Eating For Mental Wealth

I'd not even made the link till this afternoon. After a week of relatively healthy eating and exercise, we had a meal planned at a Chinese buffet. It was absolutely fantastic to see people I'd not seen for a while, and I'd certainly had a hearty meal. Well, I certainly wanted to get my money's worth anyway.

Then I got to this morning. My mood had generally been high all week (whether directly or indirectly related to my good food choices and increased exercise is up for debate). And I literally felt agony all over my body, as if a truck had hit me. And my mood was very, very low; I didn't even want to get out and face the world today, compared to a week full of work and fun.

I'm not about to claim that if we all live off vegetables, wear socks with sandals and take 50 Omega 3 tablets every day all the woes of the world will disappear and we will have bright, happy, smiley faces adorned on our heads. But there is an undeniable link between things like a large sugar or caffeine intake, and the "downer" that follows the rush of these more acceptable drugs. Also, if our body doesn't have enough things like Vitamin B, Potassium as well as Water, the first things to shut down are the less urgent systems, like brain function, to make sure enough nutrients get to the heart and lungs.

Interestingly, there was a branch of psychiatry called Orthomolecular Psychiatry, with the aim of attempting to cure mental illness by solely making changes to the diet, supplementing one's intake with "Mega-Vitamins" and the like. Although the proponents started making unfounded claims of "Curing" people using just food when lacking the scientific evidence, it also seems very likely that the reason psychiatry didn't take it too seriously was because there wasn't enough money to be made from un-patented vitamins and food, compared to propriety drugs. (Interestingly, Orthomolecular Medicine seems either more beneficial, or better promoted)

There is growing evidence, however, that taking Vitamin B and Omega 3 each day can lead to an improvement for those with bipolar; which makes sense as the both of these are important to brain function. A psychiatrist I was involved with in a research project put it that there is no harm in supplementing your diet with it in terms of side effects or toxicity, in comparison to the benefits.

So take a minute to think about what you eat. Maybe choosing the banana rather than the Mars Bar will help put your body in the right frame for recovery.

And if you fancy pitching up a tent in your sandals and Couscous, I'll join you.

Why Heroes Can Be Dangerous In Mental Health

Captain Can-Do-No-Wrong Saves Another Person From The Clutches Of Evil. Image via Wikipedia

There are tens of thousands of "service user" Patient Activists across the country that do absolutely fantastic work in helping end discrimination in mental health and for those with mental health problems.

However, after having time to reflect from my extremely happy inaugural blog post, I believe that it can be extremely dangerous when "heroes" come to the fore in these organisations. Now, when I say heroes, what I really mean are two different kinds of people: The first is the kind of person that tries so hard to be "helpful" and to be the "hero" that, in the process, they push everyone else that may be interested away because it is simply to full-on whilst everyone else is simply trying to help while they get on with their lives. The second (and the one that I wanted to focus on) is the one who has genuinely been placed on the pedestal because, absolutely deservingly, they have done fantastic work and have made a beneficial contribution to... well... a great many people.

In psychology, the scalpel of the professional is, pure and simply, their manner. But as we are all human, by definition we are extremely unlikely to get on with every single person in the world. Which is perfectly fine. One person's fantastic psychiatric nurse may be hated by another.

However, when a person is so highly regarded that they are placed on a pedestal, it can become the movement's worst enemy. Disliking that person can become extremely unpopular. It creates an environment where criticism is no longer allowed, as this person is so highly regarded that their reputation suggests they can't do anything wrong. And the person who does raise objections becomes isolated. This could be directly ("X has done all of this good work and I am incredibly upset with you that you have said something bad with him"), or indirectly ("This person is so popular, I don't think anyone will believe me if I criticise them").

Me? I hope I can just keep doing whatever I'm doing. Silently and without praise. As that suits me absolutely fine.

And yes, I still have a bit of a bee in my bonnet.

Related articles

• Be Your Own Hero (downes.ca)
• Top 10 Mental Health Videos of 2011 (psychcentral.com)
• Who is your Real Hero? (swwashingtonredcross.wordpress.com)