I’m not always sure what to write about on this blog. Do I stay focused on mental health issues or do I include my ordinary day? Which one would remain the most interesting? 

My day is nothing special. I work full-time in a call centre dispensing oxygen to people at home. I write as a hobby. I self-publish because I do not believe in my ability to attract an agent. I find writing the synopsis and covering letter difficult. It’s not something I’ve ever been good at. Creating stories, writing novels, and helping others to improve their writing, all come easily to me. As for this blog, my world runs dry, so I’m gonna chat away and see what comes. 

Writing is my thing. I do it in my spare time as much as I can. I also read a lot. Currently, I’m reading a book called The Fear Talking by Christopher Westoby. I’m also reading another book called Stranger Than Fiction: When Our Minds Betray Us, which is truly hard work. It’s one of those books written by doctors for doctors. It misses the greatest opportunity for the stories to be of benefit to the average person as they are written for other academics. If they were written for the people who supplied the stories, it would be a fantastic book because it would it could help them tidy up the mess inside their heads.

And this is where my project differs. I want the stories the storytellers, those sharing their stories, to be understandable for everyone. These are tools to help others on the road to recovery. Recovery is not an instantaneous thing. It is something long-term, something difficult. Anyone who tells you to suck it up and get on with it is an idiot. There are too many people who lack compassion. They think they’re helping, but they’re not. What they’re actually doing is projecting their own inability to cope with difficulties, especially those of the mind onto someone else.

The mind is a strange thing. You can be doing your day job, drawing, writing, doing the dishes, or singing and your mind will wander off. It will think the strangest of things, and this is where it gets dangerous. You can go down those rabbit holes as easily as you can go out the front door of your house. Not all routes lead to good places. What we need to do is to analyse our thinking, and actually think about what we’re thinking before we decide to do anything. Write it down if you can, record it somewhere. You will not go down the darker paths. 

I know from my own experience the dark pathways appear easier. But they are more complicated. When we venture down them, the walls come up. We see an obstacle, and instead of taking it on, we sit beside it and fret. 

The obstacle isn’t real, but we perceive it as so. A barrier is anything stopping us progressing. If you meet a challenge or an obstruction where you’ve gone into a dark corridor, step aside, the walls are not real. The walls are imagined, and we become prisoners to our own imagination. This is the most dangerous of all places. Only you can get yourself out.

Reverse the steps that took you there, turn around, and do not be afraid to walk the other way. Do not listen to the thoughts telling you this is crazy. Do not listen to thoughts telling you you’re going the wrong way. This will never work. Those are the lies that got you there. The truth is far simpler. Keep walking towards the greater challenges. The easy pathway is invariably the wrong one. You are far stronger than you think.

Life is difficult. It’s never fair and never on your side. However, there are always people on your side, always a way out of the situation. It takes a great effort but you only have to take one small step at a time. Why not take the first step today?