May 2008 Archives

Ok. So maybe I'm only sleeping 4 hours a night and I've had a lot on my mind recently and yes, I am taking mild arthritic drugs to quell the swelling in some of my joints. But I'm fine! Really.

I've had a few weeks off work courtesy of the NHS to 'take some time out' and 'get my self together'. The faceless GP's at my bland box of a surgery have been wonderfully supportive. They wanted to sign me off for a month. Quite shocked at the repeated ferocity of their demands, I suspiciously thought the family might have paid them a small bribe (or incentives as they are officially called) as a ploy to force me to get some rest. Of course I refused, at first, but they eventually got me with an NLP like, hypnotic repetition of 'You are depressed'. A piece of paper was quietly handed to me that would 'help me sleep'.

Fast forward to today and the time out has actually done me the world of good. Of course I threw away that piece of paper and got on with 'getting myself together'. And so after trying to rest, relax and forget about the multitudes of stress that I have allowed to be imposed upon me, I have relearned how to breathe and in a rather born again sort of way, know what I want to do with life, I think.

On reflection, I may I have just had my mid life crisis slightly early at 30, but whatever it was, I wholly and heartedly recommend it - minus the painful joints of course.

Be warned though. There are side effects to any hiatus from the fast lane.

My most unexpected one has been the sudden removal of the loathing I once enjoyed for people on long term benefits. My GP's seemed strangely excited that I may be depressed and tried exceptionally hard to extract a confession. Thankfully their dark magic didn't work on me but a lesser mortal would be forgiven for falling prey to their powers of persuasion. So many folks end up on anti depressants with labels that, in time, they will live up to, only for judgmental bloggers like me to then blame as leeching off the state.

I guess GP's are immensely important to the physical, civic and economic health of our communities. Problem is of course, they will need additional incentives to do anything about it. Apparently the 100k average salary they get is not enough.

Anyways...lets not doctor bash again! its just good to be back.

Oh and I have seen the wealth of inspired comments that readers as far away as New Zealand have been posting on here. Thank you of course to all of you. You'll be hearing from me very soon...