Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
Post
10 October 2013
4 minute(s) read
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The problem’s huge and like jelly isn’t it and can seem restricting of vocabulary?
Relations on one side of my family were prone to depression and attempts at suicide.
We had a neighbour that most of us referred to as a ‘nutter’ as he was unfathomable. Hd’d made us so unwelcome when we moved in, he’d been waiting for the price to drop so that yet more of his relations could live around him and ‘own’ what he thought of as a private end of the road (and use double parking as a disincentive for whoever dared to use a space).
Question re some of AC’s recent comments elsewhere ….. is labelling someone ‘small minded’ (re their unwillingness to prefer what someone else values as ‘the bigger picture’) more acceptable than labels like ‘nutter’?
It is hard to tell who is the more mentally nutty at times Alistair, as depicted by political leaders at times, and also other so called leaders with influence, who you would think needed a session time on Freud’s couch. Take J. Edgar Hoover for instance, who was the main man for the FBI for decades, he was completely barking, bonkers he was – lots of strange things were going on in his head. Nixon, nuts, Truman, nuts, Reagan, nuts, dubious Bush Jnr., nuts, Thatcher, nuts – the list just goes on and on.
So who is the ones mentally challenged at the end of the day? Seems to me the less nutty ones are the official nutty ones, like us.
Well I am slightly teed off that Alastair hasn’t posted my last post. Perhaps he will this one. I think there are perhaps sound legal reasons or reasons of “Its my website and I’ll post what I like” in that particular case, but it would be nice if he would acknowledge as much by printing this one – well AC?
However despite my vitriol on other matters, I still think the work Alastair does for the mentally ill is highly commendable.
Not so much in support of raising the alcohol price though – open minded but as yet unconvinced.
Are you referring to the one about AC ‘debating McBride’?
If so it is in place (along with my reply), perhaps you looked on the wrong blog?
Well I wish someone would get Home Office HR to sign up to this. I’ve been trying to get back to work now for weeks after a lengthy absence with MH problems but am continually being obstructed by a HR dept who are entirely unhelpful and who insist on placing obstacles in the way of my return.
Their lack of support is not only keeping me from work but in terms of my health it is like they are poking a stick into an open wound, and simply re-creates the anxiety and depression that was the cause of the absence in the first place.
Their attitudes to staff with MH issues needs a complete rethink. Please pay em a visit…
I checked out the “Time to Change” website and was very impressed with the resources page. Even people with depression, those us who have “bad days and not so bad days,” can get involved with what tiny bit of mental energy we might have on a given day. Whoever came up with the strategies for changing attitudes about mental illness gets it.
Mr. Campbell: It is my understanding that you moderate your blog’s comments. I hope this is true, as I have something I would love for you to write about: the Catch 22 of depression and “recovery.” (I use quotation marks as I have treatment-resistant depression and dysthymia, as you know, one doesn’t exactly recover.)
I came across this article ten years ago and it remains the best information I’ve encountered on the insanity of depression and recovery (or attempting to recover).
I would love to see what you can do with this concept, as you are one of my favorite modern day writers. (You’re up there with Glenn Greenwald.)
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200211/case-catch-22
No stigma. No special treatment. Just reality and realistic expectations. Am I asking for too much?