Mental Health Workbooks

I’ve just added a link to the Western Australia Centre for Clinical Interventions.  This is a site funded by the Australian Government that deals with Psychotherapy, Research and Training in the Mental Health field.

Of particular interest is their Workbook section.  It has the slightly strange title of Consumer Resources and you may have to scroll down the page a little to find the Workbook links but it’s well worth the effort.

Here you will find 11 PDF documents meant for easy downloading and printing.  The subjects covered are:

• Back From The Bluez – Coping With Depression
• Keeping Your Balance – Coping With Bi-Polar Disorder
• Shy No Longer – Coping With Social Anxiety
• Panic Stations – Coping With Panic Attacks
• What? Me Worry!?! – Mastering Your Worries
• Improving Self Esteem – Overcoming Low Self Esteem
• Put Off Procrastinating - Overcoming Procrastination
• Assert Yourself – Improve Your Assertiveness
• Perfectionism In Perspective – Overcoming Perfectionism
• Overcoming Disordered Eating – Part A
• Overcoming Disordered Eating – Part B

The site gives a short introduction to each Workbook helping you to work out which downloads might be most useful.  It’s also nice to see subjects like Procrastination and Perfectionism in among the more usual information on Depression and Anxiety.

All the workbooks are well worth a look.  Please feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.

Course Cancelled

Unfortunately the Stress Control course planned for January at Prestonpans Library has had to be cancelled.  Not enough people had booked a place on the course to make it worthwhile.

Rescheduled Soon

The course will run again soon at a venue and time to be confirmed.  If you are interested in attending this course, please call 0131 536 8101 to find out more and note your interest.  This will help us plan where and when the next course will run.

More Information

For a little more information about the Stress Control Course, please see my original post here.

Change of Web Host

As part of our continued improvements to both ELPsych! and DisabledPeople.org, we have migrated both sites across to a new, UK based Web Host.  Hopefully this will make the site management side a little easier.

For readers, we have added a few little features that make it easier for you to follow both sites.

• Twitter – Both ELPsych! and DisabledPeople.org can be followed on Twitter by navigating to http://twitter.com/DisabledPeople.  Any updates to either site will be Tweeted immediately.
• If you would prefer to receive updates by email, simply pop your address into the box, top right.  You’ll get a confirmation email from Feedburner asking you to “Opt-In”.  If you change your mind later, there is an “Unsubscribe” link in every email.
• You can also use our Feed in your favourite Feed Reader.  Click the big orange square top right.
• Finally, you can get all my update, including my personal blog at http://meJamie.com

Hopefully this makes it a little easier for everyone to find our content.  Remember, you’re more than welcome to comment as well!

Support Group Details Added

I’ve just added details of the two Bi-Polar Support Groups that meet in East Lothian.  One runs in Musselburgh at Changes, the other in Haddington at Tynepark.

For a little more information and times, click here for the advert.

Do You Attend A Group In East Lothian?

If you run or attend a group in East Lothian that has a Mental Health theme, send us the details.  As long as the group is relavent to Mental Health, we will be happy to carry a notice for you.  Just Contact Us!

If your group is related more to physical disability, please see our sister site:   DisabledPeople.org

The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive

The BBC website features a section called Ouch.  It is aimed at disabled people and in the main, is written by disabled people too.  In my opinion, one of the best bits of the site is their podcast (now referred to as a “Talk Show”.  This is a monthly offering available for download.

For some reason I’ve fallen behind with my listening, so I’ve just heard a recording from early this summer featuring an interview of Mental Health blogger Seaneen.  She has written her blog “Mentally Interesting: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive” for several years, recording her experiences of Bipolar Disorder and the Mental Health system.  The reason for the interview was that her blog had been turned into a play for Radio 4 called “Do’s and Dont’s for the Mentally Interesting”

New Link Category

Whilst reading Seaneen’s blog and clicking through a few of the other blogs she links to on her site, I thought that this is really a resource we should be looking at more closely.  Many of the articles I’ve read are very personal in nature but they are also very valuable in helping others to understand what is going on.  There is a wealth of personal experience documenting advice tips, explanations of procedures and theories about how services can be developed and improved.  This, combined with the personal feelings and emotions involved makes compelling and educational reading.  I’m sure it could also offer comfort and support to others experiencing similar emotional roller-coasters.

So, I’ve started a Blogroll in the traditional sense.  A list of blogs written by people with a “Lived Experience” of Mental Health problems or possibly people with experience of the Mental Health system that have something to say about that experience.

I don’t want to censor or discriminate.  If you know of a blog you feel should be on our list, let me know and I’ll add it.  Give me your reasons and I’ll try to add an article too!