It has always been said that regular exercise is good for you and not just physically. It was said that it helped stimulate blood flow with improved circulation as well as helping you sleep better, relax more easily and relieve stress, but now the emphasis seems to be to persuade everyone that, exercise in the garden, in particular, is even better for mental well being in the over 50’s. The popular press goes further to say, that gardening is better, for staving off Dementia, Alzheimers and the like, than crossword puzzles, computer games and even computer brain training programs. Of course this may be a cynical move to persuade the older generation, who are probably not very interested in playing computer games, including the physical Wii console, to take up a new interest in growing plants and in particular vegetables. This also happens to coincide with the government drive to get more allotments into use nationwide and to encourage the production of more home grown food.

Although gardening is more of a Summer hobby, the keen gardener can often find jobs to do outside on some of the better days throughout much of the Winter. Being outside in the Winter may also benefit those who suffer from S.A.D. or the “Seasonal Affected Disorder,” as they will be exposed to more natural sunlight in the duller months of the year.

In some ways the seemingly new mental health benefits of gardening have actually been appreciated for some time now though, as there have been many environmental training and other projects set up around the country for several years that have been designed for those recovering from mental health issues. They include the “Wellies Project,” which I have mentioned before as this was one that was local to myself.

In the greenhouse or the garden you can put most of your worries to the back of your mind and relax while you inspect your plants and marvel at the wonders of nature. There is definitely a satisfaction and feeling of well being in seeing a pot of seeds start to germinate and grow into small plants, or taking some cuttings and watch as dormant buds burst and new leaves appear as roots develop on the cuttings and they take up goodness from the soil. Many professional gardeners on the TV frequently use the phrase, “You will be rewarded with flowers/fruit etc” and speaking from experience you do feel a sense of pleasure and satisfaction as if you are being rewarded for doing something good when the plants that you have nurtured, flower and fruit. Even hard physical exercise such as digging and weeding will drive away feelings of stress as you concentrate on the task in hand. The end result of seeing a clean and tidy border gives satisfaction and you can also receive a strange sort of pleasure in seeing the resulting pile of weeds, dead plants and garden waste, as well as some kitchen waste, turn into clean, healthy and useful compost in a well maintained compost heap. Apart from the good health aspects of gardening to yourself, anything you do as regards growing your own plants, be they flowers or vegetables, is also good for the health of the environment. (Link to Allotments) (Link To Gardening)

As with many other, serious, long term, mental health patients, I have a fortnightly depot injection and an annual, full health check at my local surgery. My CPN gives me my regular jab and obviously we talk about all sorts of things so that she can make an on-going assessment of me and what is happening in my life. The last few years I have been getting very interested in growing fruit plants in the garden and with the departure of Summer many of our fruits are being harvested. A couple of weeks ago, when I was having my last depot, I proudly presented my nurse with a couple of, fresh, ripe figs from our own tree. The implications and humour of this did not really dawn on me beforehand, but did, as I gave them to her and said, “Not an apple for teacher, but a fig for nurse!"

This week I took two Medlar fruits and gave her the low down on them. CPN’s are trained not to react and she didn’t, but this time, immediately after seeing her I saw a normal medical nurse for my annual health check up as well. The tests were for the full blood works/urine tests; kidney function/liver function/white blood cell count/Cholesterol (both), height, weight, blood pressure, diabetes and I think that was all! Anyway, I gave the second Medlar fruit to her and gave her my spiel. “The common name for Medlar fruits is Dogs Bottom, (or ruder!) because the unusual calyx where the stalk is, makes the fruit look like a dogs bottom and when the fruit is ripe, the flesh inside is soft, brown and mushy, or in other words, looks like what comes out of a dogs bottom!” This time I got the reaction, but she said she would try it anyway! Nurses are wonderful; they are trained to deal with all sorts of experiences!

 
Of course I had been told not to eat any breakfast on that morning, which was uncomfortable because I like a big, early breakfast that had to wait until later. I had also been told not to eat any later than 10pm on the night before. The night before the tests I had a darts match that is always followed by sandwiches, well actually it was a big bowl of stew this time. Fortunately we finished very early having played the top team in the league and when I looked at my watch the time was 5 minutes to 10pm, so I dived in and made the most of it! I will get my Cholesterol test results back in a few days!

Grace

I really don’t think I should say anything else as you seem intensely angry at everything and I certainly don’t want to aggravate you, although perhaps venting some of that anger at an anonymous person such as myself might help you. I do not have any training so am afraid that I might say the wrong thing, but I do think that when I make the effort and go out to meet people at darts matches, etc, it really does help to lift my spirits, regardless of whatever mood that I might be in. Just to see some friendly, albeit sometimes drunken, faces usually cheers me up no end! Incidentally I don’t drink at all myself. Not even a glass at Christmas, because of the seriousness of my medication and resulting state of my health.

Erica.

I am certainly not one to give advice about dating as I haven’t been on a “date” for so many years that I can’t remember and even then I have never really had a fully fledged, proper, normal relationship. Isn’t there a TV series or film or something about a 40 year old virgin? Well I’m not 40 or even 50, but 53! I think my “looney toons” side comes from my mother, but I don’t know if you would call her a “bunny boiler.” On the other hand she had a fall a few weeks back, so I have been doing the shopping and was told to get a couple of joints from the butchers. For whatever reason he hadn’t got much choice, but he had got a few farm reared rabbits. I bought one and it was delicious after mom had cooked it in the slow cooker over night. So, does that make her a “Bunny Boiler?” I think you are right about using negative words about mental health in a fun way. One or two of the newer comedians tell racist jokes about their own race and they seem to have added impact to me and it appears the rest of their audiences. Didn’t somebody once say something like;- “something …. something… people laugh at us, but when we laugh at ourselves others laugh with us!” Personally, I have found laughter always relieves an awkward situation and too many people take themselves too seriously. I am reminded of the great “Frasier Crane” TV show. Here is a YouTube link to my favourite clip;-
Frasier Crane Clip.

Reply to Grace

I do sometimes suffer from low self-esteem, not because of the “Mental Health” label, but because I get very frustrated on a bad day with my inadequacies. I am incapable of doing what I used to do and getting less and less able, but most of the time I am alright with it. I simply accept it and yes I do lay the blame somewhere, but only on life and getting old!

One Doctor said I had mid-life crisis at 26 and yes I had rampant, almost uncontrollable hormones for a few weeks and perhaps I could have become a rapist if I had a different upbringing, but I didn’t. Hormones are not just for women although of course men’s make them more aggressive both physically and sexually and yes men can abuse that, but there is always a reason why that person lost control, however difficult it may be for a woman to accept. I am Not saying you should blame yourself, but on other hand you shouldn’t just blame them, but try and understand what drove them to do it. As I said my repressive upbringing stopped me. There is something in one of the Religions that says something about peace coming from understanding or enlightenment. Blaming others only leads to festering anger and resentment that ultimately does nobody any good and doesn’t resolve anything. Many people seem to think that the death of an assailant or long prison sentence leads to closure, I wouldn’t know, but for me peace has come, most of the time, through a little understanding of life, albeit very confused at times. I am not saying you should forgive an assailant, but I do think that if it is possible for you to try to understand why the assault happened with it’s subsequent after effects, you may gain a little peace or even closure. My problems are I believe as a result of physical damage, but, as I said, I believe that if it had not been the many accidents, something else would have triggered my mental health problems. I do not believe in God, but I do believe in some sort of destiny, fate or perhaps pre-ordination if that’s the right word. That doesn’t mean that I believe we have no control at all over our own destiny, but that we can make choices along the road of life that will lead to one of a variety of possible, personal, futures.

Grace, perhaps I take things at face value too much and don’t see hidden meanings and inferences that may or may not be there. Like most men, I am also probably not very sensitive to others thoughts and just follow my own path without worrying about what other people might think is good for me and what they think will do me good.

You say you suffered a serious “trauma,” which I guess was a “mental trauma” (as in terrible event) whereas some “traumas” can be “physical traumas” (as in blows to the head.) My problems are, I believe, the result of numerous “physical traumas” (accidents etc) that resulted in actual brain damage, but that has never been verified to me by doctors. I have always had a “mental illness,” or at least, I have since being diagnosed some 26 years ago. My medication is supposedly controlling my condition, (my more irrational thoughts and behaviour,) but I know that my “mental” abilities have been deteriorating slowly, as the years have gone by, and much faster the last couple of years. (I am sure you have already seen that from the way this piece is a little muddled.) Obviously, I too haven’t worked for many years and I feel that I am only able to cope with my condition and get any quality to my life at all, because of the “feel good factor” from being reassured by having family, a few close friends and many, many acquaintances (darts players) who sometimes provide a friendly ear to listen to me. (when bribed with a pint of beer!) I think that I have come to accept that the functions of my brain are very inferior to that of those around me and it is also partly because I accept that I have problems, I am more relaxed than I might otherwise be. When I was in my twenties, one of the first Doctors that I saw, said that he thought I was going through an early mid life crisis and after some years I think I understood what he meant. My “Mental health” problems were just a part of life that happened, perhaps a little earlier and more seriously for me than most, because of what life had thrown at me. It was just one of those things and they would have developed anyway, at some time, so I don’t blame anybody else for my problems, although I am sure that I could, if I was angry with life. At times, in the past, I have been so unstable that I was unable to cope with my deranged (paranoid, psychotic) thoughts and sought a refuge, from life around me. The place of refuge for me was the local psychiatric unit or “ mental hospital,” or as I still think of it, the local “asylum,” (Asylum – refuge, shelter, protection!) As I said I am not very sensitive to what others think and believe in calling a spade a spade!

On A Lighter Note.

A short while ago I posted a piece showing how useful my computer skills are in helping me to do all sorts of things including helping others, both through my hobbies and directly though teaching. What I never imagined for one moment was that they would enable me to help my Psychiatric nurse to record her session notes for my sessions with her!

I went for my fortnightly injection as usual and as soon as I entered my nurses office she asked me if I could help her find a new web-site that had just been set up for patients records. She had been given the full web-site address and had a training session a few days before, but said that it hadn’t been very helpful due to the number of people attending. Quickly I showed her how to enter the full http://www address into the Address Bar Box that she didn’t even know was there and she found the site. Obviously passwords were needed to enter and she didn’t do that while I was there, but I did show her how to put it onto her “Favourites” so that she could easily find it again along with a few other health sites and a search engine that is always useful.

After giving my nurse the impromptu training session lasting about 20 minute on the computer, she gave me my depot injection and no doubt entered up some report notes about me on the web-site that I had just shown her! (I am being treated for Paranoia after all!) Her parting comments were, “Alan, I’ll have to book some regular training sessions with you!”

Many people recovering from a long term illness face the problem of boredom and a lack of self worth. When we are not working the days can seem to last forever without something such as a hobby to occupy us and that hobby can also be directed to help us gain some self respect by using it to put a little back into the community.

For all of my adult life I have played darts in an evening in various pub leagues, and as many older players do, I got pushed into being a Team Captain. After this, for several years I then helped the old lady who ran the league and when she died, I just sort of followed on in her steps. With so much time on my hands due to my long-term mental health condition and permanently not working, it was a natural progression into running the whole league. Again, being unemployed, I was able to take advantage of the many free computer training courses that were available to the long term unemployed at the time and my new skills proved invaluable in running the league. My skills with the computer enabled me to drag the 60 year old league, (kicking and screaming sometimes!) into the modern world. I obtained sponsorship for the league and developed their first web-site, which is still running in a different form today, some eight years later, even though it is now run by a different person.

While running the league, one day it dawned on me, that between 2 and 3 hundred people, relied on me, a long-term mental patient, to organise their weekly entertainment that was in the form of darts matches. I may not have been working for a living, but I was certainly doing a bit of work for my community!

As the years went by I got more involved with other leagues in the nearby town of Rugeley and switched my efforts into those, but all that time I was in effect doing a little bit of voluntary work each week.

About 3 years ago my medication was changed again, to a more modern depot injection and the new nurse, who was assigned to give me my fortnightly injection, told me the cost of the drug. It seemed a lot to me and made me resolve to put something more into the community to ease my conscience and justify the expenditure to the public purse. I was already heavily involved in running the darts leagues, so, when my elderly, partially sighted, mother decided to write a regular gardening article for the local Talking Newspaper, I volunteered to type it up for her to make it easier for the readers at the newspaper to use. It wasn’t much, but it was a little bit more for the community and now I even put the articles on a web-site for anybody to read.

With my computer skills, I also decided to see if I could be accepted for the voluntary post as a “Computer Buddy” that my local library was advertising. After much formality I was accepted, although to be honest they do pick which “Students” to give me. The work is irregular and infrequent, but can be great fun and rewarding and it is, yet again doing a little bit more for the community.

At the same time as I applied to the library, Age Concern was starting a computer club near to where I live, so I applied to them. This, is a very regular, 2 hours every other week and not only gives me a bit of a routine, but also gives me something to look forward to. I have to watch my weekly total of voluntary hours sometimes, as I know there is a limit when you are on benefit, but some “Voluntary Work,” such as the darts league, is not official so helps to fill my days.

Other things that I have toyed with getting involved with are a local “Social Hub” for lonely people and a “Rural Activities and Education” scheme aimed at disabled people. These things may not pay money, but they certainly keep me busy and I feel that my life has some real value as I am doing something worthwhile to help other people around me. Furthermore I am also putting a little bit back into the community.

Listening And Celebrating Recovery Event.

We all know that the Government is trying to remove some of the stigma attached to mental illness, so I suppose that is why my local mental hospital recently held what they called a “Listening and Celebrating Recovery Day.” The consultant formally invited several long-term patients, including myself, to attend. Naturally many declined as people with mental health issues don’t generally like the “socialising” type of event. However, half a dozen of us plucked up the courage to turn up on the day with our carers in tow and found some 10-15 medical staff were also there.

The idea behind the event seemed a little mixed as the invite stated that it would be informal and requested that we bring “Samples of our work,” (presumably to show each other what we were still capable of.) However, as everybody arrived we saw all the chairs had been placed in a big circle ready for us to be interrogated!

Two or three patients had brought some of their “work” along, as well as myself, and were given tables to display it on. Naturally I showed some of the books that I have written and put my computer on another to show my web-sites. One older lady put on a rather splendid display of some large paintings and small painted gift cards that she had made. Like me she hadn’t taken up her craft until after her condition had developed.

While everybody was milling about before the “discussion session” started, my CPN brought over a young lady with her father to chat and to see my books. This girl had written a college thesis, on her mental health condition and treatment, that she was interested in getting published. (Later on the consultant praised the standard of her research for the piece.) My CPN told me that several others hadn’t been able to come including one young man who was in the middle of his PHD course.

I don’t know if it is true, but the public impression of people with mental illness is that they are not usually very well educated, come from a poorer background and not much use for anything. It would have been quite an eye opener for people who think like that to have been there that day and seen what a small group of long-term mental health patients were capable of.

It may be a misconception on my part, but I understand that a lot of mental health workers become such because of some association with mental health problems in the past, whether they are their own, those a family member or those of a friend. Indeed I know of a young lady who is trying to set up a web-site based socialising group in a town near to where I live. The young lady obtained her university degree with her thesis on mental health issues and has had her own mental health issues since being a teenager. (SSH Link) So for anybody out there who thinks that developing mental illness is the end of the road, it is not, it is merely a road junction and the start of a new part of the journey of life.

Recently I was browsing the Web and read a few of the comments on the Time To Change web-site. The intention for that site is to promote change in the way the general public perceive those with mental health problems. Many people had written comments about the attitudes of those around them and it surprised me that many of them said that, at times, they felt ashamed to be called mental patients. It is what we are, not Geriatric Patients, not Orthopeadic, etc. Surely their surfers would not say they were ashamed to admit they had Flu or a grumbling appendix, so why should we be ashamed to admit that our brains have a slight chemical imbalance that requires medication. It is no more our fault than someone who contracts a disease or breaks their leg.

It seems that many patients are doing themselves no favours by trying to hide the fact that they have a health problem. I am not saying we should blurt it out every time we speak to someone as we are led to believe alcholics do at A.A. meetings, but surely facing up to our problems makes it easier for us to start to deal with them and indeed others may start to accept and even understand our sometimes strange behaviour. Nor am I saying we should look for sympathy from people around us, but we certainly won't win any confidences or respect by trying to deceive others that we are like them when they can clearly see that we aren't.

On a personal level I am heavily involved with local darts leagues and make no secret of my very long term problems, even to the point of making, what some of the Time To Change sites surfers would describe as tasteless jokes that should be made illegal. The tasteless jokes are actually in articles that I write and post on my various darts web-sites for all the world to see. Stephen Fry might not be everybody’s favourite celebrity as he has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons sometimes, but along with others like Terry Pratchett, he is doing more to remove the stigma attached to those of us with mental health problems than all the bleeding heart do-gooders who cry "Politically Incorrect" and try to use some bizarre, non offensive, meaningless term, to describe us.