20 Years Too Soon- Become a Physical Health Champion

People with severe mental illness die on average 20 years younger than the general population, often from preventable physical diseases (such as heart disease and diabetes).

Rethink Mental Illness is campaigning to ensure that the physical health needs of people with mental health problems are not neglected and calling for physical health champions.

Read more about the campaign: http://www.rethink.org/how_we_can_help/our_campaigns/current_campaigns/20_years_too_soon.html

Become a physical health champion:
http://www.rethink.org/how_we_can_help/our_campaigns/current_campaigns/sign_up_to_become_a.html

Latest News (August 2012)

Latest news about the PRIMROSE Project:

• Focus groups are nearing completion with service users, carers, GPs and nurses working in primary care.
• These focus groups are being fully transcribed and analysed by a qualitative group.
• The systematic review is nearing completion.  This reviews the literature and randomised control trials on how the service/ intervention might best work, nurse training, service users' experiences and the acceptability of the service to people with mental health problems.
• The next LEAP Intervention Development Group is scheduled for late September at Rethink Mental Illness in London.

P's Story: "My full recovery aimed at harmonising four areas".

I found myself in psychiatric hospital quite unexpectedly.  At that time I was a complex-ridden young man with an exact mind and idealistic attitude to the world.  My family lacked love and the atmosphere was cold and grim.

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and three times a day was given painful injections with enormous doses. Slowly, I started coming back to reality but I rebelled, feeling that my problems could not be cured solely by medical treatment. 

I was only taking medicines, which made me feel very ill.  When after two years I tried to give the drugs up, strange thoughts and mystic experiences returned.  I was taken to mental hospital for the second time.

To sum up, I can state that my full recovery was based on activities aimed at

harmonising four areas:

·         Body – diet, hygiene, sport.

·         Mind – widening of consciousness, visualisation, astrology, foreign languages.

·         Emotions – love, forgiveness, courage, tolerance.

·         Spirit – faith, meditation, prayer.

The most important thing though was the decision for a healthy and responsible life, what I had been striving for over all these years.

T's Story: "They threatened to drive me completely insane".

It all started in January 2007.  I went to bed with a sudden feeling of severe dread that someone was out to get me.  I actually didn't go to sleep that night.  The voices talked me into thinking that I was being possessed which caused me to check myself into a mental health facility, during which time they continued to verbally abuse and denigrate me, saying I was worthless and that they were going to kill me.

My parents had to come and get me out.  Shortly after my release, the sleep deprivation continued (they simply talk loudly to me throughout the night), leaving me barely functional at work, leading ultimately to my resignation and loss of my job.  They commanded me to destroy much of my computer equipment and personal ID (driver’s license, social insurance card), which I did after they threatened to drive me completely insane.

They can impose feelings of nausea on me to disrupt my mood and sleep.  They can cause me to see visual hallucinations and they completely control my dreams every night.  They still wake me up every hour after 2 am.  They can also make me fall asleep.  They can make my fingers and face muscles twitch.  They can make you gag.

S's Story: "They loved to torture my mind".

I first started hearing voices in November of 2004.  At first I just heard people talking and couldn't understand them, they were mostly just outside my window.  I just ignored it.

Several days later I was watching TV and heard this great song coming from the next room, it was a black man and woman and I wanted the CD.  Then I realized I had no music turned on.  I searched the house and the basement and there were no radios on and I could only hear it from the one room.

All winter and spring I heard music.  Over the months I began talking to them every waking moment and they kept me without sleep for days at a time.  They said I was the most gifted psychic in the world.

I continued talking to them night and day and listened at times as they talked about me. I had long fights with them.  They loved to torture my mind.  They told me I was sexually abused as a child.

They wouldn't let me sleep for over three days and I kept seeing flashing lights all around the room.  I started drinking and I slept finally and seven days later my doctor put me in the hospital. They increased my medication and let me out after a week. My doctor kept increasing the medication.

Now I hear the music when it's quiet and sometimes the voices but not so bad.  This is my first step in recovering from the shambles my life has become and moving on.

K's Story: "I believe that fear, shame and secrecy only create more trauma and fear".

I have been hearing voices for most of my life. I am currently 51 years old and a trauma survivor.  As far as I can recall, I first became aware of the voices when I was in my late teens to early twenties, which coincides with the first instances of abuse.  As a child I was extremely shy and lived in my own world of imagination.  My youngest brother who is 4 years older than I am was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in his mid- teens, which of course was extremely upsetting and traumatic for everyone in our family.  I also learned many years later that one of my female first cousins developed schizophrenia in her late teens, close to the same time my brother became ill.

When I began to hear voices, I made up my mind that I would never tell anyone, because I was afraid that I would also be diagnosed as schizophrenic.  From the very beginning I was very curious as to why I heard these voices.  Some of my theories were: hearing voices of people who were deceased, mental telepathy, angels or spirits, stray radio signals which my brain was somehow able to pick up, and mental illness.

About 10 years ago, I was diagnosed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and was also diagnosed as DDNOS (dissociative disorder not otherwise specified). I have been taking medication for 10 years as treatment for depression and anxiety disorder, which has not had any effect that I am aware of on the frequency or duration of hearing voices.

Although I still don't make it widely known that I experience internal voices, I feel that I have come to terms with it very well. I no longer worry about the cause, and tend to simply view it as part of who I am as an individual.  I am hopeful that one day there will be much less social stigma attached to the phenomena and that more people will be able to feel comfortable in disclosing their own experiences.

I believe that fear, shame and secrecy only create more trauma and fear, which can become a vicious circle of self-loathing.  Much love and appreciation to those who are working to dispel the myths and misinformation which surround this very fascinating subject!

J's Story: "In my mind I was being followed and hunted down".

My psychiatrist asked me: "Are you hearing voices?”.  My voices told me to say: "No".  I was deep into my first psychotic episode which I would describe as a living nightmare.  In my mind I was being followed and hunted down.  It was like living on the brink of insanity.  Things started to fall apart.

I had a very young child to support with my girlfriend, although I still lived at my flat alone. Sleep was a big problem as I was not getting any.  I could not switch off.  I used cannabis to try to help me to sleep.  I was not eating much at all, just a couple of slices of toast in the morning and water.  Having a major feeling that my job was ultimately important I would wake up with the alarm and really struggle, but always turn up for work.

I called my girlfriend who was no help and hit a low point.  I visited the National Gallery on a day off and viewed ‘Sunflowers’ by Vincent Van Gogh.  I remember wanting to cut it to pieces with some scissors thinking how impoverished he was and what he had been through and how much his work was now valued. 

I woke up after minimal rest the next morning, basically collapsing with exhaustion.