Mama, We're All Crazy Now

The above title is lifted from a Slade song from the seventies, though they had their own peculiar way of spelling song titles.

The reason for this blog is because of people's views about those with 'Mental Health Issues'. Just the phrase, 'Mental Health Issues' sounds in some way derogatory. One of the guys that I have been working with of late said to me in his broad Yorkshire accent, and in true honest and blunt Yorkshire no-nonsense style, “They put me in the nut house!” when I asked him why, he replied, “Coz I went mad!”

The point I'm trying to make is 'what is mad?' I think at some time in all our lives we ourselves go a little mad! I'm not trying to be flippant here, I'm serious, we all have times in our lives when we seem to lose the plot, as they say.

Now before you all deny any knowledge of ever showing any signs of mental health problems, we must first ask what they are. Depression, anxiety, irrational mood swings, compulsive behaviour. We all suffer from these to a greater or lesser degree. You could argue that the first flushes of love are a type of mental illness as you can suffer from all of the above when you fall in love! Of course there are other far more complex issues that people may face.

Someone the other day told me that they can't understand why anyone would dream of self-harming. There are a multitude of complex reasons why people feel they need to harm, but the person that made this claim had a cigarette in her hand as she said it! When I pointed out to her that she herself was actually self-harming she laughed, telling me that I was talking rubbish! But breathing in smoke that will kill you for no reason is self harming.

I work in a project where lots of the guys have had many problems in their lives. They are just ordinary guys that life has thrown a curve-ball at, and this has caused them problems. Lots of these guys are charming, intelligent individuals, who have suffered traumas that would finish a lot of people off altogether - but they are now rebuilding their lives. The main problem they have now is the stigma of the mental health tag! When some people hear this phrase they think of a naked man with an axe running amok on the streets! They never think that they will know lots of people who have suffered mental health issues, or that they, too, may have suffered from them.

When I look back at my own life, knowing what I know now, I can see times when I must have been finding things difficult. The problem is that we, men especially, don't like to admit that there may be a problem. We don't talk, we drink! This, of course, then causes other mental health issues!

The other problem is the way we like to put people into nice neat boxes so we know just who and what they are, but no one fits into one box! So having said all this, just what is normal? As you read this I bet you think you yourself are quite normal, unless you are one of those irritating morons that claim, “we're all mad here you know!” These people are not mad, just terminally boring! So when you think about your normal life I don't think it will be anything like my life and I'm quite normal! But there again my life is not like my neighbour's life and he says that he's normal? The truth is it's your life, your choices, it's normal for you: just don't judge others on your definition of normal!

I have to go now. The voice in my head is telling me to 'sit in water!' Sorry, it's just my wife asking me if I would like a bath... or is it?