EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LANGUAGE IN MENTAL HEALTH

As a Blogger, I obviously spend a lot of my time writing/typing and so I have a huge interest in language (not as academic as to succeed at English Language A Level though!) and – of course – especially where mental health is involved! There’s been a few instances recently around language and mental health that have really sparked debates between myself, my Mum, my friends, and my Support Worker, and they are what has inspired this post…

The Brave Debate

The most recent instance was when a ‘mental health advocate’ on Twitter tweeted: ‘Please stop telling people they are brave when they are just being themselves.’ I immediately questioned it; I couldn’t understand how someone could say that but then I thought on it… ok, so to me; there shouldn’t be a rule saying you can’t call someone brave. You should be able to say it and if that person is uncomfortable then respect their view and don’t do it again. And it’s not that I can’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to be labelled as brave; sometimes it can feel condescending – especially when you don’t feel that your ‘bravery’ is anything special, when you think that it’s just normal and how things should be done. This can also link into someone feeling that they aren’t worthy of this label and find being called it, upsetting because it reminds them of all the bad things, they think of themselves.

However, there are a lot of people out there (myself included) who thrive from being labelled brave and courageous because it encourages them to speak out more and continue their ‘brave’ behaviour. For me, it’s usually around talking about the rape and abuse I experienced and honestly? Having people appreciate and acknowledge how daunting speaking up about that can be, is such a motivation for me to continue doing so.

THE FIVE MOST OVERUSED MENTAL HEALTH WORDS

So, a little something happened on my recent trip to London for the RichmondFellowship ENRICH Awards 2019… I was in the bathroom on the train when a faulty cabinet cracked me on the head (the LNER staff were incredible and dealt with the whole thing amazingly)! Still suffering from headaches almost two weeks later, I decided to ring my GP but whilst waiting for the return call, I checked with a Pharmacist if I was doing the right thing in ringing the Doctor. I explained that I was worried because when I’d called, the Receptionist had said that I could only get a phone call returned if it was urgent and I thought it urgent so I told them that it was; but whilst waiting for the GP to ring, I was worried they’d think ‘why has this girl wasted our time? Why does she think this is urgent?! It’s nothing!’ I told my Richmond Fellowship support worker that I think it’s all about the fact that ‘urgent’ doesn’t really have a concrete definition. I mean, it might be in the dictionary, but everyone has their own different spin on it. Everyone rates things on a different scale of urgent-ness! It’s like ‘emergency.’ But it’s all based on an individual’s experiences; if you’ve ever had a broken leg, you might think that the pain was so unbearable you wanted immediate help. You might have seen a relative die and believe you don’t call an Ambulance unless you are… dying, I mean.

HOW WORDS HAVE IMPACTED MY LIFE | THE POWER OF WRITING

Sticks and stones may break these bones,

But then, I’ll be ready

Are you ready?

-          P!NK – What About Us

The inspiration for this post came from my recent fuss with my medication… After the development of the new delusion/hallucination (which I talked about in this post there was many discussions around increasing my anti-psychotic medication. My Psychiatrist was reluctant; stating that studies show most people with Borderline Personality Disorder rarely benefit from medication and my CPN (Community Psychiatric Nurse) played Devils Advocate and attempted to remain neutral whilst clearly supporting the Psychiatrist! So, my medication was increased for twenty-one days and after taking a week to get into my system, it made all the difference. The delusion was gone, and I was safe again. But the professionals are still hesitant in making the increase permanent. As the days have gone on with me waiting for some sort of response/decision from the Community Mental Health Team, I’ve considered whether writing down everything and giving it to my CPN would help. Over the years of I’m NOT Disordered I think it’s safe to say that I’ve learnt the power of writing! But some old fear creeped in… what if I poured my heart and soul out and they still didn’t listen to me? It’d all have been for nothing! Another reason that stopped me from writing it all down was a feeling of stubbornness; they should listen to my words in the first place so that I don’t feel like I have to write them down for them! Either way, it got me thinking about the power of words – both written and spoken.