timetotalkday

Today is Time To Talk Day here in the U.K.

So let’s talk. Ok, it’s me blabbering for now. Blabbering about that thing we all have, mental health, and what some may have, mental illness.

Now when it comes to these things, it’s good to see attitudes are changing for the better. Well, with some people anyway. Because the pain of prejudice and the sting of stigma are still very much present. When I think just of myself I know most people will hold certain misconceptions in regards to my illness, even if they have an open caring mind. Progress comes, but invariably progress is slow; in comparison, were I to detail my symptoms the progress of many would be fast out of the door!

However, for once I’m not not really talking about me today (“Thank Goodness!” I hear you cry), other than to say on Time To Talk Day I know very well indeed just how helpful talking can be.

So if you’re feeling a wish or a need to talk, you can. I’m here like to think I’ve got a good ear and a good shoulder. As much as I can babble, I can listen.

Things can seem so insurmountable at times, overwhelming. Crippling anxiety, the darkest depression. We can feel so terribly lost. If this is where you’re at, I’m so sorry for that. I know how difficult it can all be.

There are certain irrefutable facts in this world. Day will follow night. Big waves will crash on gentle shores. After Winter comes Spring. Please know, we’ll get through all of this. You are not walking alone.

So let’s sit together. Have a chat, in Messenger, over the phone, here at The Mighty, perhaps even in person. Because it’s Time To Talk Day, and maybe that’s just what you want/need to do right now.

Giles
#timetotalkday #TimeToTalk

‘Time to Change’ works to change the way we perceive mental health problems. Despite the progress made, many people still do not consider mental health applies to them.
I am so keen to convey the necessity we consider#timetotalk. ’Time to Change’ (TTC) maintains “your attitude to could change someone’s life”. I fervently believe this may be my purpose for surviving despite extensive and persistent trauma, predisposing self destructive behaviour and consequent psychiatric history. TTC provides me with an opportunity to reach out to at least one person (preferably more). I hold an extraordinarily candid story, rich in lived experience, an unthinkable scale of trauma unbelievable insight, the foundations of which are being built upon in current trauma work. Why, I have survived thus far, cheating death on numerous occasions; to be in a position where I share that voice, is inexplicable.
I have literally just turned 48 years old. For me, this means a lived experience of co-mormidity (more than one diagnosis) for approximately 36 years (overt signs of distress began aged 12).
I am eager to raise awareness for a couple of conditions familiar to me. In my experience no one appears to be as aware, compared to its “companion” Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), of Complex PTSD (cPTSD); I will also introduce you to a Dissociative Disorder. No treatment guidelines are offered, let alone any professional (within the NHS from my experience) are trained to recognise this profoundly and potentially life limiting condition. So it was a shocking revelation to conclude (from results of two assessments located in different specialist trauma centres, outside of the NHS) I was typical of someone presenting with cPTSD a dissociative disorders. However this  gave me a real explanation as to why I have for 26 years (under the system) “failed” to “recover” a stable existence; one in which I truly feel safe in and connected to; and why disordered eating remained so ingrained and continues to be an unwanted toxic companion to this day.  Sadly this is of no surprise, because no one within a system of “professionals” knew about this condition 25 years ago.  
There is much to be heard about in the media regarding but little or none about cPTSD. An eating disorder is said to be a symptom of cPTSD. Another group of “disorders” symptomatic of cPTSD are Dissociative Disorders which range in severity in dissociative state. On the severe end of the scale, most relevant to me, is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) for me fitted, like a glove compared to another diagnosis, one of many I had been previously labelled with. The intense confusion and isolation eroded away minutely, following the second assessment.