Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Welcome to this, the first in a 5 part miniseries of podcast episodes produced as a response to a recent personality disorder course description circulated by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. What was published was discriminatory in the extreme. Some, including me, describe it as a hate crime. 

Here are a few links you may find useful

Visit the royal college of psychiatry

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/about-us/contact-us/visiting-us

The royal college’s page on values and behaviours

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do-and-how/our-values-and-behaviours

Their unreserved apology

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2022/03/29/college-issues-unreserved-apology

You can find more about the Stop SIM campaign on their website here

https://stopsim.co.uk/

You can find some of the key contributors and folk of interest on Twitter here

@NellAitch

@DrAdrianJames

@rcpsych

@SalfordMH

@LauraTvll

@DrChloeBeal

@StopSIMMH

If you'd like to listen to earlier walk a mile in my shoes podcasts on...you'll find them here

On the use of coercion in mental health services

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/walk-a-mile-in-my-shoes/id1441565361?i=1000529512091

On the structural discrimination of the icd 11

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/walk-a-mile-in-my-shoes/id1441565361?i=1000524496151

Over the next few days, I'm going to publish 4 conversations with people who've been impacted by prejudice against people with a personality disorder label in mental health services. 

Please like, subscribe, comment and share if this is your kind of thing - or if you think someone you know might like to, or benefit from hearing it. 

Thanks for listening

Walk a Mile

In this episode, I have the absolute privilege of talking with Andy Luff and his partner Jill. Andy talks openly and candidly about the brain damage he experienced following ECT whilst describing the lack of care he received from services as a result. We also swear. As a result, I've given this an explicit rating - but please, before you scroll past, have a think. I really think it's worth your while taking some time to walk in Andy's shoes. 

Here are some links you may find useful once you've listened to Andy's story.

My original (solo) podcast about ECT

John Read talking about his meta analysis of the efficacy of ECT

Daily Mail (yeah, I know!) article about the lack of information given to patients undertaking a course in ECT

Royal College of Psychiatry's information page on ECT

Mind's information page about the side-effects of ECT

The campaign to demand an independent enquiry into the use of ECT

Yeah, I know that's lots of homework - but it's as shocking as it is enlightening.

If you want to follow be on Twitter, you'll find me @walkamileuk

If Facebook's more your thing, then you'll find our lovely group here

Until the next time, 

I've been Chris Young, and you've been rather lovely,

Walk a Mile

Welcome to the walk a mile in my shoes podcast – in this, solo, episode I talk openly and frankly about my mental ill health, the childhood experiences that led to that mental ill health and some of my continued experiences of prejudice and discrimination from folk who really ought to know better. It also includes details of a remarkably unsuccessful job application with the NHS. If this isn’t your cup of tea, then feel free to have a listen to the other episodes where I interview some truly fabulous folk – also bear in mind, I’ve got some really interesting guests lined up for your listening pleasure in the future.

As promised, here's a link to the Equality and Human Rights Commission web page - and here's the link to an earlier episode of the podcast where I discuss the damage that will be caused to thousands of vulnerable people as the full reality of the ICD 11 takes hold. 

Welcome back to you, my favourite listener! I’m so glad you’ve made the time to drop in to the walk a mile in my shoes podcast while our lovely country’s in the grips of the wordle pandemic. I’m your host, Chris Young, and in this episode, I’ll be speaking with the delightful Hisham Ziauddeen, a consultant psychiatrist, Dad and occasional stand up comedian. I got in touch with him after seeing his succinct 51 tweet thread on twitter, entitled 

‘The problematic diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)’. After reading it, I really liked the cut of his jib (note to self, one day I really must look up what that means) thinking, what a fabulous person he’d be to drag…coerce…er…invite onto the podcast. I loved having him on the show. We talk about and dance around many of the challenges that are around for mental health punters and practitioners in the UK – by the end of it, I think you’ll have some idea what it’s like to walk a mile in his shoes. Here are some of his links so you can get to know him a bit better. 

You can find him on Twitter @HZiaudeen

Here's a link I found about him - including a bit of his stand up routine 'The Psychiatrist who does stand up' 

My hugerister thanks has to go to you, the cream of all podcast listeners, whether you’re dropping in for the first time, or if you’re a hardened walk-a-miler, you’re all very welcome. If you’d like to immerse yourself in more of this, mainly mental health themed, shenanigans, please like and subscribe. Not only will you find a whole load of interviews with a variety of fascinating folk with an occasional solo rant about the state of mental health services in the UK today, you’ll also shoogle the podcast gods into sharing it more about the place.

On the very subject of sharing – you know what to do. If there are people you know who’d like this kind of thing, send them the link. If you know folk who’d benefit from hearing this kind of thing, you know who they are, send them the link.

You can find me @walkamileuk on twitter – and you'll find our lovely Facebook group here. 

Anyway, that’s quite enough of that...

Until the next time,

I’ve been Chris Young, and you’ve been rather lovely.

Walk a mile

Welcome back, my dear and loyal listener. I’m Chris Young under the guise of the mental diabetic, and today I’ll be telling you about how James O’Brien cured my type 2 diabetes.

In this podcast, amongst other things, I talk about some challenging themes, including diet, weight loss, suicidal ideation and self-harm. If that’s not what you need just now, then now might be a good time to turn me off…but please come back in the future where I’ll continue to interview all kinds of interesting folk, with the occasional solo flight where I’ll be having a rant about the mental health system in the UK today. See you soon…

For those of you who stayed around...

That’s it. You’re now officially up to date. Thanks so much for coming on this journey with me, it really means a lot. 

Thanks too to James O’Brien for curing my diabetes.

Until the next time,

I’ve been Chris Young

And you’ve been rather fabulous.

Walk a mile

Welcome to the walk a mile in my shoes podcast – a podcast where I want you, my loyal listener, to enter into the world of my guests, try on their footwear for size, and immerse yourself into their lives for a time.

I’m your host, Chris Young, and in this episode, I have the privilege of speaking to Sonja Cowling, a psychiatrist who has a lived experience of mental ill health. We talk about a load of stuff, from the lack of mental health services, to the weird juxtaposition of coercion and care, to her thoughts on trauma and the personality disorder label.

I follow her on Twitter, and I’ve got to say, I rather like the cut of her jib. The tweet that, for me, sums her up best is when she said, ‘I want to become a person that builds things. I want to move from complaining and pointing out flaws to suggesting new ideas, working to start positive things and taking steps to make them happen’

My conversation with her started to fill me with hope that, some day, we could all work together to dig mental health services out of the hole it finds itself in. Before I get all Martin Luther King on you, you can find Sonja on twitter @sonjacowling, she’s well worth a follow.

On that very topic – if you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please give it a like and, if you want to hear more, subscribe – there are 22 more for you to dive into. Go on, it’ll give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.  If twitter’s your thing, you can find me @walkamileuk, if it’s not, then I’ll stick up links to our rather lovely Facebook group in the blurb.

In the next episode, I’ve got some interesting…yeah, I know, you’ll be the judge of that…updates on my status as the mental diabetic…keep your eyes…er…ears peeled.

Until the next time, I’ve been Chris Young and you’ve been rather lovely,

Walk a mile

Welcome back to you, my lovely, and, if truth be known, my favourite listener. I’m your host, Chris Young, purveyor of all things walk a mile, and in this episode of the podcast, I speak with the delightful and multi-faceted Phoebe Webb. As with many folk, I stumbled across her in the Twitterverse, @Feehlo and, I’ve got to say, right from the start, I really liked the cut of her jib. Phoebe speaks frankly and openly about her experience of being labelled with an eating disorder in our chronically underfunded NHS which she talks about extensively, mainly with others, in her fabulous podcast, ‘Not About Food’. I can’t recommend it enough – especially the episode, ‘My Child has Anorexia – How do I handle it?’ where she speaks candidly with her dad about their journey together. It’s moving – compassionate – occasionally funny and, at times, a little arse clenching. Listen to it! She also writes well and knowledgeably around the subject in her blog, which, for your convenience, is also called, ‘Not about food’ 

Phoebe is employed as a mental health peer support worker with the NHS. I hope you’ll get as much out of her insights around the trials and tribulations of this relatively embryonic profession as I did.

It was an absolute privilege to speak with her – the podcast could have easily been 4 times longer – I’ve a feeling I’ll have to ask her back…

Please take some time to explore her world, you won’t regret it.

On that very topic, if you’d like to become a little more immersed in the whole Walk a Mile in my Shoes gig, you can find me on Twitter @walkamileuk, on YouTube with my fledgling walk a mile in my shoes channel where, just like the podcast, I thoroughly mix up my branding into a maelstrom of ‘The Mental Diabetic’ and ‘Fucking Mental’ among other things. If Facebook’s more your thing, then please join us in the Walk a Mile in My Shoes group, or, if you fancy a more intermittently neglected space, feel free to give the Walk a Mile in My Shoes Facebook Page a like.

If you, as a mental health professional or punter, carer, interested party or just plain old nosy Parker would like to contribute to the podcast, please get in touch. If social media isn’t your thing, you can email me at [email protected]

'til the next time, I’ve been Chris Young, and you’ve been rather fabulous. Thank you for listening.

Walk a Mile

Welcome to my alternative, infinitely more realistic, top 10 tips for great mental health this Christmas! This is my response to all those platitudinous and chipper top 10 tips that seem to flood social media at times. We need to think differently

1. First, and foremost - be Lucky – be very, very lucky – this will all become clearer as I go;

2. Do not be the victim of childhood sexual abuse;

3. Do not be a victim of homelessness;

4. Do not be a victim of neglect and invalidation;

5. Do not be a victim of poverty including food insecurity;

6. Do not be a victim of childhood bereavement;

7. Do not be a victim of bullying;

8. Do not be a victim of domestic violence;

9. Do not be different in any way;

10. Do not be genetically predisposed to any mental malady;

11. 11? I thought you said? Yeah, I know – I lied. Do you really think you’d be reading this if I’d called it, ‘Chris Young’s top 13 tips…?’ Get over yourself. Don’t even consider having any kind of physical disability.

12.  Don’t suffer any of the myriad of negative effects – both physical and psychological – caused by the medications prescribed to make you mentally well.

13.  Don’t be harmed or invalidated by the very services charged with your care.

So, in short, to summarise and conclude, mental health services are at a crisis point in the UK, while many of the causes of mental ill health - poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, prejudice and hate crimes are galloping unchecked and out of hand across this fair country of ours. No amount of mindfulness or positive thinking is going to make a difference until we break down the institutional divisions and inequalities inherent in the chronically underfunded system.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and a happy new year when it comes.

Welcome to the walk a mile in my shoes podcast. My name’s Chris Young, and it’s my aim, hope, goal to enable you to get a real feel for what it’s like to walk a mile in the shoes of my guests.

Sorry about the lack of jaunty music, I’m not feeling particularly jaunty just now.

Sorry too about the prolonged absence, I’ve been trying to get my world in order following some pretty life changing therapy. But I’m not here to talk about me. In this episode, I speak with Simeon Wakely, a man with spina-bifida who has recently felt the cold hard slap of apathy…indifference…prejudice…at the hands of the department of work and pensions, the government department who administer Universal Credit.

This is triggering throughout – so, if you don’t want to hear Simeon’s distress, you should stop listening now.

He got in touch with me yesterday explaining how he felt suicidal following the inhumane treatment he’s received at their hands.

I’m fucking furious. For those of you who talk about the rise of poverty in the UK in terms of absolute and relative poverty – for those of you who think abject poverty is a thing of the Dickensian past – think again.

Simeon recently had his benefits stopped for the heinous crime of changing his bank account and being admitted to hospital. He missed a meeting with the Job Centre because he was in hospital having major surgery. He’d informed them at every stage of the process, but they responded by stopping his benefits and telling him the next available meeting at the job centre is a week away.

The DWP didn’t tell him benefits had stopped…you’ll hear more about that in our conversation…he found out from his landlord, and when BT cut off his landline and broadband…but even more shockingly, he found out when his gas supplier, Eon, cut off the fuel for his heating on this, the coldest week of the winter so far. His electricity company, SSE, are threatening to cut off his electricity as we speak. So much for compassionate capitalism/ conservativism. At the moment he’s relying on friends for money, and his support worker for food.

Devastated though he is, Simeon was still able to throw down the gauntlet to any MP who would be willing to survive on Universal Credit for a month – or a year. I guess many will have an understanding of how cumulative wealth can have a positive effect on their lives, but what about the cumulative effect of poverty? Would they, as Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for work and pensions sang when she removed £20 a week from people on Universal Credit, be having the time of their lives? I don’t think so.

Would your MP do it?

Make no mistake, even though this system is rotten to the core, these are actual people causing untold damage and trauma to a man whose only crime was to believe he could live independently.

Huge thanks to Simeon for sharing his story. He’s gutted, he hates himself and he feels suicidal all because of things outside of his control.

If any of you listening have contacts in BT, Eon and SSE, please give them a prod to suggest that cutting off amenities in these circumstances don’t exactly show them in a favourable light.

Put his heating back on. Reconnect him to the internet. Give him the money he’s entitled to. But, more than anything, restore his hugely damaged faith in human kind.

We can do a whole lot better than this.

In the meantime, get in touch with your MP – throw the universal credit challenge their way.

Walk a mile

Welcome to 'Fucking Mental' a spin off series of the Walk a Mile in My Shoes podcast where I fly solo to talk about some of the shortcomings in the mental health system in the UK today.

In this episode I talk about my recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, and how a lifetime of prescribed psychiatric meds have contributed to me developing it.

No, correlation isn't causation, I know, and it's important to say many folk with long term mental illness won't develop it. That said, people with long term mental health problems die anything between 10 and 20 years earlier than the wider population. Often because of unmanaged physical illnesses like cardiac and respiratory diseases, or, in my case, diabetes - which unchecked can lead to all kinds of nasties including loss of sight, amputation of limbs due to poor circulation, stroke, and heart attacks. 

I've been amazed at the incredibly responsive service I've had to my life-threatening physical illness, which makes the lack of support I've received from NHS mental health services appear all the more woeful. 

I have thrown myself into the advice given by Karen and Corinne, my diabetes nurses, and the book they recommended 'Life without Diabetes' by professor Roy Taylor, to lose 15kg by undertaking an 800 calorie a day diet. I've lost a stone so far, and I feel rather energised and motivated - although much of that can be attributed to me coming off quetiapine. 

The main message I want to get across though, is it's essential that mental health clinicians talk openly and honestly with their patients about the side effects of the drugs they're taking - so they can make informed choices as to whether they're potentially willing to compromise their physical health in the long term.

Walk a Mile

Chris