This Week in Mentalists (7)

I’m doing This Week in Mentalists a day early, because I’ll be busy all day tomorrow.

To nominate a blog for This Week in Mentalists, e-mail zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk

A blog we haven’t featured before is Musings of the Medic, a doctor who suffers from depression. This week he’s trying out Omega 3 fish oil.

Since taking the fish oil I’ve started to lose weight because my Seasonal affective symptoms have started to go away. I wake up in the morning bright and bushy tailed and ready for the day. I sleep like a log and wake up after 6 hours refreshed and bright and in a content frame of mind.

Why is this the case? It harks back to our ancestors stone age man where the concentration of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids in the body was 1:1

He has some interesting comments about the science of Omega 3.

The Shrink is wondering whether day hospitals are value for money or not.

Our day hospital has oodles of staff treating very few of my patients. Not much bang for our buck. If the staff were in a Community Mental Health Team they’d be seeing about 4 to 5 times as many folk.

What does a Day Hospital do that a CMHT and social service day centres and EMI nursing homes can’t do, if NHS staff visit and work within them?

Seaneen has been discussing the future with her CPN.

We talked about a time in the future when bipolar disorder might not rule my life. At the moment, I can’t imagine that. I find the energy to write these entries but it takes ages. It really has dictated my life for such a long time that it’s almost frightening to think of life without it. How I feel about it is that I very much doubt I will ever been completely stable. The extent of my rapid cycling becomes clear when I sit back and take a look at it. It’s been quite extreme. But maybe over the years I will learn how to manage it. I’m very shiny and new as far as treatment goes.

Meanwhile both Mandy Lifeboats Ahoy and The Rollercoaster of Life have been getting poetic.

Also Neurologica accuses the “vaccines cause autism” lobby of shifting the goalposts.

I’ll be taking a road trip next weekend, so next week’s This Week in Mentalists will probably also be on the Friday. Or Sunday, depending on how organised I’m feeling.