Just needed to be heard for a little while

System

I did Textiles at GCSE and made a little duvet cover i think. I remember my nan helping me make it, i got to use her old (hand cranked?) singer sewing machine

I wasn't very good at it, only got a D over all. I wanted to do Graphics but the course was full so got offloaded onto Textiles instead. I would like to try and take up sewing again though

Pyxis

Pogo stick?


Magnet boots?

Rope and pulley?


Fairy wings!




(Sorry! In silly mode!)

Pyxis

Ooooh!!!

xMessedUpXx!!!!


The Alphabetty is desperate desperate!! It's been blocked on X since yesterday!!

You must help us , oh Princess Messed!

Waves_and_Smiles

Hahahahaha! Fairy wings! Why didn't I think of that? I shall attach a pair to WaSp right now!

elsien

Just listening to an interesting prog on radio 4 about whether people want to disclose mental illness to employers and insurers, and other employment/mental health issues.. Called City on the Couch.
Mentions the Mind time to change campaign.

Waves_and_Smiles

I have often considered that myself, elsien if I was able to work. In my case I think I would have little choice but to disclose my mental illness because it limits what I can do to such a degree.

Having said I have always been open about the therapy/conditions/past I have had and it did backfire when I used to work. Another manager that I had something of a personality clash with told people that I was "born a victim so always a victim" and that I "couldn't cope without a weekly therapy session" so it doesn't always work out well to be honest about these things. Nowadays of course you could take that further but the resources weren't in place back then.

elsien

There was also a programme earlier that mentioned mindfulness and employers bringing it into the work place. And an interesting Buddhist perspective that secular mindfulness is inherently flawed in the context of big business etc because a) its a sticking plaster when better terms and conditions/shorter hours might be more effective and b) mindfulness needs an ethical framework to make sense that the type of mindfulness popping up in the workplace just can't have.

Discuss.:D

elsien

I had to tell work when I was ill because I cracked up while on a training day. Plus it was triggered by work anyway.
It did mean that when I got another managers job, CQC had to check how I was doing in case it happened again but when I convinced them I had strategies in place they didn't mention it again.
I wouldn't mention it now though because as circumstances have changed, there's far less chance of a recurrence. Aren't some mental illnesses now covered by the equality act? Although you still have to prove discrimination due to that, not one of the many other reasons the employer might be quoting,

lostinrates

In the same vein one of the things that I am aware of is that because of the nature of my surgery there will be a consideration into my state of mind. This has been a big concern for me. But the team all know how things are and one of them put me on the antidepressants. If I'm not deemed 'sound' then I doubt it will proceed. I don't know if that means on the pills or off them.

Waves_and_Smiles

Ha, mindfulness. I still remember trying to control a psychotic episode with that, my amusing failure to do so is recorded way back on the thread. Having said that, meditation does work very well for me. I have got out of the habit now but I used to be able to mediate anywhere, I recall sitting on a bus once and watching a raindrop and managing to meditate for a 45 minute journey.

The problem I have always found with mindfulness is my OCD. Things like concentrate on your breathing don't work because I will then forget how to breathe automatically. Looking at something means I have to see it equally with both eyes, so catching something out of the corner of one eye means looking at with the other, too. Touching things also doesn't work because if I touch something with one hand then I have to touch with exactly the same part of my other hand and by that stage we have moved away from mindfulness to rampant compulsions. So for me, no it wouldn't work.

Meditation is always supposed to be ethical so I can see why it wouldn't work within a business construct, becoming one with your surroundings wouldn't be possible, there is too much interference physically and psychologically. It could work with mindfulness though I suppose, for people unlike me.