equilibrium magazine for wellbeing issue 46

MAGAZINE FOR WELLBEING

AU

TUM

N

2012

ISSU

E 46

Autumn 2012 / ISSUE 46

>> Hooked into Consmption>> Urban Harvest>> Confined Spaces>> Claralympics!!>> The Most Savage Insult

EQUILIBRIUM 2

Equilibrium is produced by service users. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly forbidden without the prior permis-sion of the Equilibrium team. Products, articles and services advertised in this publication do not necessarily carry the endorsement of Equilibrium or any of our partners.Equilibrium is published and circulated electronically four times a year to a database of subscribers; if you do not wish to receive Equilibrium or have received it by mistake, please email unsubscribe to [email protected]

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Equilibrium PatronDr Liz Miller Mind Champion 2008

Photo copyright remains with all individual artists and Equilibrium. All rights reserved. 2011

Equilibrium is devised, created, and produced entirely by team members with experience of the mental health system.

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the teamFacilitator: Kate Chase. Editorial team: Dev Chatterjea, Angela, Pumla Kisosonkole, Ian Stewart, Meg Kelly. Graphic designer: Anthony Parké.

EQUILIBRIUM 3

After 7 years as facilitator of Equilibrium I

am moving on in a few weeks. As a team

we have managed to move Equilibrium

from a 4 page newssheet to a longer

paper based version and then (as now)

to a limitless electronic space – corralled

into online magazine format as well as

being on our blog: www.equilriummag.

blogspot.co.uk. We have embraced Twit-

ter too and tried to broaden our reader-

ship.

What will I miss? Countless things – the

chat, the winter sing-alongs (Mamma

Mia Mamma Mia) with Marcia’s fab

harmonies uh huh, the mice in St Ann’s,

countless cakes (latest being a fab

eggless confection with fruit and flakes –

thanks Gavin!) , picnics in the park and

the Claralympics (qv), Marco Lanzarote,

Nigel Prestatyn and Olive, Ant’s super

skills in all things designy and his absolute

faith in ‘organic management’,

the ‘indoor sparkler event’, sitting

on important chairs in the train-

ing room, chats about everything

from vitamin D to the Ugandan

royal family, Gavin’s total faith in

our abilities, and the collective

effort to try and make a

difference.

I slope off now down the road in

N8 and hand over to Kate – who

I’m sure will bring Equi out of the

digital shadows. I will continue to try and

keep wellbeing on the map and keep up

my obsession with trying to improve the

lives of those with some form of distress.

As recovery is more prevalent in the

developing world than in the UK, and in

lots of ways the ‘treatments’ on offer vary

little from how they were 60 years ago

(ECT, strong drugs etc), there’s so much

room for change. I will still contribute and

really look forward to each fresh issue of

Equilibrium.

Valediction!

Clarification:Article on Stuart Low Trust Philosophy Group in issue 44 of Equilibrium was written by Rachel Paine and Harry Adamson.

Summer/ Issue 38EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38EQUILIBRIUM 4

The Fix: How Addiction is Invading Our Lives

and Taking Over Your World, Damian Thomp-

son (Collins, 2012, £18.99 hardback)

The idea that products from cakes to inter-net sites are increasingly designed to be as addictive as possible is both chilling and entirely unsurprising. After all, there seems to be no limit to how low multinationals will stoop to mould us into ideal consumers, cut off from anything (social bonds, knowledge of the conditions in which these items are produced, a capacity both to fully inhabit the present moment and to see beyond it) which might hinder an unbridled gobbling of so-called ‘goods and services’. Any effort to make the inhabitants of economically rich countries more aware of this is to be applauded, even if, as in this case, the attempt borders on the slapdash.

Thompson has some interesting points to make. His principal concern seems to be to highlight how many more people than we might imagine – in fact, almost anyone who

regularly uses the internet – are ensnared in

powerful patterns of addiction which can

come to govern our daily lives. He convinc-

ingly argues, for example, that it is no coin-

cidence that iphone users are forced into

OCD-type behaviour in order to keep their

mobiles charged and updated with the latest

software, nor that sugary cupcakes trigger

similar biochemical responses to heroin.

Unfortunately, Thompson’s writing style is at

times irritatingly repetitive, as is his occasional

tendency to make assertions rather than

fully develop arguments backed up with

evidence. To give one example, the state-

ment that through our addictions to technol-

ogy we are increasingly replacing people

with things is repeatedly made, but not devel-

oped. This is a pity.

Nevertheless, anyone reading this book may

find themselves more aware – and wary - of

the ways in which we risk losing ourselves in a

torrent of short-term desires, each demanding

its own fix as soon as possible, or sooner. And

this awareness might just result in our having

more of a chance to pause before we reach

for just one more piece of chocolate, or look

at just one more website before we return to

the non-virtual world. So it’s interesting how

the insubstantial, slightly tantalising writing

style of this book had me drawn hurriedly from

one chapter to the next, barely leaving time

for the arguments to be digested. After alll,

publishers want us to consume, too.’

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Hooked into ConsumptionMeg Kelly

Summer/ Issue 38Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUMEQUILIBRIUM 5

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Septem-ber, I biked down to

Ally Pally to join Urban Harvest’s annual Red Berry Walk. With blackberry season almost over, you might have thought there would be little to pick … unless (unlike me) you knew about hawthorns (native and exotic), sloe, crab apples, rosehips and quince!

Before this walk, I would have been hard pressed to identify all of these, let alone know what to do with them. But during the hour or so I spent strolling round the park with a large and friendly group of foragers, I learnt enough to feel confident about foraging on my own afterwards. I learnt that whilst native hawthorn berries are small and mostly seed, their exotic cousins can be the size of small cherries – and many grow as ornamental street trees. Sloe (which, confusingly, is the fruit of the blackthorn) turned out to resemble tiny purple

plums – though eating them raw is not recommended. They can be used to flavour vodka, or possibly salted like olives.

My favourite find was the crab apples. It was a triumphant moment when, a few weeks later, I found myself at the bottom of Muswell Hill and peck-ish. Should I pop into the newsa-gent’s and buy a chocolate bar? But hadn’t we found a crab apple tree round here during the foraging walk? I found the tree again, and its small sweet and sharp red fruit on their long stalks – free, and healthy - kept me going until I arrived home for lunch. And I never even knew that crab apples were edible …

Urban Harvest is an informal group based in North London, holding regular foraging walks and foraging-themed meetings. For information about foraging, details of future events or to join the email list, visit www.urban-harvest.org.uk.

Fruit for free: Urban Harvest Foraging Walk Meg Kelly


at Mind

Green Mindsin Haringey


Mind in Haringey have been running

a gardening group at Station

House on Stapleton Hall Road for

the past two years. The purpose of the group

is to improve the well-being of people living

with mental ill-health by being out in the

garden growing fruit and vegetables.

It has proven to be a very successful group

and many of the members feel that it has

had a positive impact on their mental health

through the social interaction, feeling of

ownership and sense of belonging. Mind in

Haringey has created an educational, socia-

ble and fun environment which has reduced

the feeling of isolation that many of the serv-

ice users experience.

One of the regular participants joined the

group following severe bouts of depression

and has stated that the gardening group

has helped him cope with his mental illness.

More recently, he has graduated from being

a service user to becoming a volunteer and

now assists with running the group and has

been leading the planning process for the

coming year’s project.

“The gardening group has given me ground-

ing and a reason to be. I have regained my

confidence and self-esteem with Mind in

Haringey’s help and could not hold them in

higher regard”.

The group have transformed the land to the

rear of Mind in Haringey to include a seat-

ing area where people can meet for coffee,

have lunch and meet friends, creating a

very sociable and welcoming environment.

They have also created a sensory garden

which is full of herbs and lavender which

are regularly used by some of our therapy

groups. Beyond this is a large area of work-

ing allotments which involved landscaping,

planting of a variety of seasonal fruits and

vegetables, herbs and flowers. The fruit and

vegetables are dug up and used to provide

a meal to the participants of the gardening

group.

The group is currently preparing the allot-

ments for winter and have been planning on

further developments to the garden. These

include creating a natural meadow on the

third tier of land which will include bird and

bat boxes, bee hives and a pond. The group

feels that this will maintain a natural balance

with nature and attract wildlife into the area.

The real success has come from providing

the participants with a sense of achievement

and ownership of something that they have

helped to create. Our participants regularly

express how much they enjoy attending the

gardening group and how much better they

have felt since being a part of it. To see a

person’s confidence grow through a sense

of achievement really clarifies the impor-

tance of the project.

at Mind

If you would like further information about Mind in Haringey and the other activities we provide or would like to support the work we do, you can visit our website at www.mindinharingey.org.uk, or our blog at www.mindinharingey.blogspot.com

Green Mindsin Haringey

Summer/ Issue 38EQUILIBRIUMEQUILIBRIUM 8

This was a day of contrasts – from the old fashioned retro medical model keynote speech from Kay

Redfield Jamison (USA) to a one person installation come play come medical note that was Dylan Tighe

(Antic imposition: Acting Mad(ness).Madness and theatre are high on my list of preoc-

cupations and I was chuffed to see a whole two day conference jointly organized by lecturers from

Cambridge and Exeter Unis First up the famous KRJamison – who wrote The Unquiet

Mind and grabbed a slice of public attention. As time has passed I have realized how faulty her thoughts on mental distress are – she has had severe bipolar

disorder for a long time and ascribes to the lithium/ECT school of ‘treatment’ . Admittedly the fact that she has been suicidal and has been a counselor to the suicidal too may inform her affection for pharms, but her pres-

entation stuck very closely to a very neuroscientific and non holistic script.

CONFINED SPACES Considering performance,

madness and psychiatryCambridge Sept 2012

Image of Dylan Tighe

Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM 9

She is literary and artistic and speckled her talk with quotes from Robert Lowell‘Where you’re going, Professor you

won’t need your Dante’. (ie the nearest asylum). She also speckled it with words such as disease, biological, genetic, clini-cal, etc – setting out her stall as a pretty medical one. She talked of heredity (the gene has never been found, and intergen-erational heredity – apart from new work on epigenetics – is unproven. She brushed over the fact that a lot of her literary and artistic subjects may have been syphilitic (van Gogh etc) and was very keen to prove their bloodlines were full of inherited madness.

She claimed that each psychotic episode would take a chink of the brain – hmmm what about the harm done by drugs to the brain? She glossed over any evidence that suicidal ideation may be increased by some drug treatments and was hugely keen on the ‘illness of the brain’ model. Other presentations included a look at drama within old asylums, annual shows, etc – all seen by the presenter in a slightly distant and anthropological way. And a dramaturg from the Young Vic produc-tion of the Changeling spoke of how they rendered Middleton/Rowley for the 21st c. A woman from the US spoke of working within the Clubhouse system and running movement classes. They subverted (in a way) their drug regime by putting on a pageant wearing sashes marked Thorazine and Lithium…

Dylan Tighe a theatre practitioner in his 30s from Dublin presented a one man medley

of his medical notes, his theatre reviews, a Youtube vid of his play and his next album. Brave and very affecting.

The best bits of any conference are the 0-60 conversations had in lobbies and on the way to meals. I bonded in seconds with a historian of the emotions (speciality: PTSD, flinching and mimicry) and a Professor of Medical Ethics with a love of theatre. The afternoon brought smaller group sessions – great work being done in York with performers with distress and those without and audience assumptions. Two speech therapists working with children with a diagnosis of AHDD spoke of a drama intervention improving the kids’ lives, and a bunch of anthropologists explained how they had ‘become’ healthcare assistants on a ward with Alzheimer patients and created a drama. I was not so sure of the ethics of this – if the patients had not had Alzheimers and been able to express them-selves more lucidly how would they feel?

Felt knackered at the end and slipped back home but it had been a fabulous mix of angles, thoughts, emphases and ideas for the future. I now hope to be part of a special interest group on healthcare and theatre.

As the conference organisers said:‘As the old asylums are being demolished, left derelict, or transformed into flats, and the survivors of the system pass away, it is vital that we document this vanishing theat-rical past and chart its development in the contemporary psychiatric landscape.’

Polly Mortimer

Image of Dylan Tighe

Summer/ Issue 38EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38

Poem of the Issue:

Dylan Thomas

A stranger has comeTo share my room in the house not right in the head,A girl as mad as birds

Bolting the night of the door with her arm the plume.Strait in the mazed bedShe deludes the heaven-proof house with entering clouds

Yet she deludes with walking the nightmarish room,At large as the dead,Or rides the imagined oceans of the male wards.

She has come possessedWho admits the delusive light through the bouncing wall,Possessed by the skies

She sleeps in the narrow trough yet she walks in the dustYet raves at her willOn the madhouse boards worn thin by my walking tears.

And taken by light in her arms at long and dear lastI may without failSuffer the first vision that set fire to the stars.

EQUILIBRIUM 10

Love

in th

e a

sylu

m


2 Notes from Marco Lanzarote

1) If you have ever been a smoker and

wondered after you stopped how, or if, your

lungs could return to normal function then the

answer could be eat plenty of broccoli.

Researchers at John Hopkins University in Balti-

more, Maryland have found that apart from

helping to prevent cancer, broccoli may also

have beneficial effects on the lungs.

The article in New Scientist (23.04.11) states that

white blood cells called macrophages help

clean the lungs and guard against infection.

The chemical pathway that performs this task is

wiped out by smoking.

“Sulphoraphane, a plant chemi-

cal that is made by broc-

coli and other cruciferous

vegetables- can restore

this pathway.” So, give

up smoking and eat

plenty of broccoli.

2) A news article in Asylum magazine (autumn

2012) reports briefly on research published by

the LSE on the millions of pounds wasted in the

NHS “due to the lack of proper mental health

treatment”, and suggests the appointment of a

special cabinet minister to deal with the issue.

The article estimates that “of the 6.1 million

people with treatable anxiety or depression in

England, only 131000(or 2.1%) received talking

therapy.

The coalition, whose Care Services Minister Paul

Burstow is advising that £400 ,million is being

invested “to make sure that talking therapies

are available to all people of all ages who

need them”

Mental ill health costs society

£105 billion per year…I have

always been clear that it

should be treated as seri-

ously as physical health

problems. (Asylun News

p11)

Hats off to the late

Princess Alice,

mother of Prince

Philip. She managed

to recover from

harrowing war work

in World War 1 on

the front line, a

diagnosis of para-

noid schizophrenia, 2.5 yrs in an isolated

German clinic, separation from her children

and bravely she harboured an escaping

Greek Jewish family in WW2 .

And more hats off to

Patrick Stewart the

actor who fronted

an extraordinary

episode of Who do

you think you are?

He had suffered

extremely as a child

and adult from

witnessing extreme

domestic violence meted out on his mother

by his father, returned from WW2. He pieced

together his father’s war, spent at places

where extreme events happened – such as

Arnhem. He then visited Combat Stress, the

brilliant charity for those who declare with

war trauma ( PTSD ) - thousands more never

reach CS. Finally he could start to under-

stand, but never condone, the rage and

intolerable behavior of his father as rooted

in his horrific experiences.

Summer/ Issue 38EQUILIBRIUMEQUILIBRIUM 12

On a routine journey back from the south

Bank one night I found myself comparing

myself to Mayhew the great documenter

and interviewer of 19 c Londoners. I sat

mute, but with my eyes and ears the Friday

night became more and more psych-

edelic. From girls spewing into binliners on

the Embankment, I found myself next to a

pinktrousered ne’er-do-well trying to inter-

est mild Italian tourists in ‘going to Camden

to score some weed’ – he was far from his

‘missus and baby’.

Then when I reunited with my bike I

passed some stranger sights too – a man

on a quad bike leering at schoolgirls at a

busstop, a small woman scuttling into the

bushes of a dark park and finally out of a

side turning came a young woman wear-

ing nothing but a hoodie, bra and thong

nonchalantly and undistressed crossing the

road to her flats.

What we notice in the city 1Polly Mortimer

Hats OffPolly Mortimer

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Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUMEQUILIBRIUM 13

Tree Fall 3 images of left-hand column: courtesy of Lucy Fisher

Paralympics - A Personal Experience

EQUILIBRIUM 14

By Dev Chatterjea

As everyone knows, the Paralympics

was an major success, and the high

achievement of the athletes and

people involved in the event i.e. all staff and

volunteers (games makers and ceremony

volunteers) is well known. To stage an event

in such epic proportions was a major task. As

you probably have guessed I participated

as a volunteer in the opening ceremony and

as a Games Maker. To participate in such an

event was a major and enjoyable moment.

Before I start talking about my experience

there is one point that should mention. All

these athletes are the best in their fields.

It would not be logical to assume that all

people with various disabilities should be able

to do such feats, and so should be judged by

their own capabilities.

As a lead up to the games we had a series of training events. Some of the training would last 9 hours or more. This is especially for the ceremony where we had to train for eight or nine hours straight for four days in a row.

As a Games Maker an average day there

would be two shifts in the morning, 6 am to

3.30pm and the evening shift would be from

www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM

Paralympics - A Personal Experience

EQUILIBRIUM 15

4pm to 12pm each day. I used to do the

morning shift which meant leaving home

at 4.45 am and reaching there by 6am,

followed by a group meeting next to the

Aquatics Centre at 6.30. During one of

these meetings we would get to know

what’s going on for the day and end with

doing the hoke cokey and the Mexican

wave including an annual wave to the

CCTV cameras. This may seem a strange

thing to do but it was a way of getting us

in the mood for the day.

There was one occasion where I was

asked to work at the world square. This

area was known as the rush hour zone

and aptly named the “congestion zone”.

This is where all outdoor entertainment

would occur. A standard morning would

start with us in our allocated areas ready

to start, some lively music. At this point

we would have to direct large crowds,

well over 30 people, to their destinations.

This “mad rush” as one staff member put

it would occur many times a day. During

this time you would get some strange

questions such as: Can my daughter

throw fairy dust on the athletes? Which

way is the main stadium? When they were

looking straight at it. On a sobering note

a young family came up to me and said

they dreamed they would one day see

something like this and they liked what we

were doing.

One day on the Main entrance at Strat-

ford Gate which was where the mad

rush would happen. Working at the gates

would mean standing for long periods

of time. One morning at the Stratford

Gate we were as usual scanning tickets,

a group of ecstatic people all wearing

clothes with the Union Jack flags, includ-

ing wigs came through. As normal we

scanned their tickets. Towards the end a

couple came in wearing the flag clothes

but the other way round. The man who

was wearing the dress danced in scream-

ing I am Miss UK. You could imagine our

reaction to seeing this!

A month before the Games Makers

started work, we started the rehears-

als for the opening ceremony. This was

some feat because most of us had not

performed on stage for years let alone on

a global stage of more than a 2.5 billion

people. The first two rehearsals started at

a studio in west London were we got our

accreditation, our roles in the ceremony

and numbers. In my case I was a marshal.

A marshal is one of a group of people

who dance, guide and keep the athletes

happy. On the face of it it seems very easy,

but everything is done to the second and

highly timed as well as lot of rehearsals.

I would find this out when the rehearsals

moved to a large warehouse in Dagan-

ham, on the outskirts of London. The day

would start at 11pm with several bendy

busses taking over 900 performers to a

rather remote warehouse. This is where

the hole rehearsals was done to scale

and timing. We were put to our paces cont...


such as entering the stadium in order, danc-

ing on the spot and creating the shaad (the

Paralympics flag). This was repeated over

several times and each time faster. The day

would end at 7pm and we would be sent to

the stations by busses. This type of rehearsal

would continue through the weekend

and on to Monday in rather warm summer

weather.

Around five days before the start of the

opening ceremony our rehearsal moved

to the stadium. It wasn’t until then that it

occurred to myself and other performers

how immense was the scale of what we

were going to do. I remember walking on

to the center of the stadium seeing all the

props, the globe and the lighting men work-

ing on the set, and thinking to myself I am

really doing this!

On the Sunday, which we called the test

day, we had our dress rehearsals. This is

where everyone involved in the show, from

the performers, camera men, elections, flag

bearers and us the marshals, came together

to see how it would pan-out in full “show

mode”. This is when we got our uniforms,

those blue, yellow, orange coloured uniforms

which was the same colour as the stage

floor. Doing the full dress rehearsals made it

more real.

On the day of the of the Opening Ceremony

(or aptly named Show day) everyone came

in a good six hours before the start. As we

were getting ready and doing a quick

rehearsal I could sense the excitement of

what was going to happen. There was also a

mad rush to get our uniforms ready. Unfortu-

nately the costume department had got all

EQUILIBRIUM 16

above images: Dev Chatterjea


the marshals’ uniforms, but some were missing.

Also, some were incredibly small and tight, and

some were too big.

Around about 7pm the audience started to

enter the stadium area. From our vantage

point we could see a gigantic heard of people

coming in from Stratford Gate. Rather than

panic, which is a commonly known reaction,

there was a rather overwhelming feeling of

excitement and electricity in our ready area.

As the show time got closer each group were

called out one by one, and each time we all

got even more excited.

Finally our turn came. One of the staff called

our groups’ name and the whole room burst

into deafening scream with everyone including

me screaming with excitement. Within seconds

a staff member took us outside to the noisy

thumping music coming from the stadium. As

we waited marshals at the front started shout-

ing “this is it guys”. And we walked on stage. The

rest is history.

THE CLARALYMPICS!!

Owing to many factors – one being that

none of us are champion sportspeople and

to the various reasons why that is – age,

ability, being hampered by various condi-

tions and/or the drugs given for them, etc

etc we decided to have our own Olympics

in the park this summer.

The Claralympics took

place on an after-

noon of mixed weather

- in Priory Park, N8. Sadly

Clare Balding was other-

wise engaged but we

managed to have a

smashing picnic of arti-

choke tartlets, pistachios

and fruit and started our

games in earnest with

no commentator but

ourselves. For those who

were happier seated on the ground we

had ‘Throw the ball into the bag’ and ‘How

many pistachios can you peel in 1 minute’.

This last game was judged by our own

personal Games Maker Lizzy (in uniform)

who happened to be passing at the time

and joined us.

Then we segued onto the more chal-

lenging part of the games – The Richard

3 Banana Race followed by Anarchist

Rounders. Dev won the R3 race, and Anar-

chist Rounders is designed to have no

winners. Based loosely on Monty Pythons

Philosopher’s Football Match, there are no

rules and everyone wins and loses. Posts

are marked by apple juice cartons.

There were no prizes but everyone had

a laurel branch to put in their hair (like in

Ancient Greece) and went home happy.

Pictured: official adjudicator of the global event that is the Claraympics.


Vitamin D Angela

EQUILIBRIUM 18

I recently had a general health check done

in my GP surgery. A blood test was done

and the result showed my vitamin D level to

be too low. The surgery gave me a prescription

to take and said that I had to get a vitamin D

supplement over the counter.

I bought a supplement which was 1000 iu

which is 500% RDA ( Recommended Daily

Allowance ). I was taking it every morning after

breakfast. Then I noticed that I kept feeling

hungry, so I cut it down to 2 times a week. I did

not feel hungry anymore but I started to feel

depressed with a capital ‘D’ in the mornings.

The mornings was like a nightmare . My radio

clock alarm would go off at 7 o’clock ands

then I would keep pressing the snooze button

until 11’ clock. This happened every morning

for 4 weeks.

I spoke to a nurse at St Ann’s Hospital and a

centre officer at the Clarendon Day Centre

and they both said what happened 4 weeks

ago ? There was nothing I could think of, and

then one day I spoke to somebody in the

church about it and then the penny dropped.

It was the Vitamin D tablets. I spoke to my GP

about it and she said it shouldn’t do that and

told me not to take it for the next 3 to 4 weeks.

I was feeling very bad so I had to book an

appointment with the Consultant Psychiatrist.

He said that the vitamin D tablet has reacted

with one of the medications prescribed for

mental health problems. So he gave me an

increased dose of antidepressant to take if I

feel I need it. While unwell I felt hungry and

paranoid. For example I was crossing a high

road and I got into my head that a car was

going to crash into on purpose. I freaked out,

ran straight into a young man coming towards

me and grabbed his hands which were on his

chest. I even feel scared when I hear my wash-

ing machine going into spin.

This is a very unusual state of affairs. The GPs

said it shouldn’t have happened to me so I

have stopped taking them so don‘t worry !

This has happened to me personally. It does

not mean you must stop taking vitamin D.

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Summer/ Issue 38Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM

As the brother of Edward who is

too severely ill to be productive

or constructive, particularly so in

a mental health day care centre setting,

I’ve often wondered if he might still benefit

on some level from being in a more lively

setting with other similar individuals - a setting

beyond the dour confines his care home, and

the same few familiar faces that frequent it.

Mental health centres of yesteryear throw

up images of individuals lounging around

in smoke-thick rooms doing little to simulate

a productive, worthwhile existence. But this

image is outdated. Today’s day care centres

are places where individuals are expected

to be productive and constructive; where

they’re taught skills, provided with various

types of training, helped to recover and

‘move on’, etc. And if they don’t meet this

criteria? well they’re unlikely be allowed to

attend.

From this transition from the old to new ways

of running a mental health day care centre,

individuals like Edward have been left out of

the loop.

Clearly most day care centres do not have

the necessary resources to accommodate

the severely ill like Edward. But I’ve often

wondered whether for one day of the week,

at least special resources could be provided

by day care centres which could accommo-

date such individuals. Where they could listen

to music, have lunch, tea and coffee, watch

films, have entertainment put on, etc. In fact

be offered some semblance of broader inter-

action, connection, and quality of life. But

then would this laying on of special resources,

(to use council lingo), be cost effective? That’s

a question for the number crunchers.

Likely, for the time being at least, Edward’s

daily life will be a little narrower in quality than

I would like. I’m also acutely aware of the

great care and attention he receives at his

present home. Those who run it do a tremen-

dous job with extremely limited resources.

Perhaps Edward’s care home is a scaled-

down version of a larger day care centre, with

five members instead of fifty. Perhaps it does

contain all of Edward needs. Perhaps I’m in no

position to judge – And perhaps only Edward

can know for sure what his needs are... and

what they aren’t. But will he tell us...?

Edward & the Day Care Centre

EQUILIBRIUM 19

Nigel Prestatyn

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On Saturday 13th October,

a beautiful sunny autumn

day, over 60 CoolTan Arts

participants, volunteers, support-

ers and patrons gathered outside

Maudsley Hospital to begin a spon-

sored walk to the Tate Modern. Our

‘Largactyl Shuffle’ walk was organ-

ised to celebrate ‘World Mental

Health Day’ and explored the idea of

‘BRANDED’ – how labels and brand-

ing create stigma against those with

mental distress.

Cllr Abdul Mohamed Deputy Mayor

of Southwark, Councillor Peter John,

Leader of Southwark Council, and

Cllr Veronica Ward joined us to open

proceedings.

CoolTan Arts is a Southwark based

charity run by and for people with

mental distress and exists to inspire

the wellbeing and creative partici-

pation of a diverse range of people

through the production of quality art.

On the 4.8 mile journey walkers were

led on a route through the pretty

back streets of Southwark, with stops

on the way for talks and art-making,

entirely planned by CoolTan Arts

volunteers.

The walk included a stop to unveil

a dedicated plaque at the site of

the CoolTan Arts sculptural bench,

installed in the north east corner of

Camberwell Green, SE5. Designed

and made by Rossen Daskalov and

CoolTan Arts: Largactyl ShuffleCoolTan Arts Celebrates World Mental Health Day’ and raises more than £5,000 on a Sponsored Walk for its workshops for people with Mental distress

Photo credits: Jez C Self, Hannah Maule-finch, Eva Megias and Emma Thatcher


CoolTan Arts participants, it is dedi-

cated to the local community.

Finishing with a reception at Tate

Modern, walkers had the oppor-

tunity to see CoolTan’s first pop up

exhibition for ‘A Postcard to the

World’– a mail-art project exploring

feelings about the Olympics and

Paralympics. The event culminated

with poetry, music, homemade

cakes and socialising.

Present at the reception were Simon

Hughes MP, Liberal Democrat MP

for Bermondsey and Old Southwark

and Cllr Althea Smith, Mayor of

Southwark, alongside local residents,

walkers and other guests and visitors.

Michelle Baharier, CEO of CoolTan

Arts, said: “I’m delighted at the

huge support we’ve had from Cool-

Tan participants, volunteers and

all who joined us on this important

walk, in celebration of World Mental

Health Day and to destigmatise

mental health – we hope the final

amount raised will surpass the total

raised in 2011!”

A total (so far) of £5,130.00 was

raised by charity staff, volunteers,

participants and supporters which

will allow creative arts workshops,

walks and self-advocacy training to

continue.

You can still donate to the CoolTan walkers by visiting: www.justgiving.com/cooltanartssponsoredwalk


What we noticein the city 2: Slugs

Slugs are not this colour.

Slugs are not silver …

but this one is, slithering over the paving

stones by the sage, as if it had just

slipped in under the gate

not just silver, but with black leopard-like

markings …

I am horrified, captivated, repulsed.

There’s a blackbird flitting between

branches in the apple tree. I will him to

come here, come here and eat this slug

…

I put my bike away, go into the house,

begin to doubt what my own eyes have

seen. Go out again …

no sign of the slug. Are those silvery

trails, left on the stones?

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Photo: AnthonyEQUILIBRIUM 22

Meg Kelly


There is a huge body of clinical literature

on the description, diagnosis and treat-

ment of borderline personality disorder

(BPD). Yet this literature pays scant attention

to its lived impact. Beyond rightful concerns

about the label’s immense stigma, few exam-

ine the effect of branding someone’s person-

ality – the core of their being – as disordered.

It is now 22 years since the current National

Director for Health and Criminal Justice,

Louis Appleby, denounced personality

disorder (PD) as “an enduring pejorative

judgement.”(1) Others have highlighted

the vulnerability of people with the label to

severe mistreatment and the smearing of their

characters across medical and legal settings.

(2) Still, service user and survivor reports of

ongoing discrimination and degrading treat-

ment go unheeded.(3)

Calls to expand the description and diag-

nostic criteria have resulted in increases in

diagnosis rates, with one recent survey claim-

ing that 72% of the British population had

personality disturbances(4) […] Clearly, there

is a desperate need to pay attention to the

voices of people who are stuck with this label.

BPD – the official explanation:

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) aligns personal-

ity disorders with enduring, inflexible, socially

deviant styles of thought and behaviour. For a

diagnosis of BPD, five of the following ‘symp-

toms’ must be cited:

l intense interpersonal relationships

l affective instability l mood reactivity l

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Language within mental health is more than just semantics, and this is most significant in

the case of diagnostic categories like borderline personality disorder and its effect on those

diagnosed. By Clare Shaw and Debra Shulkes. Copyright: Open MInd

The Most Savage Insult

cont...


impulsive behaviours l inappropriate intense

anger l frantic efforts to avoid abandonment

l unstable self-image l suicidal and self-muti-

lating behaviours l chronic feelings of empti-

ness l transient stress-related paranoid ideas

It is often said that such vague and subjec-

tive criteria could apply to almost anyone;

who is to decide when anger is ‘inappropri-

ate’ or ‘intense’?

So what is wrong with it?

Since it was introduced to the DSM in 1980,

several studies have criticised BPD diagnosis

for numerous reasons(5): its lack of scientific

reliability and validity; its biased construction,

which pathologises the coping strategies

and options of particular populations such as

women; its alarmingly unequitable patterns

of diagnosis – 75% of those diagnosed are

women – at least 70% of whom were sexually

abused as children. Many draw parallels with

notorious past diagnoses such as hysteria

its overwhelming stigma – BPD is arguably

one of the labels most feared by staff and

patients, being associated with phrases like

manipulative, attention-seeking, untreatable

and untrustworthy, and a list of assumptions

so derogatory it has been described as “little

more than a sophisticated insult”; its use as a

punitive dust-bin diagnosis for those judged

to be ‘bad’ patients because they are trou-

blemakers or have failed to ‘respond’ to

treatment

[…]

Diagnosed disordered: our story

A diagnosis of BPD destroys lives. We should

know. BPD is our primary diagnosis. When we

listen to the voices of those who have been

diagnosed with BPD, there is no debate – it is

hurting people. Badly.

“In many ways it is a relief to be diagnosed...

At last you have it irrefutably confirmed that

you are wrong and have always been wrong.

And it makes such sense … you have nothing

else to blame but yourself.” (Clare Shaw)

“It became clear to me that th diagnosis

had caused women more distress that what-

ever validity had taken them to services in

the first place … No other diagnosis smears

the woman’s character, trustworthiness and

validity of her distress as much as BPD does.”

(Louise Pembroke)

“Having the diagnosis of BPD has never been

a positive experience, it’s always hung over

my head like a a dark cloud.” (Jo)

The Most Savage Insult cont...

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Language within mental health is more than

‘just’ semantics. Words like personality disor-

der “can deform thought and practice.”

They position the diagnosed as ‘other’ in her

distress. They tell her that her very being is

‘disordered’. They obstruct recognition of the

role of context. And they push our voices,

opinions and experiences to the margins of

society.

Our diagnosis confirmed – and deepened –

the most negative messages we had been

given throughout our lives. It meant that it

was our fault that services had not been able

to help us. It meant that our experiences of

childhood trauma and violence were over-

looked as marginal details. It meant that we

were not going to get better – there would

always be something wrong with who we

are. We live with the legacy of that message

to this day.

Getting rid of the label

The diagnosis of BPD is causing extensive

damage to the people it is supposed to help.

It is leading to bad practice in services rather

than meaningful support. It is therefore imper-

ative that professionals, practitioners, activists

and academics stop promoting this regressive

and traumatising label and all others like it.

Led by service users and survivors we must:

undertake urgent research and monitoring

of the human rights situation of people with

the label; look for alternative ways of fram-

ing and explaining the distress which often

leads to a BPD diagnosis, as well as ways of

assisting those who have been injured by the

label.

Whether we maintain that all diagnosis is

flawed, or whether we feel that alternative

diagnoses – such as Complex Post-Traumatic

Stress Disorder – offer more helpful, less

devastating alternatives to BPD, we must

listen to the voices of those subjected to

these labels. We must accept the simple,

incontrovertible reality that the words we use

to describe ourselves and each other really

do matter. Language can help. Or it can

hurt. It can kill.

“[If ]I’d never come into contact with it and

someone had validated and helped and

cared and loved instead of immersing me in

this... I wouldn’t have tried to kill myself the

second time. Because that’s what it did. If I

had died, this would have been the cause as

it escalated my suicidality into a realm previ-

ously unknown to me. It caused me to feel

sub-human. It’s lethal.”(6)

1 Lewis , G and Appleby, L (1988) ‘Personality disorder: the patients psychiatrists dislike’, The British Journal of Psychia-try, 153:44-49.2 Becker, D (1997) Through the Looking Glass: Women and Borderline Personality Disorder, Westview Press; Kirk, S and Kutchins, H (1992) The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry, Aldine De Gruyter.3 Castillo, H (2003) ‘A dangerous diagnosis’, Mental Health Today, February.4 Yang, M, Coid, J and Tyrer, P (2010) ‘Personality pathology recorded by severity: national survey’, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 197: 193-199.5 See for example: Herman, J.L (1997) Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence- from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, Basic Books; Pilgrim, D (2005) Key Concepts in Mental Health, Sage; Wirth-Cauchon, J (2001) Women and Borderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms and Stories, Rutgers University Press; Castillo, H (2003).

6 Personal correspondence with a survivor of psychiatry from Ireland.

Copyright: Open MInd

equilibrium magazine for wellbeing issue 46

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