Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Albert Einstein

I smile upside down,
and appear like a frown

Upside down on the pavement
I follow in enslavement
I am the dark of the light
A shade of the night
I am you and I am I
I am cast as a die
true as a lie

Turned on my head
I am dread.

Unreal is real as real
feeling real too real I feel

I am one in a crowd
where silence is loud

I am short and I am long
It seems all wrong
I am me
Don’t you see?
I am strong

You
seldom go out
and about—
but, hide,
abide inside;
outside denied—
freedom.

If you could see,
and only you can!
OCD is me—
the Shadow Man

Lesley Scoble

Mental Health Awareness

I wrote my poem The Shadow Man with the aim of helping to raise awareness to mental health. It tries to express (in some small way) the torment that OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and BDD (body dysmorphic disorder) can inflict upon sufferers of this particular mental health condition.

If you think you may be affected by symptoms of OCD (it comes in many forms, guises and disguises) please speak with your GP or contact someone who understands such as OCDUK and Mind for advice, guidance and help.

Mind how we mind our mind

It is time for us all to come together and ‘mind how we mind our mind’.

During this most difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic there is an unprecedented need for mental health awareness and understanding while improving accessibility and treatment in mental health care for all.

Never before has there been so great an increase in the fragility of mental health. It is literally on a global scale.

This highly contagious epidemic has increased mental health problems with an unprecedented rise in anxiety, isolation and fear among all the peoples of the world. Young people are a high percentage of the most vulnerable. The current statistics are disturbing, distressing and upsetting (suicide is one of the main causes of death between the ages of 15 to 29 year olds).

Historically mental health has been shrouded in stigma and misunderstanding — it is about time that this erroneous cloak was removed with realisation that mental health is an illness that we all need to be aware of and take care of.

World Mental Health Day 2020

The first World Mental Health Day was conceived by the World Federation for Mental Health and initiated on the 10th October 1992.

We are all in this together and together we can bring about mental health for all

Dr Ingrid Daniels – President of World Federation for Mental Health

For more info on the WMHD please follow this link to World Mental Health Day

Look after yourself,

Keep well, be happy, and stay safe