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Men-tal Health

A blog about men's mental health issues

Calling All BloggersApril 18 2008

In order to make the best use of this site, i've decided to open it up to some other folks. If you're interested in blogging here drop me a line at adamfield[[at]]gmail[[dot]]com or leave a comment with a brief bio and what you would blog about and i'll set you up.

All that I am, all that I ever wasMarch 17 2008

I've discovered a blog by Andrew Lake who suffers from bipolar, self-harm, suicidal ideations and other mental ilnesses.

In his words:

These 'labels' do not define me or reflect my personality. It's time we gave mental health stigma a damn good spanking!

Well worth a read as he is very direct in his writing style.

Am I Normal?March 5 2008

There's a new series starting on Radio 4 tonight that looks at what's considered normal (or not):

We expect health professionals to tell us if we’re 'normal' or not, but how do they decide where to draw the line between someone who’s OK and someone who isn't? Vivienne Parry investigates.

Tonight's episode looks at social phobia.

Previous series, have looked at all manner of things, including depression.

If you're not in the UK or near a radio, you can use listen again.

In Defense of SSRI'sFebruary 26 2008

There's been a lot of discussion in the news today about the effect (or not) of SSRI's based on the University of Hull study.

Miss Melancholy believes that the press are oversensationalising the reported results. I agree - it's a good way to reinforce the societal stigma that depression isn't bad as us depressed people make out. As a former depressed SSRI taker, I also disagree that they didn't work but if the study results are correct then I would say that regardless, wouldn't I?

Newly equipped with my ongoing university education, I would actually take issue with their research methods. It appears they used a quasi-experimental method and analysed existing research data to come to their conclusions.

Several people have pointed out that this isn't the most conclusive method to come up with the outcomes that have been reported in the media, which sensationalization is almost certainly at play here.

I will read more on the study though, as my recent study of neurotransmitters and reuptake mechanisms suggests that SSRIs should indeed work as advertised.

I definitely felt a difference in mood in my time on fluoxetine (prozac) but I can't say for certain whether that was

Social Context of Health and IllnessDecember 4 2007

In my course that I'm doing at university, one of the modules is 'The Social Context of Health and Illness' which I've found to be very interesting. We started off by looking at the experience of health and illness and concepts like stigma then moved on to the determinants of health.

It got me thinking about the determinants of my own ill health. I can reel of a whole list of mental and emotional ones but social ones are more difficult to pin down. I can come up with generic ones but specific ones take a lot more thought. Stigma also comes into it a lot more than I originally thought.

If you're interested in other people's illness experience narratives (including mental health) have a look at DipEx