The Medication debate

Hello you lovely bunch!
It's been a long time since I've blogged myself. I have been thoroughly overwhelmed with the amount of offers I've had from guest bloggers, but keep them coming! It's so important for us all to hear about each others experiences, and to learn from that, so if you're interested in telling us your experience with mental illness, please get in touch.
Twitter - @letstalkmhealth
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/letstalkaboutmentalhealth/


Today's blog from me is about the big medication debate.
I have spoken to many people over the years who are pro-medication to treat mental illness. However, I've also spoken to a great number of people who are anti-medication.
I understand both viewpoints and am intrigued to know all your thoughts on this!

I take fluoxetine (aka Prozac) for my anxiety and I have done for 4 years. 
Fluoxetine is an anti-depressant used not only to treat depression, but also anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders and sometimes ADHD.

However, taking medication like this doesn't come without side effects.
I am tired constantly, I sleep too much and it triples the effects of alcohol (1 glass gives me the effect of having 3). These side effects are not bad at all when you look at what the alternative could be which is why I've always stuck with these pills. Sure, the tiredness is difficult, but you can adapt, which I have.
Also, everyone's side effects vary. Some people's bodies may completely reject it whereas mine takes to it quite well, so a lot of the time it's about trial and error.

Therefore I've always had an okay experience with taking medication for anxiety, but I know not everybody has.

Recently, I went to the doctor who suggested upping my dose of fluoxetine.
It wasn't until a friend was so appalled that that was the doctors first and only suggestion that it got me thinking...Could I try something else before I resort to taking a higher dose and increasing the side effects I already have?
As a result, I've been looking into more natural remedies and brought myself back down to my usual dose. Although my experience with medication isn't bad, I think my friend was right. I should try to see if more natural remedies help me before I resort to taking such a strong dosage of medication.

Be Natural?

Here are some natural remedies I've come across the last few weeks that are good for anxiety. It could be argued that most of this list is just basic health, which it is, but I know all these things can help everyone, from those who suffer from very minor anxiety to those who suffer from full blown panic disorders.

1 - Chamomile Tea
Chamomile is one of the most common herbal remedies used to treat anxiety. If I wasn't overcome with nausea every time my sister makes a cup of chamomile tea, perhaps I would have tried this.
However, if you're a fan of the taste, it's a win-win situation really!
It helps with sleep, produces calm and can also come in capsule form (whether that then counts as medication or not, I guess is another debate in itself...)
I have also heard passionflower tea is great for anxiety sufferers (though I think much stronger!)

2 - Exercise
Exercise has been proven to be very closely linked with mental health. It gives you more self esteem and makes you feel healthier.
Exercise also boosts serotonin levels (the chemical most mental health patients lack) AND you get fit in the process so it makes sense right?

I used to dance and be a figure skater so getting exercise wasn't a problem for me.
Since stopping both of those, I haven't been a big exerciser at all. That being said, last week I started doing yoga which I've done everyday so far and this is having a very positive effect on me already.
There's short 10 minute yoga routines on YouTube so I'm short of excuses for not doing it!!

3 - Meditation
Meditation makes you become more present in the here and now instantly taking away feelings of anxiety. It also quietens an overactive brain, as everyone with anxiety will have. It does however, require commitment as it isn't an instant cure. You have to keep persisting and eventually results will be seen.
I went through a phase of meditating every day which I remember really helped me. Unfortunately, I fell out of this routine, but I intend to start again sometime soon. There's plenty of free apps that offer 5 minute morning meditations. Headspace was the app I used  which I remember being fantastic!

4 - Food is important!
Eating a good breakfast, getting a good level of omega-3, keeping your blood sugar levels up.
All of this is key to maintaining a healthy mind and keeping those anxiety thoughts at bay.

5 - Essential Oils
The use of essential oils work for some and not for others. The fragrance creates a sense of relaxation and raises mood levels.
I used a small pot of Lavender oil for some time, dabbing a tiny bit on my neck and wrists when I started feeling anxious. Sometimes it helped, sometimes it didn't. I found it a bit hit and miss really, but I know some people who completely swear by essential oils and aromatherapy. Definitely worth a try!!!!

6 - Therapy
Unfortunately, getting therapy from a professional is not always easy to come by. It involves long waiting lists, assessments and I think sometimes people feel it's more hassle than it's worth.
Honestly, getting Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was the best thing I've ever done. It took weeks to actually get an assessment then weeks to actually get seen, but once I was up and running it worked wonders for me. I did a course of 6 weeks and it was exactly what I needed. It has definitely helped me in the long term!!
If you're UK based - IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) are the company I went to and always recommend to others. They are very efficient and work their hardest to get you seen as soon as possible.
Find you're nearest IAPT service here http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Psychological-therapies-(IAPT)/LocationSearch/10008



I've hit a bit of a writers block recently so that's all for this week. I hope some of this has been useful to someone out there.
Please let me know your thoughts on the Medication vs. Natural Remedies debate. I'm intrigued to know all your opinions. I may culminate all opinions into an upcoming blog if you want to send me a paragraph of your thoughts!

As I say, I'm absolutely not anti-medication at all. Quite the opposite as I don't know where I would be without mine. But I do agree that perhaps we should try more natural solutions before we turn to medication - it isn't always the answer!

MUCH LOVE,
Suzy x

GUEST BLOG - Ashleigh Oakes - My Psychotic Episode

Hi all!!
This week's guest blog is from an old school friend of mine, Ashleigh Stanley-Oakes.
Ashleigh's blog is an incredibly open and honest insight into some things a lot of people don't like to talk about, but I need to say that Ashleigh's blog contains sensitive content that some readers may find very upsetting.

If you're interested in guest blogging, sharing your views or your story, please get in contact with me. Always looking for people with different experiences to share!
Twitter - @letstalkmhealth
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/letstalkaboutmentalhealth


Ashleigh Stanley-Oakes is a 21 year old artist based in Cheltenham, UK. She makes greeting cards, prints, postcards and cross-stitch dinosaurs. She is going through the process of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

"Since I was 14 I’ve been in and out of mental health services. I am finally no longer ashamed of my illness, and I want to open up a dialogue because it is the only way to remove the stigma and improve the health care patients receive. It is an honour to be able to write for Suzy’s blog as it is a space for brave and frank accounts of mental illness. I have written more about my experiences over at bertillustration.com and I am more than happy to answer questions, comments or to hear your stories, so feel free to contact me at ashleighstanleyoakes@gmail.com.

I’d also like to pop a little disclaimer in here that my experiences have been disturbing and could be upsetting to read.

“I want to sew up my eyes so what I see is no longer an issue”

I keep a journal. I use it to document my highs and lows so that I can keep track of my mood. It’s incredibly difficult to read because I have felt the biggest range of emotion possible to imagine these last few months. I have gone from knowing beyond all doubt that I am the sun, the reason the world is still spinning, to feeling like a waste of a person, unworthy of happiness.

I have also suffered my first ever psychotic episode (I know it sounds super scary but bear with me). It began when I was in the car travelling from Rugby to Cheltenham. I got home and I didn’t know how I’d gotten there, where I was or who my husband was. It turned out that the three weeks of my life before this car journey were a mix of reality and fiction. I believed that I had had three driving lessons and on the very last one had tried to drive into oncoming traffic. This is perhaps what made the earth fall from beneath me that evening, as I struggled to remember how I got home after that driving lesson and was confronted with the idea that something I’d done had put other people in danger as well.

Something in me snapped and whatever was keeping me tied to reality crumbled. I can’t remember much of that evening, but I remember feeling that I was in water and I believed that I was a whale, swimming in the sea. When on-call doctors came to visit me, I was not sure if they were really there or not. When I was eventually left on my own a human-like figure with a face like a Venetian mask lounged on top of the door and stared at me whilst I tried to sleep. The doctors were real, the figure was not.

From this point onwards, my mind couldn’t accept what it had done. I lost three weeks of my memory. I had no idea what was true or false. I saw this figure again. I saw it staring at me when I was in the bath, I saw it in the windows of houses as we drove by them, I saw it in my own face when I couldn’t recognise myself in the mirror.

Then the worst began to happen as the medication wasn’t at the right dosage. I felt an itch on my shoulder. When I scratched it, the skin did not feel smooth. I looked, and it was rotting. I was assured this wasn’t actually happening, but I could see it sure as day. I couldn’t stop scratching myself. It appeared in different areas. One night I felt it rotting between my toes, my scalp was cracking open to let black fibres into my blood stream and I went to the shower and all over my skin was beginning to rot away. There were maggots and puss coming from my legs and so I scrubbed and scraped and burned my skin until it passed.

By the time I got back upstairs to my bedroom, I had no idea where I was. For some reason my legs, hips and shoulders were in a huge amount of pain. They were red and I worried that they were rotting away like I’d been seeing days ago. I was told I’d been hallucinating, that I’d hurt myself and when I was on my own I took as many of my tablets as I could. I needed these hallucinations to stop and the only way that would happen was to end my own life.

Luckily, I did no serious damage to myself. I was seen by mental health teams immediately and I’m now on a high enough dosage of medication that I no longer hallucinate (touch wood).

But here’s the thing, I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who’s been through a psychotic episode. I’ve never read anything about it. I’ve always, despite having suffered with mental illness my whole life, assumed it was for the really “crazy” people. In fact, even now, after being incredibly open about the last few months, I have barely spoken about my hallucinations. I feel like it makes me weak, like people will view me in a completely different light and that, more so than my mood disorder, there’s a real taboo that still exists about people experiencing this.

But let me put it into perspective: I’m getting a First in my degree, I’m married with a beautiful little puppy, I’m starting to sell art work, I have little brothers that come to me for advice and I still see my friends. I had a psychotic episode – so what? I’m still successful, I still have meaningful relationships and I can still have a normal life.

Was it horrendous? Yes. But does it make me really “crazy”? I take tablets every day, like people with high blood pressure or vitamin deficiencies, I stay away from alcohol like people who are teetotal and I see doctors every few weeks like hypochondriacs, parents and old people.

So maybe we need to publish more stories about people suffering these episodes. It would mean that people like me, experiencing hallucinations for the very first time, don’t feel like they have to hang their head in shame or stay in the dark about what their own mind is doing to them. I also hope that it will show that it doesn’t mean the end of your life and it doesn’t make you any less than anybody else. "

Stay strong. Keep fighting. It will get better.

All images are Ashleigh's own - http://www.bertillustration.com/

GUEST BLOG - Patsy Pease - Bipolar and Late Diagnosis

This week's blog is by US actress, Patsy Pease.
These are reposts of Patsy's original posts from her own blog, which you can follow here - https://patsypease.wordpress.com/about-2/

An introduction from Patsy:
"I am "flat out", "no holds barred", publicly vocal about mental illness. Secrets of my family's mental illness literally buried most of them with multiple suicides. So, I use my real name and speak up! To hell with shame and appearances.This is my life and I carry a genetic brain dysfunction that has killed  most of my family in horrific ways. If you need help ,you have the right to ask. I want people to know they can survive the suffering and become productive again. I believe the proper use of the celebrity platform is to inform, enlighten and inspire the public. If I am not only surviving a fatal illness, but living a peaceful life- it is my  responsibility to share with those still suffering-the miracle. Yes, the actions I take everyday for recovery keep me balanced. I am a walking miracle. Yes, I sing it out to the top of my lungs. The chains of insanity and death are broken. I found a way out of Hell and so can you!"

Thank you Patsy for speaking out about your story and for giving me permission to share!


Patsy Pease is an American actress, best known for her role in the soap opera 'Days of Our Lives'. Patsy was diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder late on in her life.

"Hello and welcome!  Some folks may know me as “Patsy Pease the actress” but that’s not why I created this blog. My real life makes my acting career look boring…and I have a pretty neat acting career :)

However, my personal difficulties  always seemed to baffle me. (and everyone around me) So much of my behavior remained a mystery and what little about the “roller coaster”( I called my  life)  was revealed felt brutally painful and extremely humiliating. So, it’s taken a lot of work to uncover,discover and discard the pain, the blame and the shame.

The best way I know to communicate is through story telling. After all, that’s what I do for a living. I am a professional story teller. In the pages of this blog my goal is to share my experience, strength and hope with anyone who may feel as I did. (and sometimes still do) I don’t have any answers. However, I can share some simple solutions that helped me, post a few links to cool inspirational stuff, but  most valuable of all (to me) is my experience …my story.

Also, my greatest asset , the thing that shamed me most (ironically) is also the thing that serves others best…my past.  Yep,that ugly thing! The good ,the bad and especially the ugly.

Funny, how  a clumsy word like ‘blog‘ can take an ugly duckling story like mine, share it with the world and create a swan! Thank you for being a part of this  transformational journey ~ Patsy

Recovery From Shame

I was diagnosed ‘Bi Polar’ late in life.

Unfortunately, (my diagnosis) was after I was arrested for smacking a guy upside the head with a mop and spent 5 days (and 4 scary nights) in a Van Nuys, Ca. filthy  jail cell. I was also 21 years sober, a mother of 2 teenage sons and volunteered in recovery homes at the time. Nevertheless, no diagnosis–no help–off to jail.

Unfortunately,it was after I posted nude pictures (of myself) all over the internet. I met photographers in strange, remote locations. Some were just “G.W.C.” (guys with cameras) Indiscriminately, I disrobed anyway, took nude pictures and had unprotected sex.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t diagnosed until after I flew across country to spend time with ‘mysterious’ men I’d met online. I thought nothing of spending days with these strangers in secluded places…neglecting to tell anyone where I was.

Unfortunately, it was after I followed a group of police into a tattoo parlor. I heard cops know the best ‘ink joints’ ….and well…now , I have permanent evidence of what a full blown manic episode looks like…a  link of strange symbols playfully circling and tattooed on my right bicep.

I wasn’t diagnosed bi-polar until after I turned 50 years old. Up until then I had  Major Depressive Disorder…but oh, I was called ‘slightly moody‘ and more than just a little ‘high strung.‘ My psychiatrist probably credited that to my profession (I’m an actor) rather than my disorder. Understandably confusing, some actors can have erratic, intense if not down-right ‘ kooky’ behavior. (I owe that part to my own childishness and immaturity, not mental illness)

I don’t fault my doctors for not ‘cluing in’ sooner. Maybe they never saw the mania. Maybe ‘the mania’ had a life of it’s own and worsened after menopause. Whatever the reason, it has my full undivided attention now.

All I have to do is glance at my right arm. Wrapped around my bicep is some strange Japanese calligraphy. I thought about having it removed, but I never EVER want to forget what can happen again, if I stop my medication, therapy, diet, exercise, girlfriend time etc. Yes, it takes a village. However, if I have to juggle a ‘second career in recovery’ (just to regain my self respect) I am grateful I have that second chance. Many don’t. My mother and brother didn’t.

It took me years to finally discover what the hell I had permanently inked on my arm though. Finally, I saw its’ exact replica on a symbols site. It simply means ‘white light‘ A Johre symbol for peace, protection and healing.

When I learned what I’ve been ‘ping ponging’ around with, on my arm all these years, I felt like Blanche Dubois in Tennessee William’s play “Streetcar Named Desire” (at the end of Act 11)  when she turns to Mitch and says, “Sometimes, there’s God so quickly.” The irony of all my Russian Roulette, sexually suicidal behavior, while inked in ‘white light’, didn’t escape me.

Long ago I heard, “God looks after fools, drunkards and children.” ( I’ve been guilty of all three )

Well, I’d like to add…..”and the mentally ill too”…… God knows I’m living proof.

For anyone suffering in silence, please know you are not alone.  https://www.nami.org/

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1(800) 273-8255

Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week  Languages: English, Spanish
Website www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org "



- Taken from Patsy's blog
To follow Patsy's story - https://patsypease.wordpress.com/about-2/

Twitter - @PatsyPease