.

So here’s some mental health advice to Madonna, from my book Mental Health Wisdom:

rumination-thought-image

Rumination is thinking the same thoughts or replaying memories again, again and again in your mind. Nothing good ever comes from it. It’s like having a song that you hate on full ear-bleeding volume and stuck on repeat. Rumination makes you feel like you are losing your mind.

When it comes to replaying memories, they are usually memories that are emotionally traumatic. Our memory of events is never accurate and always has a negative bias. What you need to remember if you find yourself ruminating is that the event has happened. It’s in the past. It’s gone. You can’t change what’s happened, no matter how many times you replay the video. It’s time to accept what’s happened, how it made you feel, so that you can let it go and move on.

Rumination is a waste of time, energy and effort. Rumination and the Critical Inner Voice go together. The critical inner voice is that voice inside your head that says things like:

  • You’re not good enough.
  • You don’t know what you’re doing.
  • Just who do you think you are?
  • You’re worthless.
  • You screw everything up. You are a screw up.
  • Nobody cares about you.

The critical inner voice is abusive and says things that we wouldn’t dream of saying to our worst enemy. It never says anything useful, nice, good or kind. It tends to get louder and louder if we allow it to. Managing the critical inner voice starts with the choice not to put up with the things it says to you.

I manage my critical inner voice in two main ways. First by imagining a volume control knob. I imagine it being turned down and hear the voice go quieter and quieter until it is silent. Second, I repeat positive affirmations that I know are true. I say things to myself like:

  • I am good at my job. I have a lot of specialist knowledge and thirteen years of clinical experience.
  • I offer a lot to people around me, including humour, compassion and kindness.
  • People value my opinion. I know this because I am often asked for it by others.
  • I am doing the best that I can and learn every day.

Having difficulty coming up with positive affirmations about yourself that are true? Ask people who are close to you: What is positive about me? What do you like about me? Others often see things that we don’t spot in ourselves.

(From: Mental Health Wisdom by Antony Simpson, 2019, pages 97-99.)

So Madonna try not to be too hard on yourself. Learn from the performance, then let it go.

Write soon,

Antony

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Sunday 19 May 2019

Terrible Tolerance and Waiting

By Health, ThinkingNo Comments

If you take medication for anything, including mental illness, over a long period of time your brain and body develops a tolerance. This means that the medication becomes less effective.

How long a tolerance takes to develop depends on the individual. You may get a tolerance quickly (weeks or months of use) or slowly (years or decades of use). The process of developing a tolerance is so gradual that you might not notice straight away. In fact it might take you quite sometime to understand that the symptoms of illness are returning and that you need to have your medication reviewed. Here is a line graph that shows drug effectiveness over time:

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Tolerance: Drug Effectiveness Over Time.
Copyright © Antony Simpson, 2019).

When your brain and body develop a tolerance you have two options:

  1. Increase the dose of your medication.
  2. Change your medication.

Any increases in dose or changes to your medication should be done under medical supervision. Some medications have withdrawal effects, which you may experience if you suddenly stop or decrease the dose too rapidly. The withdrawal symptoms range from relatively mild to extremely severe.

I am on a mood stabiliser medication. Developing a tolerance to this medication is beyond terrible. It’s awful, frustrating and occasionally overwhelming. At times it feels like I am being tortured.

I visited my GP some months ago and explained how I was feeling in mood. My GP referred me to the Community Mental Health Team. I waited 4 weeks for a twenty minute telephone assessment.

I was passed onto a Pharmacist Prescriber, another 4 week wait. She appeared to be concerned about hypomanic symptoms that I’m experiencing including:

  • High levels of anxiety.
  • Increased energy.
  • Difficulties in falling or staying asleep.
  • Increased productivity.
  • Obsessional thinking.
  • Being very irritable and frustrated.
  • Switching between tasks without finishing any of them.
  • Increase in desire to have sex.
  • Feeling on edge and being unable to relax.
  • Writing a lot.
  • Fidgeting.
  • A couple of severe mixed mood states per week.

Although many of these symptoms may seem positive at first glance, when your mind takes them to extremes they become destructive and are damaging to your physical and mental health.

The Pharmacist Prescriber doubled the doses of my medication. This proved ineffective. She discussed my case with she with a Consultant Psychiatrist whom wants to see me. Another 5 week wait.

All this time waiting and struggling. All this time of lacking a quality of life. I can’t even sleep off the severe mixed mood states.

I totally understand how underfunded the NHS is and in particular how under resourced mental health services are. So far I’ve waited 13 weeks (3 months and 1 week).

The wait feels eternal and I am beginning to feel that nothing will ever change. I know rationally that neither these last two emotionally driven thoughts are correct. Yet it can be difficult to disregard how you feel.

On the plus side my first book Mental Health Wisdom – Developing Understanding & Empathy is coming along well and at a quick pace due to the hypomania. It is due for release in October of this year.

Write soon,

Antony

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Saturday 2 February 2019
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