A pretty broad question...fortunately despite my best attempts it's one I can answer! I was a patient five times in and out of psychiatric hospitals 2002 – 2006 and I returned as a peer support worker locally for a year more recently. I know it well. My first impression was...
Give up your day job and become an artist they said. But don’t do that, you need to save for your retirement. Along came lockdown though and with it both the opportunity and desire to get out my acrylic paints...
To paraphrase Voletta Wallace, mother of Biggie Smalls, I hope you gain something from this. I remember listening to one of Biggie's albums when I was locked up in a nearby mental hospital in 2003 (while communicating telepathically with my favourite celebrities), there was a message on the album from Biggie’s mum. She’d lost her son in 1997 and addressing us on the posthumously released album she spoke of...
Hey everyone, my name is Chloe I blog over at chloechats.com. I thought I would talk about my lockdown experience, how I have coped with my mental health, and how I feel about trying to return to a new normal.
Painting and other art to combat poor mental health or mood has become a real soundbite, but for me it’s been abundantly helpful, when I started painting in March I had no idea I’d enjoy it and stick to it - now I can’t stop.
The first three weeks were quite exciting for me. I was very motivated and always busy - Focusing on who I wanted to be and what I wanted to create...
So part two of this epic series (note to self – calm down Pete) is about being further along my anxiety recovery journey, when things were already moving along towards being over my anxiety and panic attacks. I’d learned that I could go out of the house and do general life stuff, but I wasn’t enjoying it yet. I wanted to learn how to be able to enjoy it.
If there’s one thing I have learned it’s how to relax. I had serious anxiety from 2004 to 2013 so it was a case of necessity being the mother of invention. During that time my desire to shift the shitty stuff was strong, there was no way I was ready to accept that my life was going to stay that way.
It occurred to me today that it’s been months since I did a blog post about what I want to write. It’s always been about writing something for the readers. I am quite inwardly focussed at the moment and thinking about self-motivation, so I want to write about that. Two birds – one stone too, I hope that reading about what motivates me can be of use for you.
I got used to social distancing years ago after a long journey with mental illness and recovery taught me that I can enjoy not being all that social, and work through it. I hope this helps!