This week’s edition of This Week in Mentalists has come rather late in the evening, due to me being busy in the daytime, so I shall dedicate these words to this post.
Saturday night, I feel the air is getting hot
Like you baby
I’ll make you mine you know I’ll take you to the top
I’ll drive you crazy
Saturday night, dance, I like the way you move
Pretty baby
It’s party time and not one minute we can lose
Be my baby
As usual, to nominate a blog for future editions e-mail zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk
Aethelred the Unread comments on a portrayal of mental illness on the TV show ‘Doctors’.
There were a couple of things I liked best about the episode. First of all, Tate was portrayed with real sympathy and conviction all the way through – as a viewer you very definitely got the sense that this wasn’t someone who was bad or evil, but a likeable person who was struggling with something he didn’t understand. I think a lot of the credit for this has to go to the actor playing him (Nicky Bell), who managed to convey the fact that the voices were absolutely real to him, which is no mean trick when you bear in mind that he (presumably) wouldn’t have been able to hear them when he was recording the scenes.
The second thing I liked was that Tate wasn’t presented as being dangerous. His behaviour was unusual, and it was shown to be frightening for people who didn’t understand what caused it, but there was never any hint of him being violent. We didn’t even see him do anything coincidentally dangerous, like wandering out into traffic. Given that popular drama usually associates psychotic symptoms with being an axe murderer, it made for a really nice change
Bipolar Mo has more thoughts on the upcoming changes in incapacity benefit for people with mental illnesses.
I wonder if the DWP have ever considered how detrimental a mental health assessment can be on mental health? I think it’s probably similar to particle physics in that you cannot observe the sub-atomic particle without exerting an influence on it. Unfortunately this is unlikely to ever be a positive influence in the case of mental health assessment. Interrogation by government officials is unlikely to prove helpful in people who may be anxious or feel worthless and particularly in those who suffer paranoia. It would surely be much more helpful, sensitive and effective if the DWP could contact health professionals directly wherever possible?
The Shrink wonders if communication skills can be learned.
I don’t think it’s that black or white a nature/nurture thing. If someone’s inherently good at it, that’s great. But I know medics with a brain the size of Saturn who really are great at diagnosis and therapy but were bad communicators who have improved lots. Experience in medicine, maturity, training can help.
What helps me improve more than anything is what Hospital Wallpaper did. She sat in and saw a clinician communicate. You learn what they do well, and nick that, and what they could do better, so learn to do it differently.
I agree with The Shrink, and have used the exact same technique to try to improve my own communication skills.
Life With Aspergers answers the question, “Are people with Aspergers Syndrome capable of love?”
Aspies are very capable of loving but they often confuse the issue by adopting an altogether too rigid view of love. Despite popular mis-belief, aspies are generally fairly emotional beings. We have intense feelings of happiness and even more intense feelings of sadness. The smallest triggers can produce huge emotional responses in us. While a bad day at work may make an NT grumpy, it could make an aspie feel suicidal. Similarly, when something good happens an aspie may seem to be over-reacting or overly happy. Most aspie adults have long since learned to control excessive displays of happiness but it’s very apparent in aspie children with jumping, shouting and singing.
We at Mental Nurse would like to express our best wishes to Seaneen, who has had to take a week’s break from blogging due to a manic episode, and has returned today. We’re glad to hear you’re back on track, both mentally and blog-wise, and look forward to reading your future editions.
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