Be quiet. You're depressed!
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...
Older/Newer
« How many Muslims in Britain? | The majesty of a 'Reckon' »
15 Comments
Leave a comment
Profile
Faraz Yousufzai - Birmingham’s leading voice on Muslim youth.
Insist on one day a week when you cut off. on one of the remaining days, let me take you to lunch...
Faraz
A well deserved break would have done you more good then visiting the GP to seek 'medical' route to your stress. Recent research published by the Sustainable Development Commission, has set out how using the environment can improve the mental well being of people suffering from depression and stress, therefore a family trip to Cornwall, Devon etc would have done you and your family the world of good. For those unable to have the luxury to travel to these wonderful parts of our Country, 30 minutes a day in the local park (assuming these are safe) will also have a positive mental outlook.
Anyway hope your back on the scene and continuing the good work!
dude just take the drugs
so annoying when patients think they know best, all because they have access to the internet :-)
Thanks for being so honest with us, that very refreshing. Good luck with recovering - be kind to yourself. Avoid a-holes.
Are you a doctor by any chance Irfan? Very often the patient does know better than a general practioner who's main objective can be to get them out of the surgery as quick as possible. If that means dishing out the pills they'll do it.
steve dyson is a middle class new labour lefty and i bet he dont even live in birmingham but comes from his middle class leafy surburbs pretending how he loves birmingham blah blah blah but cant wait to get out of birmingham every day i get sick and depressed at people like dyson and the obvious pro new labour birmingham evening mail with its sponsors the trinity group oh what a surprise mirror newpapers spewing out all this politacaly correct crap everyday about how great birmingham is well tell that to all the familys in the last 2 weeks in birmingham mourning the sons being stabbed or shot or girls getting raped in schools and the dyson and his buddies wont even name the school but funny enough i know what school it is and so does everybody i know does god how pc you are dyson thats what i call depressing.....peter from northfield in birmingham
Interesting comment and place to put it, Peter from Northfield. Methinks you have a few problems which are causing you a lot of frustration. For your info, I was born in West Heath, went to school at what was then Primrose Hill Comp, adjacent to one of the worst sink estates in Brum (Pool Farm). I still live and work in Brum. In fact I'm in the middle of Brum now. And I'm out in Bruim tonight.
It ain't all great... and if you read the Mail you'll see that we reflect some if the city's ills.
Of those ills, some are caused by Muslims (which I guess is one of your angsts, and why you're posting of Faraz's blog). Some are also caused by blacks of all backgrounds. And some are caused by us whites.
By the same token, some of us whites work hard at making the city a better pace to live. And so do many Muslims and blacks.
Faraz is one of them. In fact, he's one of the best examples of multi-cultural Brum I know.
What you need, Pete, is to drop the sink-estate, chip on your shoulder mentality for a day or and get out and about.
you know what you should do steve dyson is less of your insults and start behaving like a editor of a newspaper and not resort to some kind of self appointed guardian of whats right and whats wrong in this city and the topic was about what depression i just made point that you twisted what i said to launch a personal attack on me but thats fair enough i can take that but then when you start using stereotypes about people living on sink estates which in fact i dont live on but i did live in handsworth in the 80s if thats what you mean by a sink estate is that what you meant?? but that aside that i question with that type of attitude are you fit to be the editor of the evening mail with your obvious blatant disregard and patronising attitude to your readers but maybe you fancy your self as a politician and as for my comments on faraz blog i only gave my point of view and if faraz would rather me not leave any comments on his blog i will respect that and not leave any more comments on faraz blog he just has to say so,but then can i ask you steve dyson will you set up a christian blog for me and other christians living in this city to discuss issues that affect us i would be very interested to your responce to that question.....peter from northfield..(not sink estate)....
A letter to West-Midlands crazy police force --
I am in the USA, and saw a video where one of your police officers threatened to arrest (and worse, not protect from a potential beating by Muslims -- kind of encouraging it) two Christian missionaries handing out materials in what was said to be a "Muslim" area. How outrageous!!! And for the record, dear friends, I am not even a Christian and I am upset about it. I know you cannot officially comment, but I hope they win a million pounds in their lawsuit against the police force and put you all out of work!! Tell me, are there any "Christian" areas in your jurisdiction? Of course not, because the mere suggestion of such would probably be a hate crime in itself according to your department's outrageous standards. Who exactly is training your officers to show such disrespect and outright contempt for whites and Christians? Does this make you feel proud in your jobs to have such complete pathetic morons in uniform serving with you? I should hope not. They are a disgrace, and the police chief who allows this type of activity (or promotes it) should be FIRED!!! He or she should not even be a dog catcher. Oh yes, while I am on the topic, why do you allow a racist organization such as the "Muslim Police" to even exist. How about Christian Police, Atheists, Hindus, Jews, etc.? What hypocrisy! You bend over backwards to treat immigrants better than 10-generation citizens!!! I am so disappointed in ALL of the news that comes out of England anymore. Nothing but liberal, Leftist suicidal garbage. Is it any wonder why so many English natives are LEAVING Great Britain? No free speech, crazy hate crime laws, cameras everywhere, economy going down, etc., etc. Just because you earn a paycheck by doing your job as told DOES NOT MAKE IT RIGHT!!!!!! You actions make me want to (no kidding) cry out of sadness for what is becoming of England.
Sadly disappointed,
John Marconi
USA
you know one word i hate and its this word called multi cultural even the authors of this word trevor phiiips the former head of the cre says its a failed concept but some people like the politacaly correct brigade and certain editors of newpapers hang on to this concept of multi culturism as if its worked but in reality its proved to be a disaster for this country and race relations hence we have ghettos forming up that are becoming no go areas for people who dont fit in to the culture or religion of the people living there,what we do live in is a multi racial society with people of different faiths who in general try to get on with each other but this word multi culturalism has just led to religious apartheid and the seperation of communitys and john you are right i thought this kind of religious police operated in countrys like saudi arabia and iran but its worrying its happening on the streets of birmingham with the approval of the west midlands police and thats more worrying.....peter from (not sink estate) northfield
hi. i would like to point out that its a shame that people blame the religion instead of the actual people who practicing a preferred relgion. from what i know islam means submission or peace, and shame on you John from usa and Peter you are disrespecting a particular religion.
shame on you lisa for being so ill informed and accusing me of showing disrepect to the religion of islam,in fact lisa if you would just think before you type blatant ignorant views in this forum i as a christian respect all religions and people who follow there faith in the true meaning of the word,its just happens islam is in the spotlight now due to some muslims distorting and cherry picking verses of the holy koran for there own selfish politcal agenda,now lisa is you think christians are not beyond critism well lisa as a christian i will critise my religion and there leaders if they are shown to be hypocrites or charlatans so dont you lisa ever accuse me of being anti islam ok.....peter from northfield
Peter (from Northfield) sounds like a really sad man
brummie bill your the type of person that makes brummies look stupid to outsiders if you have nothing contructive to say apart from making snide cowardly insults to me without (explaning)why you have to resort to your childish little comments well i suggest you go back to reading the beano or dando(brummie bill)..peter from (northfield) birminmgham...
Statistics Courses for Doctors