Category: Mental Health

Checking in.

So how is everything going?

It feels as though Corona is never going to dissipate. But hopefully that hasn’t quelled our creativity. We know that life has changed and lots of people are missing the crazy casual lifestyles that we used to enjoy. However, some things may have made a positive impact.

The original lockdowns made us stop and take check of our lives. More people have started to engage with their neighbours. Often these are people we hardly had any dealing with in the past. Some might say we have reinstalled a sense of community. This is one aspect of post-lockdown life which I for one consider hugely beneficial. So many previously lonely or ignored people are now feeling valued and safer, knowing the people that live near them will check on them and show appreciation for them.

One of my passions is making people more aware of environmental issues and it would seem that less people flying around may be having a positive impact by reducing pollution. People have realised that you don’t have to travel to Europe for a meeting any longer as everyone can log in over Zoom instead. This prevents the need for flights and hotels and additional business costs. At the same time it cuts back air miles and the related devastation caused by the carbon emissions high in the atmosphere.

On another note, the ‘new normal’ seems to have brought about even more creativity and many have had to think of different and interesting ways to tell stories, show shows and generally continue to entertain. From drive-through theatre and live comedy to socially distanced filming, the industry has tried hard to combat hazards thrown in its path.

For writers though, it has seen a large audience of home workers with a few extra minutes in the day that once were spent driving to and from work. Apparently this has led to more book sales and a re-emerging obsession with fiction. I hope that this has given some support and reassurance to my friends and colleagues in the literary industry.

So yes….. times are tough. But still, players gotta play and writers gotta write.

Theatre is the one thing I miss most.

What should we really worry about?

So, we have a lot of problems going on right now and it can be messy thinking about them. How do we start to untangle everything that is happening globally? Who knows how to unpick the subjects that need tackling and how can we all play a part?

This set of blog posts is designed to begin a discussion about priorities, engagement and solutions. Seemingly so awkward a topic, we have to do more than just rant on twitter or post repeated pictures on our instagram feeds. The first thing we all need to do is look at the urgency surrounding current news issues and find ways to unravel the issues that cannot wait to be handled.

Covid-19 and its whiplash

We have all been turned upside down one way or another by this virus which has riddled its way through many countries and shown no sign of distinguishing between the privileged and the poor. It has come for us all equally and yet the people in power have not always taken it seriously enough, especially in Brazil and the US.

There is no quick fix for this but we cannot simply wish it would go away. We have to adapt the best practices from around the world in order to keep the virus down as much as possible. Sometimes that means changing our plans, cancelling our holidays or perhaps not having that party we were desperately looking forward to. Lives come first and so yes, we have to adapt in order to protect others, even if we ourselves may not be so vulnerable. And let’s face it, there is no definite when it comes to Covid. I have known perfectly healthy people come down badly with it and be hospitalised or worse still.

But there are other issues

Other problems are constantly being remembered and need dealing with: Brexit, inequalities in the work place, racial disadvantage, climate change, economic slumps, mental health problems…

The list is not limited to these things but we do have to stop and think about which of these is most pressing in terms of humanity. For me, the climate emergency is unavoidable. It affects each and every one of us and is rapidly destroying the habitats of animals and plants on a daily basis. Sometimes irreversibly.

Yet it is climate change that has taken a back door. Here, whilst a pandemic has restricted our travel and made people aware of the fact that they can often work from home and do not need to fly around the world for meetings, we have seen very little media attention upon the climate problem that is gradually engulfing us.

I would say, there are many vital issues that need addressing but only one is time critical. What do you think?

Cities can be beautiful but let’s protect them. Reduce the smog and reduce the use of cars and planes.

Mental Health

Look after it.

This is an extract from my short book about how I keep positive in life.

For me, I began a particular habit when I was eighteen and it plagued me for many years. That habit was gambling. Some people refer to ‘the art of gambling.’ Others call it the ‘silent addiction’ or even the ‘silent killer’ because it often goes unnoticed for a long time before it causes harm and becomes visible to those around you. For me, it was a steady player in my life for a long time but one day it suddenly grabbed me and took over my world.

I can almost pinpoint it. It was the day that I decided to log in to my computer and try online gambling for the first time. Having already been to a casino a few times and had the odd flutter on the horse races, I thought that I had control over my impulses. This, however, felt very different. It was dangerous and yet it reminded me of other computer games. The consequences didn’t feel genuine or likely. Each time I logged on and added a few quid from one of my credit cards, it just didn’t add up. It wasn’t until my monthly credit card bill arrived that I started to see just how much I had piled onto that online casino account. By then, of course, it was too late! I had already thrown thousands of pounds down the drain over many long nights of wishing myself to become a millionaire.

I suppose I really should give you a clearer picture of how this all happens. In my experience, I had loved visiting the casino with my best mates. We had always gone in with fifty quid and seen where the night took us. Sometimes it had ended early when we burned out quickly and on other occasions we had stayed long into the night, making a little cash here and there and buying a few drinks to make the whole experience more enjoyable, especially when we took a bit of a hit.

The online casino seemed a lot more promising and rewarding. I would put twenty dollars on my account and gently roll a few dollars at a time, mainly trying my luck on the roulette wheel while I built up a little, before then heading for a blackjack table and spending a few hours watching my balance go up and down. Every tap of the buttons felt simulated. In my head I was not using real money, it was just a computer world and I was having fun on a game that was more entertaining than any shoot-em-up or wrestling game.