NOSTIGMAS ALLY BLOG
Documenting the lives of the NoStigmas community through stories, creative works & advocacy related to mental illness and suicide.
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Prose & Poetry
The peer support program I started with went well and has been taken over by our ministry of health through our national referral hospital Butabika hospital to be rolled out across the whole country. I have now concentrated on raising mental health awareness to combat stigma which I think is very, very important.
My first suicide attempt was when I was nine years old. I have spent my entire life dropping into the depths of darkness, wanting nothing more than to be dead. But depression and bipolar disorder were taboo subjects. If I had cancer, I would have sympathy, flowers, fundraisers, and hugs. My disorder is secret, unmentionable, and invisible.
Anyone can have mental health challenges in their lifetime, and it can be very difficult. However it WILL get easier if you get help. Letting people know you are there to listen, can make a big difference
Today it’s a year and a half later and I still have my ups and downs and I’m still in recovery but I’m a stronger woman because of it. I have a long life ahead of me and I’m proud to say that I get to live it.
I read once in high school that driving tired is like driving drunk. At the time, I found myself researching the subject to convince my grandpa that we should extend our vacation another day instead of driving home through the night. Given the choice between the boundary waters of northern Minnesota and the dusty skies of northwest Indiana, who would want to leave a day early? Looking back, though, I think the comparison between drowsy driving and drunk driving says a lot about the effect sleep has on our mental health.
In our society, sleep is a common topic of discussion. We all know we're not getting enough of it. But while juggling work and school and personal time, sleep is usually the first thing to get cut out of a busy schedule.
Our first act when we realize we’re not sleeping enough is usually to look for replacements for sleep. Energy drinks, coffee, power naps. Anything that will help us stay up late to get work done, then wake up early to get more work done. The typical solution for getting too little sleep, “get more sleep,” is more of a frustration to the sleepless than it is a useful piece of advice. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine argues that while brief naps and caffeine consumption may be a temporary solution to sleep deprivation, they hold no long-term benefits.
No matter how many ways we try to get around it, sleep is important. A lack of sleep can lower your immune system, and in an article published by Science Daily, there is evidence to suggest that missing even a couple of hours of sleep during the night can be a trigger for inflammation throughout the body, which can potentially be a cause for problems such as heart disease, arthritis, and certain cancers.
Sleep not only has an impact on our physical health. It also affects our mood and mental health. We can all tell when the people around us are sleep-deprived. There’s a lack of efficiency, increased forgetfulness, and mood swings we’d rather not be around.
The thing is, though, sleeplessness doesn't always make people tired. Sometimes it can lead to hyperactivity. In children, specifically, an article in the New York Times indicates that sleep deprivation can result in behavioral problems, including a possible ADHD diagnosis, because of the similarities between symptoms of sleep deprivation and ADHD.
The fact is, there isn’t any real substitute for sleep. Sometimes we really do just need to make more time for it.
