I have just rolled perhaps the 10th rollie of the day and it is barely midday here in my flat. I think my home must stink like a 1970s crooner’s but at the same time, I very much hope my fate won’t be the same as theirs, from drinking whisky sours by the bucket and probably 60 tailor made cigarettes a day.
This blog is not really to celebrate the lives of Frank Sinatra and his chums from the days of yore, but instead to celebrate the 10th of October. Otherwise for those of us in the know, World Mental Health Day.
Poor mental health and homelessness fuse together like our cronies’ nicotine stains and shots of whisky. It is an issue which can happen to any of us at any moment in our lives.
From my own experience, having had psychosis for over two long, painful years and ploughing through the work cycle for decades afterwards and nary a clue as to why I just cannot keep a paid job… Instead of wallowing in my own self-pity, asking myself what dread my future holds, I think I can genuinely see a glimmer of light in the opening of this long dark tunnel in front of me. It may only just be a pin prick of light right now. Certainly, there may be a future despite my experiences of living in a homeless hostel, addiction to stimulants and weed, and being the only divorcee in my circle of equally mad friends.
I would love to bore you with the woe of me returning to London with severe negative symptoms from psychosis and how I would turn up to work in a posh office wearing food-stained black jeans and wrinkly shirts smelling like a polecat. How I would poorly execute my tasks at the job I was not cut out for. Or how my private landlords psychologically abused me to the point of me begging my closest friends to let me sleep on their couch every weekend for years to come, or even the social no man’s land of becoming abstinent from every street drug I loved more than sex itself.
This blog is simply to say, mental health can happen to any of us, and the domino effect of homelessness can equally happen just as easily.
But there is that pin prick of hope that gets larger with the onset of time and recovery.
When we go through that awful tunnel of despair, the black, unforgiving feeling of impending doom, to hold tight. Things can work out in the end.
I have seen this with myself and many of the friendships I’ve had for years. With the right support network, the end is not bleakness, but an unexpected light.
Try to be kind to yourself and let the chips fall where they may and soon with patience and determination, if you can just hold on to a wee bit of hope and support, that Hope may just become a tangible quality of life you may have never expected when this journey began.
To allow yourself to find a safe place. Be it with a supportive mental health charity like MIND or Rethink, or even dive headfirst into charities that make massive differences to thousands of people, like Groundswell, or even a bigger hitter like Crisis.
To be an individual of an organization which is bigger than our own selves, and be part of a collective like these charities, may just help that pin prick of light get bigger and bigger and time rolls on.
In the meantime, try your best to not worry too much about those cigarettes like the crooners smoked. Chances are that at nearly £20 for a pack of twenty, it is unlikely any of us will get through anywhere near 60 a day.
In my opinion, it is all about achieving the small things in your own sweet time. No point in dragging the horse to water if he doesn’t want to drink, but it must realize that pool of water is there.
In the meantime, let’s celebrate our achievements, no matter how small we think they are, now with our peers across the world on the 10th of October 2023, on World Mental Heath Day.
Celebrating World Mental Health Day (10th October 2023) – Listen Up! Hub
I have just rolled perhaps the 10th rollie of the day and it is barely midday here in my flat. I think my home must stink like a 1970s crooner’s but at the same time, I very much hope my fate won’t be the same as theirs, from drinking whisky sours by the bucket and probably 60 tailor made cigarettes a day.
This blog is not really to celebrate the lives of Frank Sinatra and his chums from the days of yore, but instead to celebrate the 10th of October. Otherwise for those of us in the know, World Mental Health Day.
Poor mental health and homelessness fuse together like our cronies’ nicotine stains and shots of whisky. It is an issue which can happen to any of us at any moment in our lives.
From my own experience, having had psychosis for over two long, painful years and ploughing through the work cycle for decades afterwards and nary a clue as to why I just cannot keep a paid job… Instead of wallowing in my own self-pity, asking myself what dread my future holds, I think I can genuinely see a glimmer of light in the opening of this long dark tunnel in front of me. It may only just be a pin prick of light right now. Certainly, there may be a future despite my experiences of living in a homeless hostel, addiction to stimulants and weed, and being the only divorcee in my circle of equally mad friends.
I would love to bore you with the woe of me returning to London with severe negative symptoms from psychosis and how I would turn up to work in a posh office wearing food-stained black jeans and wrinkly shirts smelling like a polecat. How I would poorly execute my tasks at the job I was not cut out for. Or how my private landlords psychologically abused me to the point of me begging my closest friends to let me sleep on their couch every weekend for years to come, or even the social no man’s land of becoming abstinent from every street drug I loved more than sex itself.
This blog is simply to say, mental health can happen to any of us, and the domino effect of homelessness can equally happen just as easily.
But there is that pin prick of hope that gets larger with the onset of time and recovery.
When we go through that awful tunnel of despair, the black, unforgiving feeling of impending doom, to hold tight. Things can work out in the end.
I have seen this with myself and many of the friendships I’ve had for years. With the right support network, the end is not bleakness, but an unexpected light.
Try to be kind to yourself and let the chips fall where they may and soon with patience and determination, if you can just hold on to a wee bit of hope and support, that Hope may just become a tangible quality of life you may have never expected when this journey began.
To allow yourself to find a safe place. Be it with a supportive mental health charity like MIND or Rethink, or even dive headfirst into charities that make massive differences to thousands of people, like Groundswell, or even a bigger hitter like Crisis.
To be an individual of an organization which is bigger than our own selves, and be part of a collective like these charities, may just help that pin prick of light get bigger and bigger and time rolls on.
In the meantime, try your best to not worry too much about those cigarettes like the crooners smoked. Chances are that at nearly £20 for a pack of twenty, it is unlikely any of us will get through anywhere near 60 a day.
In my opinion, it is all about achieving the small things in your own sweet time. No point in dragging the horse to water if he doesn’t want to drink, but it must realize that pool of water is there.
In the meantime, let’s celebrate our achievements, no matter how small we think they are, now with our peers across the world on the 10th of October 2023, on World Mental Heath Day.
6 months ago Blog