Mental health & writing
By Gail Marie Mitchell
I never intended to
write about my mental health… I’ve always written fiction and poetry. I’ve
tried my hand at novels without much success. The idea (and the name) for Loving the Life Less Lived came in an
epiphany moment one evening when I was lying in bed feeling depressed and
anxious after having left yet another job due to my anxiety and panic attacks.
I describe this in more detail in the prologue but, in short, I saw an old
school friend tweet a video where she was talking to a global summit in New
York about everyone’s unique skill set. I felt completely inadequate. All I was
good at, I reasoned, was getting anxious and running away. Something in my
subconscious added ‘writing’ to my list of skills and the idea to write about
experiences was born.
I hope my readers
will …. feel that they are listening to a friend when they read Loving the Life Less Lived. I’m not an
expert and I don’t like telling people what they should do but I have been on
this road for many years and I hope that by sharing what has happened to me, it
will help people not to feel so isolated and alone. It will also give them a
brief insight into the tools that have taken me all my adult life to gather. I
see it as starting a conversation about mental health rather than providing all
the answers.
I completely changed
the ending after it was written…having completed the book with a huge sigh
of relief a significant event happened in my life (I don’t want to spoil the
end by revealing it) so a few months later I went back and re-wrote the final
chapter. I think this gives a more real and definitely more heartfelt ending.
I want to give the
message that….It's ok not to be ok. In fact quite often it’s great not to be
ok. I spent many years swinging on a pendulum between crippling
anxiety/depression on the one hand and telling myself that I was completely
cured on the other. Each new ‘breakdown’ (for want of a better word) hit me
harder than the one before and I punished myself mentally for being so weak and
stupid. Nowadays I just accept that my anxiety is part of me and that sometimes
I do get depressed. I still have episodes of mental ill health but, by
accepting them as part of who I am, I don’t dip so low and recover much quicker.
My aim is for my readers to feel encouraged and empowered
about who they are and to use the tools available to them to be the best that
they can be. At the same time I really want people to be kind to themselves
when they are experiencing bouts of anxiety or depression. I want other people
to be kind to them too which brings me on to the fact that…
People are starting
to talk about mental health, but there are many who just won’t listen… if
only I could get those people to read my book! It’s great that more and more people are being open about their
mental health issues but that’s only half of the battle. 1 in 4 people in the
UK at any one time is being treated for mental ill-health but time and time
again I still come up against people who don’t see it as a real or genuine
illness, especially in the work place. For all my stories of facing stigma
there are a million more experiences out there. When I’m well I can advocate
for myself quite vociferously, but when I’m ill I just run away.
People who experience
anxiety and depression are not weak…
it takes tremendous strength sometimes even to get out of bed. Opening a letter
or answering the phone may seem like simple tasks but to some people it
involves climbing an emotional Everest every single day. As James Joyce once
said ‘“Your battles inspired me - not the
obvious material battles but those that were fought and won behind your
forehead.”
I love who I am and
where I am and it’s all thanks to my mental health… it’s been a rocky road
that has led me to what I call the Life
Less Lived but I am immeasurably grateful for it. Apart from the fact that
I am stronger and have more empathy I have also met amazing people who I
wouldn’t have given the time of day before I was ill. I now have a life that I
love and I am so glad that I made it through the ‘I can’t take any more’ days
to get
About Loving the Life Less Lived
Follow the Blog Tour
About Gail Marie Mitchell
Gail Marie Mitchell has tried her hand at many things over the
years from studying chemistry at the University of York to teaching in the
favelas of Brazil. She now works in the exciting world of accountancy,
supporting small charities in the East Midlands area. She lives in a country
idyll with her husband and spends her time working, writing and trying to make
sense of this crazy, confused and broken world we live in. She has lived for
much of her life with anxiety and depression, conditions she has slowly learnt
to accept and celebrate and which have led her to write Loving the Life Less Lived.
Follow Gail on Twitter - @GailMitchell42
Follow Gail on Twitter - @GailMitchell42
About Loving the Life Less Lived
Loving the Life Less Lived
By Gail Marie Mitchell
Published by RedDoor publishing in e-book on 26 January 2017
By Gail Marie Mitchell
Published by RedDoor publishing in e-book on 26 January 2017
Publisher' description
An
essential companion for anyone dealing with mental illness.
Like many
people, Gail Marie Mitchell battled with anxiety and depression for many years,
finding it exhausting, stressful and demoralising at times. Realising that this
approach to her condition was futile, Gail chose a different approach –
acceptance.
Taking
control in this way removed some of the pressure and enabled Gail to focus on
developing coping strategies, creating the tips and tools that are included in
this empathetic and practical book.
Gail
focuses on the positive aspects of her condition, showing how a person living
with mental illness is so much more than the label that society puts on them.
She found acceptance empowering, enabling her to live her life to the full.
Perhaps not the life she had planned, but one that is happy and fulfilling and
that she loves. She is Loving the Life Less Lived.
By sharing
her experiences and describing what she learnt from them as well as the
resulting coping strategies, Gail has created an essential companion for anyone
dealing with mental illness – and their family and friends.
