This week I....

... bought some hair dye and eye cream.....oh dear!!
... cried most of the way through Sunshine with Steve Coogan.
.... acquired a funky wooden chair that was about to go into a skip.
... made plans for my week off work.
... sorted out the paperwork in our box of bills/receipts and important stuff.
But the most interesting thing I did this week, was to go to a talk on "Understanding Mental Illness". It was brilliantly presented by a senior manager from MIND. We were asked to write down words that we might associate with mental illness... words that came up included ... misunderstood, overwhelming, sad, moodswings, lonely, paranoid, inability to deal with everyday life, obsessions, ups and downs, perfectionism, anxiety. It was pointed out to us that we all suffer from these feelings at some point in our lives ( for some of us it can be daily )....and that mental illness can be a collection of these symptons. I made lots of notes...."sadness is a part of life".... depression can arise without warning, or we can react to a loss or disappointment to a specific event.... is PMS a mental illness (this caused much laughter in the group) ... modern society doesnt help, "I want and I deserve". We all went away with a lot to think about.