Hello everyone
Ventured to Lidl today. Had both boys off school - the big one is really poorly, with a hacking cough and a cold that has been lingering for weeks. The little one was sneezing and coughing this morning, so I thought he might as well keep his brother company, since play school is optional. They have had a whale of a time.
This morning I cut their hair! I was fully prepared to rush them off to the hairdresser if it all went pear shaped, as I was sure it would. But to my amazement they look great. Aided by the fact that they always look great, but they really are good haircuts. They have had worse haircuts, in proper hairdressing shops - and better, of course.
We went to Lidl at lunchtime - seemed to be really short of supplies, and since Paul and I are out tonight I had no choice but to take the boys shopping with me. They were lovely but annoying; hanging on to the trolley so that I could hardly manoeuvre it, they were genuinely convinced that they were helping me and I didn't like to insist otherwise. I ended up buying them a book each. Toddler's was an animal atlas, which was not as good as its cover suggested. (Why didn't I guess why it was shrink wrapped?) His big brother's book was great though - a flip page quiz book, which is just up his street. He will read factual books for hours - in fact he will read anything for hours these days, he has become such a bookworm. My boy!
Drove to collect my eldest from school - I don't usually do that but it was pouring today and she is singing in a carol concert tonight, so I thought she deserved a couple of hours at home to chill out first.
I am feeling a bit stressed again. Mainly because of my Mum and her recent health scare, although she seems to be back on track now - she has been thoroughly checked at the hospital, and is back home with her dog now. She can't drive for a while, so tomorrow I am going to head up there with Toddler (hopefully his brother will be back at school) and take her to the shops. She will enjoy that.
I think I am also stressed because I haven't written much recently - keep failing to get into a routine. I will get organised soon. Only one more week until the school holidays, hurrah!
All the best to all of you
Louise x
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
TIA - would you know the signs?
Hi Guys
This is where watching very little TV, and almost never the commercial channels, has done me a disservice - apparently there is a TV advert which gives the FAST signs - Face, Arms, Speech - of an impending stroke. Not knowing this, I sat and watched my Mum have a TIA - a mini-stroke - in my front room on Friday night. We were having a conversation about recent tests she had been having at her GP surgery, because she had signs of high cholesterol, when she was suddenly struck dumb. I could see that she wanted to speak but was having trouble finding her words, and when she did work out what to say, it came out all wrong. A few minutes later it was all over, and she was sitting and speaking normally.
I phoned my friend, who is a nurse, and she said it was probably a TIA and that the GP would want to see Mum immediately and would probably send her to A and E. I phoned the GP, but he did not want to see her. She had had a recent blood pressure check and a blood test, of which he had the results as he spoke to me. He told me to get her some aspirin and start her taking them, and that he would write her a prescription for some medication to lower her cholesterol levels, which we should pick up on Monday, and that was pretty much it. Now it is pretty much business as usual - she has been staying with my sister since Friday but is due to go home today. Hopefully she will soon get a referral to the TIA clinic at the hospital, where they will hopefully confirm that all is now ok.
The worst thing, in a way, is that she has been told not to drive for six weeks, which is a huge blow to her independence. So she is going to need a good deal of looking after. Poor old Mum.
Of course, nobody wants to be reminded of the mortality of their parents, but it must be worse for the parents themselves. Even a minor incident like this is a huge blow to the confidence. My children were devastated, of course, once they realised what had happened in front of their eyes; although at the time they didn't even notice. Afterwards, they were terribly upset at what could have become of Granny, and I felt so much for them. Death is the bogey man for all of us, but he seems most threatening when you are young, before you have weathered a few storms and realise that nothing is the end of the world, except of course the end of the world.
I feel that I have coped surprisingly well through all this. I have spent a lot of my life in a state of arrested development (until I had my own children, in fact) and the biggest fear I could name was always that of losing my mother. But at times when that loss has seemed most likely - on several occasions over the last few years - I have not found myself descending into panic, but reacting instead to the situations as they have evolved. I think it is because I have more balance at the core now - my family, my home. I have to manage when times are hard, I have to teach my children how to manage.
I would hate to lose my Mum, at any time. I will never be ready to part with the person who gave me life. But maybe these happenings are a way of toughening us all up, preparing us. We know that we are not immortal, but we have to keep ignoring it - until one day the fact pops up and bops us in the face. Then the only challenge will be not to fall flat over.
Louise x
This is where watching very little TV, and almost never the commercial channels, has done me a disservice - apparently there is a TV advert which gives the FAST signs - Face, Arms, Speech - of an impending stroke. Not knowing this, I sat and watched my Mum have a TIA - a mini-stroke - in my front room on Friday night. We were having a conversation about recent tests she had been having at her GP surgery, because she had signs of high cholesterol, when she was suddenly struck dumb. I could see that she wanted to speak but was having trouble finding her words, and when she did work out what to say, it came out all wrong. A few minutes later it was all over, and she was sitting and speaking normally.
I phoned my friend, who is a nurse, and she said it was probably a TIA and that the GP would want to see Mum immediately and would probably send her to A and E. I phoned the GP, but he did not want to see her. She had had a recent blood pressure check and a blood test, of which he had the results as he spoke to me. He told me to get her some aspirin and start her taking them, and that he would write her a prescription for some medication to lower her cholesterol levels, which we should pick up on Monday, and that was pretty much it. Now it is pretty much business as usual - she has been staying with my sister since Friday but is due to go home today. Hopefully she will soon get a referral to the TIA clinic at the hospital, where they will hopefully confirm that all is now ok.
The worst thing, in a way, is that she has been told not to drive for six weeks, which is a huge blow to her independence. So she is going to need a good deal of looking after. Poor old Mum.
Of course, nobody wants to be reminded of the mortality of their parents, but it must be worse for the parents themselves. Even a minor incident like this is a huge blow to the confidence. My children were devastated, of course, once they realised what had happened in front of their eyes; although at the time they didn't even notice. Afterwards, they were terribly upset at what could have become of Granny, and I felt so much for them. Death is the bogey man for all of us, but he seems most threatening when you are young, before you have weathered a few storms and realise that nothing is the end of the world, except of course the end of the world.
I feel that I have coped surprisingly well through all this. I have spent a lot of my life in a state of arrested development (until I had my own children, in fact) and the biggest fear I could name was always that of losing my mother. But at times when that loss has seemed most likely - on several occasions over the last few years - I have not found myself descending into panic, but reacting instead to the situations as they have evolved. I think it is because I have more balance at the core now - my family, my home. I have to manage when times are hard, I have to teach my children how to manage.
I would hate to lose my Mum, at any time. I will never be ready to part with the person who gave me life. But maybe these happenings are a way of toughening us all up, preparing us. We know that we are not immortal, but we have to keep ignoring it - until one day the fact pops up and bops us in the face. Then the only challenge will be not to fall flat over.
Louise x
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Notes on a Book
Hi again
Well, I did some work on the book last night, kind of. I was really tired, but I made rough notes of the chapter headings and a few lines on each, up to about Chapter 8, just so I felt I had done what I set out to do. I suppose I can build on that...
I went to the Ladies Group at the local church tonight. I feel a bit odd about admitting to that - I have this childish inclination to scoff at organised religion, although I find myself becoming more spiritual as life goes on. In actual fact I have an unshakeable conviction that there is definitely a God in the world, because I am so happy these days - which as my atheist friend pointed out, is most egocentric of me. But when I am in church, I feel this rebelliousness, as if I am still a cynical, unhappy and disillusioned thirteen year old sitting in school assembly feeling that everyone around me, quietly praying and conforming, is deluding themselves and trying to decieve others by holding out false hopes, mirages.
(The next bit is in the book, you can switch off if you have read it). I was a very religious child - I loved reading, and the Bible was my default setting when I had nothing else to read. Jesus was definitely the man for me, and I was very disappointed at the age of eleven or so to be told he didn't exist and that I was Jewish from now on. I came to embrace Judaism, but unfortunately it didn't feel the same way about me - as a reform Jew I never felt that I was properly accepted as one of the clan. But a person can't keep changing their moral bedrock, and although there are a lot of churches around where I live, all staffed and populated by lovely and welcoming people, I have got out of the 'Jesus habit'. Apart from anything else, I feel it would be betraying the Jewish race to become a Christian - I have read so much about their (our?) struggles and the Holocaust and so on. I have been to Yad Vashem, for goodness sake.
As people sometimes put on their Facebook status, 'It's complicated'. So I have come to the conclusion that my belief in God is best kept private and that organised religion is not for me - but I love the ladies group! One of the ladies there is a proper maverick - she told everyone present this evening that you won't find God in church (I know her quite well and although she is a very active member of the church she seems quite disillusioned with the politics of it all). She is very sensible, lovely, and makes me feel that not only is it possible to believe in God on your own terms, it is actually the best way.
Lights are always dim in the Ladies group, to lower the reserve, I believe. Tonight's meeting was aimed at opening up, talking about ourselves, and attendees had been encouraged to bring something to show, which said something about who they were. One lady brought a journal, another showed the contents of her handbag, another had a cobbler's last. It was extremely interesting. I love the stories of peoples' lives, and almost everybody shared something (I didn't, but I have spoken before to this group, so most of them present already knew my stuff, about the book and this blog and so on. In fact, the reception I received from them originally, when I read out excerpts from my poetry book, really helped me to open up generally).
I haven't been to the group for quite a few months, but am going to start attending regularly again. Apart from anything else, there is always a welcoming cup of tea, fresh flowers on the tables as well as chocolates and sweets, and tonight there was cheesecake and chocolate eclairs and champagne truffles! Enough to cheer up anyone and make you feel valued, even without the sense of fellowship and fun... Just a little prayer at the end, but a sensible one and one that did not mention the word Jesus, so nothing I couldn't say a genuine 'Amen' to.
To go back to the rest of the day now... I visisted my niece after dropping Toddler at play school. Her baby was sick all over me almost as soon as I arrived, so I had to go home and change. I was soaked, literally, to the skin. I walked the dog. I saw my counsellor (I could write reams about this counselling, but shouldn't and so won't. I asked for counselling six months ago, anticipating a period of stress around the release of my book, and the sessions have finally started. Fortunately, in the meantime I had weathered the period of stress, but decided to go ahead with the counselling, since there is always room to improve. Well, there certainly is in my case.)
Then I tidied. A lot. Last night Paul went into the loft to get the advent calendars and Christmas cards that were left over from last year. We are not feeding the children year-old chocolates by the way, these are refillable advent calendars, with little fabric pouches that Paul spent the evening stocking with Roses chocolates and then tying up the tiny red ribbons on. Top Daddy. Meanwhile, I was busy trying to start my new book.
Anyway, Paul had also chucked down a load of bin liners from the loft filled with clothes that I had put away at various points over the years and needed to sort out again. Also old cuddly toys, ancient duvets and so on. So this morning I got up and made my bleary way to the kithcen through a hall filled with all these bags of stuff, and felt quite overwhelmed by them - although I had asked him to get it all down for me.
I didn't feel that I was going to be able to tackle the mess. But I had to - because the alternative prospect, of steering around the clutter for days, was worse. So that was my day - sorting out loads and loads of old tat (some of it not tat at all actually). I did the same on Tuesday - a massive tidy of my younger daughter's bedroom, which took almost the whole day. I know what I am doing - finding excuses not to knuckle down properly to the writing. Displacement activity, they call it. But the side effect is a tidy house, or something heading, almost certainly temporarily, in that direction. So, every cloud has a silver lining.
Louise x
Well, I did some work on the book last night, kind of. I was really tired, but I made rough notes of the chapter headings and a few lines on each, up to about Chapter 8, just so I felt I had done what I set out to do. I suppose I can build on that...
I went to the Ladies Group at the local church tonight. I feel a bit odd about admitting to that - I have this childish inclination to scoff at organised religion, although I find myself becoming more spiritual as life goes on. In actual fact I have an unshakeable conviction that there is definitely a God in the world, because I am so happy these days - which as my atheist friend pointed out, is most egocentric of me. But when I am in church, I feel this rebelliousness, as if I am still a cynical, unhappy and disillusioned thirteen year old sitting in school assembly feeling that everyone around me, quietly praying and conforming, is deluding themselves and trying to decieve others by holding out false hopes, mirages.
(The next bit is in the book, you can switch off if you have read it). I was a very religious child - I loved reading, and the Bible was my default setting when I had nothing else to read. Jesus was definitely the man for me, and I was very disappointed at the age of eleven or so to be told he didn't exist and that I was Jewish from now on. I came to embrace Judaism, but unfortunately it didn't feel the same way about me - as a reform Jew I never felt that I was properly accepted as one of the clan. But a person can't keep changing their moral bedrock, and although there are a lot of churches around where I live, all staffed and populated by lovely and welcoming people, I have got out of the 'Jesus habit'. Apart from anything else, I feel it would be betraying the Jewish race to become a Christian - I have read so much about their (our?) struggles and the Holocaust and so on. I have been to Yad Vashem, for goodness sake.
As people sometimes put on their Facebook status, 'It's complicated'. So I have come to the conclusion that my belief in God is best kept private and that organised religion is not for me - but I love the ladies group! One of the ladies there is a proper maverick - she told everyone present this evening that you won't find God in church (I know her quite well and although she is a very active member of the church she seems quite disillusioned with the politics of it all). She is very sensible, lovely, and makes me feel that not only is it possible to believe in God on your own terms, it is actually the best way.
Lights are always dim in the Ladies group, to lower the reserve, I believe. Tonight's meeting was aimed at opening up, talking about ourselves, and attendees had been encouraged to bring something to show, which said something about who they were. One lady brought a journal, another showed the contents of her handbag, another had a cobbler's last. It was extremely interesting. I love the stories of peoples' lives, and almost everybody shared something (I didn't, but I have spoken before to this group, so most of them present already knew my stuff, about the book and this blog and so on. In fact, the reception I received from them originally, when I read out excerpts from my poetry book, really helped me to open up generally).
I haven't been to the group for quite a few months, but am going to start attending regularly again. Apart from anything else, there is always a welcoming cup of tea, fresh flowers on the tables as well as chocolates and sweets, and tonight there was cheesecake and chocolate eclairs and champagne truffles! Enough to cheer up anyone and make you feel valued, even without the sense of fellowship and fun... Just a little prayer at the end, but a sensible one and one that did not mention the word Jesus, so nothing I couldn't say a genuine 'Amen' to.
To go back to the rest of the day now... I visisted my niece after dropping Toddler at play school. Her baby was sick all over me almost as soon as I arrived, so I had to go home and change. I was soaked, literally, to the skin. I walked the dog. I saw my counsellor (I could write reams about this counselling, but shouldn't and so won't. I asked for counselling six months ago, anticipating a period of stress around the release of my book, and the sessions have finally started. Fortunately, in the meantime I had weathered the period of stress, but decided to go ahead with the counselling, since there is always room to improve. Well, there certainly is in my case.)
Then I tidied. A lot. Last night Paul went into the loft to get the advent calendars and Christmas cards that were left over from last year. We are not feeding the children year-old chocolates by the way, these are refillable advent calendars, with little fabric pouches that Paul spent the evening stocking with Roses chocolates and then tying up the tiny red ribbons on. Top Daddy. Meanwhile, I was busy trying to start my new book.
Anyway, Paul had also chucked down a load of bin liners from the loft filled with clothes that I had put away at various points over the years and needed to sort out again. Also old cuddly toys, ancient duvets and so on. So this morning I got up and made my bleary way to the kithcen through a hall filled with all these bags of stuff, and felt quite overwhelmed by them - although I had asked him to get it all down for me.
I didn't feel that I was going to be able to tackle the mess. But I had to - because the alternative prospect, of steering around the clutter for days, was worse. So that was my day - sorting out loads and loads of old tat (some of it not tat at all actually). I did the same on Tuesday - a massive tidy of my younger daughter's bedroom, which took almost the whole day. I know what I am doing - finding excuses not to knuckle down properly to the writing. Displacement activity, they call it. But the side effect is a tidy house, or something heading, almost certainly temporarily, in that direction. So, every cloud has a silver lining.
Louise x
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Weekday Weakness
Hi Guys
I have figured out that I really need to get on with some work - by which I mean writing, but with a purpose. My recovery book is still not much more than a series of notes, and could quickly become a jumble of them, so I am going to start this evening by ordering the thing, writing up a proper plan. So that I can see where I am going with it, chapter by chapter.
If I don't have a project on the go my mind tends to wander and pick over stuff, and worry it. I have spent the last few months recovering from my foot op, and trying to organise the house, which fell into chaos when I couldn't clean and tidy at my usual pace, and settling the kids into their school routines, and...so on. Now before I know what has happened I am feeling unfulfilled, a bit miserable and a bit fidegety, and I know why.
So here goes! I will keep you all posted.
Louise x
PS - I signed up a while ago to a website called the Happiness Project (there is a book of the same name) and I get an email sent free to my inbox every day, with a quote for the day. They are often uplifting, and quaint and also surprisingly apt. It is a nice thing, so I thought I would share it. Yesterday's quote was by Oscar Wilde, something like 'I must find a way to make everything that has happened to me, good for me'. I liked that. Here's the link: http://www.happiness-project.com/
I have figured out that I really need to get on with some work - by which I mean writing, but with a purpose. My recovery book is still not much more than a series of notes, and could quickly become a jumble of them, so I am going to start this evening by ordering the thing, writing up a proper plan. So that I can see where I am going with it, chapter by chapter.
If I don't have a project on the go my mind tends to wander and pick over stuff, and worry it. I have spent the last few months recovering from my foot op, and trying to organise the house, which fell into chaos when I couldn't clean and tidy at my usual pace, and settling the kids into their school routines, and...so on. Now before I know what has happened I am feeling unfulfilled, a bit miserable and a bit fidegety, and I know why.
So here goes! I will keep you all posted.
Louise x
PS - I signed up a while ago to a website called the Happiness Project (there is a book of the same name) and I get an email sent free to my inbox every day, with a quote for the day. They are often uplifting, and quaint and also surprisingly apt. It is a nice thing, so I thought I would share it. Yesterday's quote was by Oscar Wilde, something like 'I must find a way to make everything that has happened to me, good for me'. I liked that. Here's the link: http://www.happiness-project.com/
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Manic Weekend
Hi all
I have just survived the busiest weekend ever - it can only get better now. We have had a child's party (great fun!) two shows, a school Christmas Fayre and countless other committments to get through - and we have done it! Half past nine and I am ready for bed, but hurrah!
Now I am on a mission to keep the children well through the winter months. We have had so many years of coughs and colds and chest infections, but now that they are getting bigger and stronger I feel that we may be starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. (As I started that sentence Toddler just began coughing in his sleep: talk about tempting fate!)
I have realised today that our home phone literally never rings these days. We can go days without a single call. I suppose that is because everyone has mobiles and sends text messages these days. Makes me feel like a bit of a billy-no-mates at times though...Then again, I used to spend far too much time on the phone.
Everyone should be back at school and work tomorrow. That means I can crack on with my book. I will have to find some discipline at some point... Give myself a target of a set number of hours to work each day, or each week.
Anyway, I am waffling, and none of this can possibly be of interest to anybody but me...
Which leads me to the question, is any blog post better than no post at all?
Probably not.
All the best to all of you
Louise x
I have just survived the busiest weekend ever - it can only get better now. We have had a child's party (great fun!) two shows, a school Christmas Fayre and countless other committments to get through - and we have done it! Half past nine and I am ready for bed, but hurrah!
Now I am on a mission to keep the children well through the winter months. We have had so many years of coughs and colds and chest infections, but now that they are getting bigger and stronger I feel that we may be starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. (As I started that sentence Toddler just began coughing in his sleep: talk about tempting fate!)
I have realised today that our home phone literally never rings these days. We can go days without a single call. I suppose that is because everyone has mobiles and sends text messages these days. Makes me feel like a bit of a billy-no-mates at times though...Then again, I used to spend far too much time on the phone.
Everyone should be back at school and work tomorrow. That means I can crack on with my book. I will have to find some discipline at some point... Give myself a target of a set number of hours to work each day, or each week.
Anyway, I am waffling, and none of this can possibly be of interest to anybody but me...
Which leads me to the question, is any blog post better than no post at all?
Probably not.
All the best to all of you
Louise x
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Schizophrenia and Stress
Hi there
I am feeling a little stressed this morning. I think it is because the house is a bit of a tip (Paul is redecorating the front room) and Toddler is having his birthday party on Sunday. I wanted to take him and some friends to Pizza Hut, but he insisted on having the party at home, so I will just have to get organised at the weekend and have a massive tidy-up and sort out.
On the bright side, quite a few people have already announced that their kids can't make it, which is understandable because it is such a busy time of year. There will still be plenty of attendees (my four can make quite a rollicking party on their own and I know at least six of Toddler's friends are coming, and some of his cousins). But at least we will have room to move now - I always ending up inviting too many to my children's parties because I don't want anyone to feel left out, so I am quite pleased when people say no (although usually they don't).
The weekend is going to be really busy - we have four big things to do just on Saturday. All nice things, but still. But I think that must be playing on my mind too - generally I am quite zen like and calm these days, but today I have a creeping sensation of anxiety.
I am going to tackle it by writing (more on my Recovery book, hopefully not just in note form now, but actually make an attempt at a proper beginning). Then I am going to go shopping for some of the party bits and pieces, so I feel as though I have made a start on that. I find that doing is the solution to stress these days - stop worrying, start doing.
Which brings me to the title of this post - Schizophrenia and Stress. The very word Schizophrenia makes me feel stressed. And just a few short years ago I would have thought that the stress and anxiety I happen to be feeling this morning are symptomatic of my illness, which would have made me feel even worse. But I am moving away from all that now - I no longer consider myself to be Schizophrenic (which makes it odd using the word in my blog, but I do that to make the point that it is a misnomer, an unfair and misleading use of guesswork that can adversely affect the whole of a person's life). If I am stressed, then there is a reason, and by accepting that I can deal with it, and the stress dissipates as a result.
What a lot of damage has been done to so many people! I am one of the lucky ones - no-one would have known my diagnosis if I had not announced it (after many years of keeping it a secret). But those people who are still medicated, still in and out of hospital, total victims of the system, freaked out because of their diagnoses of schizophrenia - who is going to give them back their lives? It is so unspeakably sad.
Anyway, I feel better already after that little rant. Writing as therapy. Sorry if I sometimes repeat stuff - I feel that this blog could do with a good sorting out and tidying up - a bit like my house!
All in good time.
Louise x
I am feeling a little stressed this morning. I think it is because the house is a bit of a tip (Paul is redecorating the front room) and Toddler is having his birthday party on Sunday. I wanted to take him and some friends to Pizza Hut, but he insisted on having the party at home, so I will just have to get organised at the weekend and have a massive tidy-up and sort out.
On the bright side, quite a few people have already announced that their kids can't make it, which is understandable because it is such a busy time of year. There will still be plenty of attendees (my four can make quite a rollicking party on their own and I know at least six of Toddler's friends are coming, and some of his cousins). But at least we will have room to move now - I always ending up inviting too many to my children's parties because I don't want anyone to feel left out, so I am quite pleased when people say no (although usually they don't).
The weekend is going to be really busy - we have four big things to do just on Saturday. All nice things, but still. But I think that must be playing on my mind too - generally I am quite zen like and calm these days, but today I have a creeping sensation of anxiety.
I am going to tackle it by writing (more on my Recovery book, hopefully not just in note form now, but actually make an attempt at a proper beginning). Then I am going to go shopping for some of the party bits and pieces, so I feel as though I have made a start on that. I find that doing is the solution to stress these days - stop worrying, start doing.
Which brings me to the title of this post - Schizophrenia and Stress. The very word Schizophrenia makes me feel stressed. And just a few short years ago I would have thought that the stress and anxiety I happen to be feeling this morning are symptomatic of my illness, which would have made me feel even worse. But I am moving away from all that now - I no longer consider myself to be Schizophrenic (which makes it odd using the word in my blog, but I do that to make the point that it is a misnomer, an unfair and misleading use of guesswork that can adversely affect the whole of a person's life). If I am stressed, then there is a reason, and by accepting that I can deal with it, and the stress dissipates as a result.
What a lot of damage has been done to so many people! I am one of the lucky ones - no-one would have known my diagnosis if I had not announced it (after many years of keeping it a secret). But those people who are still medicated, still in and out of hospital, total victims of the system, freaked out because of their diagnoses of schizophrenia - who is going to give them back their lives? It is so unspeakably sad.
Anyway, I feel better already after that little rant. Writing as therapy. Sorry if I sometimes repeat stuff - I feel that this blog could do with a good sorting out and tidying up - a bit like my house!
All in good time.
Louise x
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Facebook and Schizophrenia
Hi Everybody
I was delighted to find on Facebook today that Rethink made a very perceptive and succinct post listing the five chief myths re schizophrenia. I couldn't resist commenting, and linking to here, so I just thought I would say to anyone who has arrived from that source - go to the early posts if you want to find out about my story. I have recently been considering trying to order the posts in some way, so that people could see at a glance what is relevant to what they want to know - assuming that any of it is.
For now, all I can say is that when I started this blog, I wrote it anonymously to work through the issues I had dealing with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and trying to keep it secret from anyone who knew me. Two years later, I have come a long way, to the point that lots of the blog posts nowadays are not particularly about mental illness, although it is still a subject that interests me, and which will probably always have a bearing on my life.
So I am afraid that newcomers may have to trawl through a bit of a backlog - if you want to. |Go back to the early posts. Alternatively, look for my ebook on Amazon Kindle - 'Surviving Schizophrenia: A Tale of Sound and Fury' by Louise Gillett. You can download the first eight or so chapters to your computer, Kindle, or any reading device, free of charge, with no obligation to buy the rest of it. It should make you smile (sounds strange for such a subject, but take a look!)
Louise x
I was delighted to find on Facebook today that Rethink made a very perceptive and succinct post listing the five chief myths re schizophrenia. I couldn't resist commenting, and linking to here, so I just thought I would say to anyone who has arrived from that source - go to the early posts if you want to find out about my story. I have recently been considering trying to order the posts in some way, so that people could see at a glance what is relevant to what they want to know - assuming that any of it is.
For now, all I can say is that when I started this blog, I wrote it anonymously to work through the issues I had dealing with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and trying to keep it secret from anyone who knew me. Two years later, I have come a long way, to the point that lots of the blog posts nowadays are not particularly about mental illness, although it is still a subject that interests me, and which will probably always have a bearing on my life.
So I am afraid that newcomers may have to trawl through a bit of a backlog - if you want to. |Go back to the early posts. Alternatively, look for my ebook on Amazon Kindle - 'Surviving Schizophrenia: A Tale of Sound and Fury' by Louise Gillett. You can download the first eight or so chapters to your computer, Kindle, or any reading device, free of charge, with no obligation to buy the rest of it. It should make you smile (sounds strange for such a subject, but take a look!)
Louise x
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