Girl overheard

I went for a swim this afternoon and whilst getting changed I heard a mother and daughter having a conversation. A sibling had stated that the (I presume) youngest needed to learn to float better in order to not have to swim with the aid of arm bands, which she seemed keen to be rid of. Initially it seemed like a fairly inane conversation until the little girl responded. She replied, saying 'My bum's too big for me to float, do I need to lose weight Mummy?'. It really saddened me that a child, so young, was questioning if she needed to lose weight. It made me feel really sad that she had obviously heard conversations about weight that had led her to mimic what she had heard. Arguably, she probably didn't realise what she was saying, but it still made me sad that she had thought of it.

As usual, the timing of my little bit of ear-wigging came soon after I had seen this article from The Huffington Post.

Remind your daughter that the best thing she can do with her body is to use it to mobilize her beautiful soul- Sarah Koppelkam

The basic premise of her video is that body-talk isn't really necessary and that the focus should be on what you can do with your body rather than how it should and shouldn't look. As I've ranted about in previous blogs, there is such a focus on fat-shaming, thin-shaming... you name it, discussions about bodies that really aren't necessary and can do so much damage to young people.

Rant of the day.

International Happiness Day and a call to arms!

A picture of 'The Retreat Grounds' I took recently that makes me happy

Happy International Happiness Day

Yesterday was International Happiness Day, a day created by the UN to help people to remember the importance of happiness and wellbeing as 'universal goals in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives'- UN 2012. I find it interesting to think of happiness and wellbeing being linked on such a large institutional scale, something that I think is vitally important but often missed.

I also wanted to test the water from some guest bloggers or interviews for my blog or even requested content or topics. My blog has gone over the 3800 views mark but I'm keen to drum up some more followers and interest in what I'm writing. I'd like to throw the option out there for some suggestions of where you'd like me to go next and also ask anyone who would be interested, if they could share my blog or drop me a quick follow as I'd love to get a bit more visible and hopefully get to 4000 views and a lot more followers by the end of April! So please drop me a comment if you'd be interested in getting involved. I'm also thinking of adding an ask button of some sort for ideas and questions! 

Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings

So as usual, I'm a little bit behind the times with my post about International Women's day, which took part on 8th March. For me, IWD is such an important day in terms of feminism and general gender equality. Cheris Kramarae author co-author of the Internation Encyclopedia of Women almost perfectly sums up my view of feminism in that it is:

'...the radical notion that women are human beings.'

I'm proud to be a feminist but yet I feel there's a really bad name for those who choose to identify as one. I think feminism is not only vital to continue to champion rights for women, but it is also essential for men to gain equality too. I think there still lies and great deal of inequality for women in many areas of life such as work and politics. I'm proud to believe in a collective movement that has gained so much for women and really closed in on the gap between the sexes. As Laura Pankhurst, the great great-grand daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst rightly put it when interviewed for the BBC at the London International Women's Day equality march, gaining women the vote was the first step on a long journey towards a real equality between the sexes with education, childcare, parenting the the prevention of violence towards women being but a few of the areas in which injustices still exist.

I think my issue with some aspects of radical feminism isn't the shortsightedness in the view that feminism is a women's issue. Gender inequality is faced by both men and women and I feel that we all need feminism regardless of our gender to help put a stop to inequality for both of the sexes and for individuals who view themselves to fit out of our fairly outdated binary gender system. I think if feminists view the 'cause' as purely for women, they become part of the problem of inequality that sits at the real heart of it all.

A key area of concern, I feel, is the inequality in care for those who suffer from eating disorders. The NICE guidelines showed that 1.6 million people in the UK were affected by eating disorders in 2004 and 11% of them were men. in 2007 the NHS Information Centre found that in a snapshot survey of individuals over 16 in the UK, an alarming 6.4% had a problem with food. The problem is that this figure is considered to only be the tip of the iceberg as there are a huge amount of sufferers who are very 'high functioning' and do not receive or seek support for their disorders. The worrying fact is that a majority of eating disorder inpatient services, which are highly oversubscribed already, offer services aimed primarily at women. Men are being missed, and for me that is a real example of gender inequality that is just one example of the problems faced at the moment, something that I feel needs urgent attention. I wish there was a simple and quick fix answer or solution to gender inequality but unfortunately I think it will be an important area of work for a long while yet. I think the key would be to focus on what feminism can do for all individuals rather than adding to the problem by only focusing on women.

I am very lucky to have been surrounded by some wonderful and strong women throughout my life. The women who have loved me, inspired me, supported me and helped me to become the person I am today. I am so incredibly blessed to have had you all in my life and love you all more than I can express. If I can be just a little like you all, then I think I'll be doing fairly well.












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You treat a person, I guarantee you, you'll win, no matter what the outcome

You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you'll win, no matter what the outcome- Patch Adams

I watched Patch Adams today, starring the wonderful Robin Williams. The films is about Hunter Doherty 'Patch' Adams, an American Physician who founded the Gesundheit institute in 1971. The film tells the story of how Adams, whilst an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt, made a link between individuals mood and wellbeing and their recovery from physical illness. The key to treating patients was to do so in a holistic manner, looking at their health in terms of their family, community and the world around them. The film was semi-biographical, Patch Adams a real doctor and activist and generally inspirational man.

The real Patch Adams at the Gesundheit Institute

The story of Patch Adams really interested me as it seemed to have similarities to the history behind The Retreat, where I am currently an inpatient... just many hundreds of years earlier. The Retreat was opened in 1796, pioneering humane and moral treatment for those with mental health problems. It became a model for asylums all over the world and really pioneered the reform of mental health treatment. The Retreat was opened by William Tuke following the death of Leeds Quaker, Hannah Mills, who died in York Asylum in 1790 in appauling conditions. Tuke and his family vowed that never again a Quaker should endure the treatment that Hannah Mills had suffered; gradually the hospital catered for all individuals and retained the essence of the early views of moral treatment for patients.

Robin Williams in 'Patch Adams' 

Holistic treatment for those with mental health problems has always been something I have felt really strongly about. Through my own experiences and seeing the experiences of others, it seemed so glaringly obvious that the only way someone could recover from a mental illness was if they were treated as a whole individual, not just helped by firefighting their symptoms. For me, the real start of my recovery from my eating disorder and first time I have properly made progress with making real changes came from being at The Retreat. 

Interestingly, in this year 's 'Sock it to eating disorders' campaign masterminded by B-eat, a new report into the chose of eating disorders to the UK economy was launched. It indicated how inconsistent treatment was for individuals across the country and the outcome of this was eating disorders costing the national economy tens of billions of pounds. The report outlines B-eat's views on early intervention and focused treatment for individuals and a more holistic treatment of individuals with eating disorders. 

I think a lot of eating disorder treatment focuses on stabilising individuals but doesn't work on the psychological aetiology of their illness or working on making their lives recovery focused to help prevent them from relapsing by giving them real purpose and meaning through the activities that they take part in and do. For me, this has been the key to embarking on the road to recovery, it's been about all of me, not just the illness. 

For those who are recovery in different settings, try and look at the bigger picture and move the focus away from the minute details of your illness. If you can't see your reasons for recovery and the things you can get from recovery, then the focus remains so inward and recovery is so much more challenging.