MARBLES: MANIA, DEPRESSION, MICHELANGELO AND ME – REVIEW

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged bipolar disorder, depression, Ellen Forney, featured, graphic novel, I was Seven in '75, Lucy Caradog, Marbles, Marbles: Mania Depression Michelangelo and Me, mental illness, Michelangelo, Steve Rhodes, Van Gogh.

by Lucy Caradog

Content warning: depictions of mental illness

Just before her thirtieth birthday, Ellen Forney is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo And Me is an autobiographical journey which follows her years-long exploration of medication, therapy, and how they affect her creative drive. Despite it being referenced off-hand in popular media, a taboo around bipolar disorder still remains prominent – this is something that Forney does an excellent job of addressing in her graphic memoir: during the second meeting with her therapist, she recalls saying “My mother and I both have bipolar tendencies, but I’m not like, bipolar bipolar”. Despite having an understanding of the mental illness, she initially rejects the possibility of having it.

REVIEW: 4.48 PSYCHOSIS

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged 4.48 Psychosis, depression, featured, Hammersmith, opera, Philip Venables, play, Royal Opera House, Sarah Kane, suicide, The Lyric, The Lyric in Hammersmith, theatre.

by Carmina Masoliver

When I saw that 4.48 Psychosis was on at The Lyric in Hammersmith, I jumped at the chance to see it. When it was first there in 2016, I wasn’t in the country, and having studied the play for my university dissertation, I am always keen to view a new interpretation of the text (all those I’ve seen thus far haven’t warranted writing about).

For those who haven’t come across the play before, it was playwright Sarah Kane’s final play before her suicide in in 1999. For this reason, and that fact the its focus is on the experience of clinical depression, some, such as Michael Billington, have considered the text a kind of “ 75-minute suicide note”. However, it contains many truths that most people would be able to relate to, whether suffering from depression or not.

YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH

Posted on January 20, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged comedy, depression, eds, endorphin, featured, happy, joke, knowledge, laugh, laughter, medication, mental health, mental illness, news, parody, process, propaganda, satire, self care, spoof, wellbeing.

by Alice Thomson

Life is hard. For everyone. We’re all trying to find some meaning to our lives, trying to figure out where we belong and what our purpose is. Amongst that, we see what is going on the world, either connected to us or globally. Our environment can be tough to digest.

My last article was about the cuts the government is in the process of implementing to benefits for disabled people. I spent a lot of time researching the article and it really brought me down. I already knew it was a problem and needed to be spoken about, bknowledge,ut to learn the extent of the issue and read personal experiences, made me feel hopeless. The news can easily do that. Making it difficult, not only to take control and make positive changes to our environment, but to make those changes for ourselves. It’s a trick that’s as old as the book. Since the time people were able to establish a hierarchy, those on top kept everyone else in the dark to keep them in their place. Knowledge is power. Muddy the water of knowledge, and we disengage and disenfranchise the masses.Continue Reading

A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A REST?

Posted on December 23, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged confession, depression, disability, ehlers danlos sydrome, healthcare, life, mental health, mental health stigma, mental illness, norwich, personal, Perspectives, PTSD, royal national orthopaedic hospital, Scotland, uk.

by Alice Thomson

So much has happened in only a few months, for me personally as well as globally – let’s be honest, the the past year’s events in the United States of America alone of the past year would be tough to sum up in a 1,000 word article. I don’t think I could do justice to the topic. As this is my first article in a while, I thought I’d focus on what I’ve been up to, to give you an idea of the reasons for my absence the last few months.Continue Reading

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES. ‘AT LEAST IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE, RIGHT?’

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged conservative party, cuts, depression, medication, mental health, NHS, waiting lists, wellbeing.

By Zoe Harding

Content warning: mental health, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorder, suicide.

This article is not written in the Radical’s usual style, with all the froth and fury about parts of society that might be ‘broken’ or ‘harmful’ or ‘dog-fucked beyond human comprehension by a swarm of grey-suited sociopaths inexplicably elected by a suicidal electorate’. There will be no solutions, no imprecations, no lights shone into dark places because everything’s fine.Continue Reading

“HI, HOW ARE YOU?”

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged alcohol, anxiety, clubbing, companion, compassion, conflict, creative writing, death, depression, dog, family, guardian, guilt, homeless, homelessness, Kev Walker, kitbag, maybe, mental health, night out, pain, poem, poetry, pride, PTSD, rough sleepers, saturday night out, solider, special brew, substance misuse, support, tramp, veteran, war, words, writing.

by Kev Walker

Content warning: mentions substance misuse, mental health, homelessness, conflict

It’s all bling and totter, down the lights of the highstreet, drunk by the train journey there
Cackles and shouts, tales of shagging and swearing, cosmetics squeeze out the air
Bravado and vanity, beer and wine, heading for the first open club
Boys strut with their chests out, showing a leg, only thoughts are of getting a rub.

He’s crouched in the corner, a-top a damp box, wrapped in a half soaking doss-bag
A dog by his side, as companion and protector, a mucker to share a sparse nose-bag
He shakes with the cold, but also the comedown the cider has long since left him
A blot-out, a release, from the pain in his mind and the mess he now finds himself in.Continue Reading

SORRY, ARE YOU A TRAVELLER?

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged African American, american deep south, antigypsyism, anxiety, between the lines, Brexit, Commission for Racial Equality, conservative, depression, discrimination, ellesmere port, gipsies, GRT, gyppo, gypsy, irish traveller, johnny delaney, little england, mainstream media, Marc Willers, media bias, mental health, mental wellbeing, Muslims, prejudice, racial equality, Romani, travel, traveller, Trevor Phillips.

by Jonathan Lee

Content warning: article mentions antigypsyism and racism

“The Gypsy and Traveller community complain that they don’t get enough media attention, but crime watch is on TV every week.”

This was the name of a team at a pub quiz I attended in Oxford recently. When it was read aloud, half the pub laughed and jeered. The other half remained silent, either through complicity or complete indifference. No one challenged the offending team, no one called out, no one made a disapproving noise. When the woman behind the bar saw my apparent discomfort, she asked:

“Sorry, are you a Traveller?”

Unsure whether she was apologising for the hate speech coming through the pub’s speaker system, or for the actual ethnicity itself, I answered:

“Yes I am.”Continue Reading

THOUGHTS FROM THE FENCES – YARL’S WOOD & THE IMPORTANCE OF IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Student and tagged #GE2017, abuse, asylum seekers, austerity, borders, Brexit, Britain, British values, crime, cuts, deportation, depression, detention, detention centres, dignity, education, empowerment, government, harassment, hate crime, healthcare, Home Office, homophobia, Hostile Environment Policy, human rights, hunger strike, immigration, immigration law, immigration raids, international students, intimidation, kidnapping, law, legal aid, LGBT+, migrants, migration, money, Movement for Justice, norwich, POC, prison, privatisation, protest, queer, racism, rape, scapegoating, self harm, Serco, solicitors, solidarity, Stansted airport, student activism, students, suicide, survivors, theresa may, tolerance, trauma, tuition fees, UEA, violence, welfare, women, women's rights, work, Yarl's Wood.

by Lotty Clare

Content warning: mentions violence against women, abuse, rape, self-harm, suicide, racism, harassment, homophobia.

Last Saturday, a group of UEA students and Norwich residents travelled to a protest at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire. This protest was the fifth Movement for Justice by Any Means Necessary (MFJ) has organised to shut down detention centres. As I approached the building, hidden inside an industrial estate, surrounded by fields, in the middle of nowhere, it was just as intimidating and depressing as 6 months ago when I went to Yarl’s Wood for the first time. It looks like a prison, except that it is ‘worse than prison, because you have no rights’, as former detainee Aisha Shua put it. Some women are in Yarl’s Wood because their visa expired, others because their asylum claim was unsuccessful. They have committed no crime. And yet they can be detained there indefinitely.

MORE THAN A BEST FRIEND

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged anxiety, assistance dogs, childhood, depression, disability, disabled, Ehlers Danlos, ehlers danlos syndrome, guide dogs, mental illness, Perspectives, PTSD, service animals, service dogs, symptoms, therapy dogs.

by Alice Thomson

We’ve all heard it said that dogs are man’s best friend. It appears to hold true – in the UK one in two households owns a pet and in 2015 it was estimated that the pet population stood at 8.5 million dogs and 7.4 million cats. With so many of us owning and loving our pets, the idea that dogs can be more than faithful companions isn’t that surprising. The ones who know that the best are likely the 7000-plus disabled people in the UK who depend on assistance dogs for care ranging from alerting those with epilepsy of an oncoming seizure, guiding the blind, or helping someone with limited mobility to perform daily activities. They are even used for therapeutic needs, often for those suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety or depression.

MY CONFESSION

Posted on January 21, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged depression, disability, ehlers danlos sydrome, healthcare, life, mental health, mental health stigma, mental illness, personal, Perspectives, royal national orthopaedic hospital.

by Alice Thomson

It’s January, and we all know what that means. Short days, cold weather, no money and January Blues. For many, this can be a tough, unhappy time of year. For some – especially those with mental illnesses – it can be even worse. One in four people suffer with depression. I am part of that one in four. This is for them, and for those want to try to understand.

depression

MARBLES: MANIA, DEPRESSION, MICHELANGELO AND ME – REVIEW

REVIEW: 4.48 PSYCHOSIS

YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH

A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A REST?

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES. ‘AT LEAST IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE, RIGHT?’

“HI, HOW ARE YOU?”

SORRY, ARE YOU A TRAVELLER?

THOUGHTS FROM THE FENCES – YARL’S WOOD & THE IMPORTANCE OF IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

MORE THAN A BEST FRIEND

MY CONFESSION

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