MAGAZINE FOR WELLBEING

W
I
N
T
E
R
2
0
1
3
/
1
4

I
S
S
U
E

5
1
Winter Issue 51
>> Singing4Health
>> Philosophy & Psychiatry
>> EFT
>> Brain Behaviour
>> The Happiness Project
>> Reality TV
EQUILIBRIUM 2
web alerts
Equilibrium Patron
Dr Liz Miller
Mind Champion 2008
Photo copyright remains with all individual artists and
Equilibrium. All rights reserved. 2011
Equilibrium is devised, created, and produced entirely by team
members with experience of the mental health system.
If you know anyone who would like to be on our
mailing list and get the magazine four times a year
(no spam!) please email:
equilibriumteam@hotmail.co.uk
(www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium).
Design: www.parkegraphics.co.uk
Front cover:
Eve Jones
EQUILIBRIUM 3
contact us
Equilibrium, Clarendon Centre, Clarendon Road, London, N8
ODJ. 02084894860, equilibriumteam@hotmail.co.uk. We are in
the offce on Friday afternoons 2.30-4.30, but you can leave a
message at other times and well get back to you.
Equilibrium is produced by service users. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly forbidden without
the prior permission of the Equilibrium team. Products, articles and services advertised in this publica-
tion do not necessarily carry the endorsement of Equilibrium or any of our partners.
Equilibrium is published and circulated electronically four times a year to a database of subscribers;
if you do not wish to receive Equilibrium or have received it by mistake, please email unsubscribe to
equilibriumteam@hotmail.co.uk
Through sunshine and storms, the editorial team here at Equilibrium have been working hard to
put this issue together and we hope you enjoy it. Packed full of the usual news, reviews and opin-
ion pieces, wed again like to thank our guest contributors and photographers - do keep sending
us your fantastic work! Wed love to hear your thoughts on this issue, so go ahead and tweet us
at @teamequilibrium. And if youd like to join the team, contribute an article or picture, or fnd out
more, please do get in touch via equilibriumteam@hotmail.co.uk.
Wishing you warm wishes for 2014
Kate, Editor/Team Facilitator
editorial
disclaimer
contributions
Wanted: contributions to Equilibrium! Please email us with
your news, views, poems, photos, plus articles. Anonymity
guaranteed if required.
the team
Facilitator/ Editor: Kate Massey-Chase. Editorial team: Angela, Dev,
Ian, Alan, Polly, Chrissie, Nigel.
Graphic design: Anthony Park.
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM 4
Singing4Health
I
t was that we felt like singing. Like singing
songs, or learning songs to sing.
And we wanted to sing the same song
together. Do we have songs in common, so
that we can sing them? Maybe not many,
because we are diverse, so we should fnd
a song to sing.
So we started to fnd a song to learn to
sing. But we couldnt read music. And we
couldnt read the words, so someone would
try to sing the words for us to remember.
But the words were many and we couldnt
remember so many words that were not our
words. So we gave our own words to the song.
And we gave our very own sounds to it too,
as it felt natural to produce the sounds that
where coming to our lips and to our body.
And we sang, and it felt so good.
And we knew we were singing very much
our own song, and that was a song of
nature, a song without words made out of
our mood and feelings. A landscape of our
very being made sound with our bodies.
Since 2003 I have been a Primal Singing
facilitator and performer, as well as an
improviser and voice teacher with a health
approach. I explore different ways of voice
production that can be developed either
in songs or vocal pieces, that integrate
the creativity and abilities of the different
groups of people who come to my work-
shops. We do primal singing between other
activities such as improvisation, relaxation,
breathing techniques and songs.
This has been an amazingly enriching expe-
rience and a great opportunity for explo-
ration of ways to sing and create healthy
group dynamics, singers with a sense of
community and to deal with stress in our
personal life through developing an activity
that will make people improve their breath-
ing, relax their minds and enjoy the many
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM
sounds a human voice can produce,
giving value to self expression and vali-
dation in the group over other aspects
such as number of songs that one has
to learn, observing how the group
evolves and becoming more than a
director who demands what has to
be done, a catalyst of processes that
will take in the group. Helping people
connect with their voices, bodies and
creativity towards the magical music
that expresses our own.
And then, other people who heard us,
and who could read music, and read
text, and remember words, and make
complex rhythms all at a time... asked us
what we were doing. We are singing our
primal song.
And they realized that it was a good
idea to sing the song that comes out of
you, and wanted to join and sing their
primal songs too. And they discovered
that it was liberating and aesthetic, and
that it felt good too!
Maria Soriano is a member of the Natural Voice
Practitioners Network and the founder of Sing-
ing4Health, that promotes physical, mental and
social well-being through musical activities,
primarily centred in singing.
EQUILIBRIUM 5
Maria Soriano
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM 6
Philosophy & Psychiatry The Next 100 years
I
was led to this colloquium by a tweet
from Medical Humanities a tremen-
dously active and inspiring bunch
of people at Durham University and
thought I would enquire within. It was
the third part of a travelling symposium
marking the centenary of Karl Jaspers
General Psychopathology.
In the few weeks preceding it, there had
been a week long summer school in
Oxford: Philosophy of Psychiatry: Mind,
Value and Mental Health.
After which was the 15th INPP confer-
ence/travelling three centre UK Sympo-
sium frstly in Durham. The one day
workshop there was titled Current and
Future Applications of Phenomenology
in Psychiatry. This included presenta-
tions such as Rethinking the First Person
in Phenomenological Psychopathology
and Incomprehensibility: A New Ethics for
Psychiatry.
The second part, at Kings College
London, was entitled Conceptual Issues
and the DSM. Among others, there were
sessions on The Defnition of Disorder
in the DSM: Evolving but Dysfunctional
and Lost in Translation: Dysfunction and
Domains. I was to attend the third part.

The dominant theme was (and still is)
Making Change Happen. And how
philosophy and psychiatry can work
together to achieve this.
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM 7
Polly Mortimer
Back in January I was asked to provide
a 100 word biography/declaration of
interest and passed the frst test (and
only test!). Then hefty reading material
started to appear in my inbox some
surely only decipherable by the initiated.
Highly intrigued and appetite whetted, I
set off at a punishing 4.30 am for Oxford
one bleary July morning and was for the
next two days buried in a fabulous mix of
ideas, thoughts, secret languages, buzzy
presentations and edgy controversy all
adding up to a really mind-changing
experience.

Not being a philosopher or a psychia-
trist I guess I, as A.N.Other, would have
positioned myself with the service user/
survivor cohort if pressed. I began to
boldly declare myself as an ex-psychotic
(for that I am), as I found the environ-
ment a safe and trusting one. Swiftly I
realized that my lack of knowledge of
academic philosophy was something
of a hindrance (some of the presenta-
tions were so arcanely worded that only
the inner cabal could decode). But
nevertheless no-one made me feel at
all defcient and the atmosphere was
one of huge support and good will, and I
summoned courage from somewhere to
be able to feed back to the hall after the
group sessions.
Standout moments for me included the
patience and kindness of academics
within the groups, highlighting the moral
courage of the survivor in sharing their
stories and how possibly the psychiatric
community could follow suit. Off-piste,
the amazingly delicious conference
dinner at which I talked to Anke Maatz,
a young trainee psychiatrist from Zurich.
Breakfast among European philosophy
teachers from Lublin and Prague, lunch
with a PhD student from Hearing the
Voice and a researcher for SANE , and
bonding with Alicia Monroe from Florida,
Dean of Tampa medical school, whose
words are very wise. Conversations with
Sanneke de Haan working with OCD
patients who receive deep brain stimu-
lation, and the ethics and outcomes of
this intervention. Staying with me are Nev
Jones (a US philosopher inter alia) and
her ferce but principled calls for alter-
natives to heteronormative language
and othering, as well as the dominance
of men as main speakers at upcoming
conferences. The power of the poster
presentations included a graphic repre-
sentation of a state of breakdown by
Gay Cusack from Australia, calling out
for the work of post psychiatrists Bracken
and Thomas; I was haunted by an eerie
flm presented by a Social Sculpture DPhil
student (and local psychiatrist) Dr Helena
Fox which took us through an asylum
cont.
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38
like setting to an intricate study of folds
of bedclothes and gradual revealing of
hands within.
Topics few around value-based
models, narrative and the nature and
form of narratives, deacademicising the
language, critiques of CBT, the case for
psychodynamic psychotherapy, true
freedom of thought, meaning in delu-
sions and hallucinations, recovery and
all its meanings, service user engaged
philosophical research, co-production
(experts-by-experience & by-training),
and Thomas Fuchs lifeworld .

The colloquium opened with Victor
Adebowale , cross bench peer and Chair
of Turning Point, and his hugely inspiring
words about change and how to effect
it. The mindset has to change. In his
experience there is a tendency of letting
the excellent get in the way of the good
enough. Renewal is crucial as well as a
shift in power. Who holds the power is key
power needs to be shared.

We all parted with great goodbyes and
huge goodwill for change. Future plans
are being laid and hopefully the conver-
sation that has been started will continue
to gather momentum. Academia being
naturally conservative and tending
towards silos of expertise, the fact that
the colloquium happened was a huge
boost, and the power imbalances can
start to be addressed. As a complete
layperson and fairly philosophically nave,
I had come to the conference with the
thought that it was about the philosophy
OF psychiatry, rather than philosophy and
psychiatry. This set me thinking
There is such a need to interrogate
psychiatry for what it is. What is it? Does
it need to be? Is it a cult or a construct?
What could replace it? Could psychia-
trists all become neuroscientists in this
brave and sinister new world of diagnosis
by brain scan? Where will that lead us?

Is there a philosophy of psychiatry? What
is it? How can the human rights abuses
within the feld be ethical? What is psychi-
atric care? How ethical is psychiatrys
dependence on the major pharmaceuti-
cal companies and the use of dangerous
life-threatening drugs on young children
and the elderly and others? The fact that
recovery is higher in developing countries
than in industrialised ones needs to be
examined. People are still subjected to
ECT and lobotomy; is this ethical?

Theres so much to explore, and I hope
that this wonderful and awe inspiring
conference is just the start.
St Catz Colloquium Philosophy and Psychia-
try - The Next 100 years. Making Change Happen
Oxford, St Catherines College. Organizers: Bill
Fulford, Matthew Parrott and Laetitia Derrington.
Department for Continuing Education.
July 25 and 26 2013
cont.
EQUILIBRIUM 8
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM
A blog on brain behaviour from the
Research Digest could be a sign that
mainstream science is catching up
with the science that the late Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi used to substantiate the
benefts that transcendental medita-
tion can bring to its practitioners. In order
to spread the good news of TM he
reasoned that the square root of 1% of
the population of the world practising TM
(a law in physics that, to effect a mass,
you only have to get 1% of the popula-
tion to do it), is all that is needed to bring
about more fulflled and successful socie-
ties, leading to world peace. His natural,
easily learned technique is used to bring
about optimum use of the brain and its
ability to rise to higher states of conscious-
ness, which he addressed in his Science
of Creative Intelligence. The individual is
the unit of world peace, he said, and it is
through this experience of bliss that the
mind can harness the laws of nature that
are located at the minds unfathomable
source. The blog in Research Digest refers
to research on the brain using electrical
stimuli to try to fathom the complexities
of the brain and to produce bliss (Induc-
tion of a sense of bliss
by electrical stimulation
of the anterior insula,
Fabien Picard, Didier
Scavarda & Fabrice
Bartomolei, 2013).
Transcendental media-
tion means you dont
need electrical stimuli,
however, as the Maha-
rishi advocated that by
practising TM twice daily
the unlimited creative
intelligence or bliss
that we all have within us
can be tapped and brought to bear on
our experience in an expert and methodi-
cal way. It seems to me that while science
is becoming aware of the possibilities that
are within the capabilities of the brain,
Maharishis science is dawning with it a
world of possibilities is being opened up to
us all.
Research Digest
Blogging on brain and
behaviour
Thursday 19th September
2013
Brain Behaviour
Ian Stewart
EQUILIBRIUM 9
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38
Watercolours
by Eileen Smith
EQUILIBRIUM 10
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM 11
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38
The Happiness Project
By Alice Croot
EQUILIBRIUM 12
I
frst read The Happiness Project in early
2012 after reading a spate of positively
glowing reviews online. I did not really
know what to expect a brand of zeal-
ous, get-out-and-do-good, evangelical guilt
trip was my worst fear but actually it did
exactly what I had hoped it would do. It
made me think about happiness and ways I
could become happier.
Rubin starts with the realisation that
although she was not unhappy, she also
was not appreciating everything in her life
which she felt she should, so she set about
methodically researching happiness and its
causes and came up with a list of what her
own priorities were. She dedicated a month
to each topic eleven
topics in all, with
December being the
chance to put them
all into practice and
worked out how she
could use that month
to explore and appre-
ciate her life more.
She says early in the
book that I wanted to
change my life with-
out changing my life,
a theme which marks
her out from many
of the famous life-changing biographies
such as Elizabeth Gilberts Eat, Pray, Love
or biographies about loss, such as Joan
Didions A Year of Magical Thinking, and
this is precisely what holds its charm. Few of
us could take nothing whatsoever from this
book, with topics that range from vitality
(January) to marriage (February) to money
(July), and certainly in my case even when
the topic had no obvious connection to me
I have no children, which she spends April
appreciating there were still things that
made me think about how I relate to other
people in general.
For me, the most important point made
is about how deep the connection is
between your relationships with other
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM
EQUILIBRIUM 25
EQUILIBRIUM 13
people and your own happiness. This
may seem natural and particularly
apparent with how you interact with
your partner, your parents, your children
and wider family, but it also includes
your friends, people you encounter only
briefy, your critics, and even the way
you gossip or preferably dont. She
quotes Tolstoy, who said nothing can
make our own life, or the lives of other
people, more beautiful than perpetual
kindness, and she does this throughout
without seeming holier-than-thou; in fact,
her frustrations and stumblings are part
of what makes the book so relatable,
and certainly make you feel you are not
alone in fnding it diffcult to resist gossip,
or not snapping when you have had a
bad morning. In many ways it is about
being aware of what is happening in
your life and recognising whether or not
your actions will contribute to your happi-
ness, rather than attempting to live a life
of impossible virtue.
Rubin suggests that a key part of being
happy is to be yourself, and to be true
to yourself. Do not worry about what you
should like, or think you should like, but
invest in discovering what makes you
happy. It could be a hobby, probably
similar to what you enjoyed as a child,
or it could be cutting out something you
feel obligated to do but is not neces-
sary or helpful. An oft repeated truth that
she fnds is that one of the best ways
to make yourself happy is to make other
people happy; one of the best ways
to make other people happy is to be
happy yourself. So if it is weight training,
if it is foreign policy, if it is Barry Manilow
wonderful. Find that passion and pursue it.
Throughout the book she gives exam-
ples of other peoples experiences with
their own happiness projects as well as
mixing in her research, which gives the
reader a chance to think about how
to apply these deeply personal resolu-
tions to themselves (always resolutions
rather than goals you achieve a goal
in a way which does not apply to every
day happiness), and this is followed up
by notes at the back which help you to
set up your own happiness project. She
has set up a website (www.happiness-
projecttoolbox.com) which will help you
decide what your priorities are without all
her painstaking research for example,
her current front page article talks about
making sure your habits are right, some-
thing she talks about in her book. She
recommends four things; sleep, exercise,
external order, and managing eating
and drinking, things which she works
Gretchen Rubin
HarperCollins: New York, 2009
cont.
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38
Photo: Anthony
EQUILIBRIUM 14
on throughout the book and which do make a
difference to her. She also talks here about her
other books on happiness at home, and her
forthcoming book about breaking habits.
When I frst read this book I felt energised and
motivated to change small things in my life. I
started thinking about how I could do what I
really wanted and implemented the one minute
rule if something can be done in a minute or
less then do it. My desk is now almost always
clear and has been since that frst reading. The
second time I read it, only a few months later, I
made further plans and did some things which
I would not have done otherwise I jumped
from a boat into the ocean because it scared
me, and that was as important to me as keep-
ing my temper when someone was deliberately
provoking my anger. But in reading it again for
this review (which only took about a day, on and
off it is a quick read) I have made the biggest
changes. I was already much happier than I
was when I frst read the book, that is true, but
rather than taking small actions I have taken
bigger steps. I have contacted people about a
childrens literature book club I had been consid-
ering for a while but not made time for, I asked
my mother if she would like to do a happiness
project with me next year as a way to keep in
contact when we are in different countries, and I
have thought about whether I am actually really
helping people when I give my time to tasks
which dont make much difference, even if I feel
virtuous, or if there is a better way I could try to
help.
So would I say the book is for everyone? No,
probably not. But if, like myself, you thought that
owning one self help book would immediately
spiral into a Bridget Jones-esque binge of life-
changing intentions and no real action then I
would urge you to try this. Gretchen is happier, I
feel happier, and there is a real chance that you
could too.
Poetry
Think of the beautiful garden
With roses and garlands
Flowers of all kinds
And fresh air
Taking a walk in the park
Artistic endeavours
Planting plants and exercising

Good luck to everybody in the
future
And be good with behaviour
Do something constructive with
your day
As long as its just one thing
Communicate effectively
Complete your education
With knowledge and know-how

I thank you for those special days
you gave me

Have fun with life
Good luck for the future
Everyone

Denica Chaplery
cont.
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM
EQUILIBRIUM 15

Here are 21 facts that you might not know, but are all true - even though they might
seem strange!
1. Crocodiles have over 240 teeth in their entire life.
2. The worlds shortest man, Pinping, is only 2ft 7inches tall.
3. The 14-foot-long narwhal is a whale whose teeth can reach up to eight
feet long.
4. Night butterfies have ears on their wings so they can avoid bats.
5. The T-Rex had a jaw strong enough to chop a person a half in one bite.
6. Female triceratops wore make up (painted their faces) to attract
male triceratops.
7. Chimps have their own form of political elections within their groups.
8. Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.
9. Indian police are known to have the largest beer bellies in the world; in
one case, an offcer had a waste size that was triple his chest size.
10. Cows in India can cause traffc jams for miles.
11. The largest sandwich is over 3ft long.
12. A tiny lizard called a Tiktiky can sever its tail and grow another within
two weeks.
13. The act of kicking a football, when in space, can cause a person to
move 500 yards backwards, due to the lack of gravity.
14. There are worms that are 4ft long.
15. A baby Giraffe can already be over 5ft tall when it is born.
16. An insect called a Mayfair only lives for 8 hours.
17. An Astronaut sees about 36 sunrises and 35 sunsets in one mission.
18. When the Mayans played football, they used the head of the losing
captain as a ball for the next game.
19. Dragonfies can fy up to 50 miles per hour.
20. The frst light bulb was actually created by the Egyptians.
21. An ancient ruler of North East India is known to have over a 101
children and out of 100 only one was a daughter.
Facts: Strange But True!!!!
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM 16
EFT - Tapping into Potential
S
o this week I was taking my frst webi-
nar about the foundations of business
practice in the arts, and this webinar,
which was the frst to be performed by
this woman, went severely pear shaped
thats to say I could hear nothing through
my phones but white noise. But I did hear
her say You have to get this book: EFT
Emotional Freedom Technique it will
change your life.
Well this kind if information is often ignored,
Ive done it a million times before, but
this time it came from Rosalind, who Id
worked with and had much respect for.
Shed already helped move my art busi-
ness forward from a very stagnant place to
quite a signifcant place. So if she said EFT
had the potential to change peoples lives,
I thought it worth giving the time of day. As I
write the book is winging its way to me.
EFT, or also commonly known as Tapping,
was something Id come across before; Id
met others whod used it. Id read the Heal-
ing Codes and used some of those touch
techniques, but to little effect because Id
become so frustrated with the process.
EFT works by releasing blockages within
the energy system which leads to limiting
beliefs and behaviours. It is said that these
blockages cause emotional and/ or physi-
cal issues and include lack of confdence
and self esteem, feeling stuck, anxious or
depressed, or the emergence of compul-
sive and addictive behaviours, even physi-
cal issues such as long term back pain.

So it goes back to ancient Chinese beliefs
based around the meridian system which
believes there are electrical energies pass-
ing throughout the body. These charges
need to somehow be balanced in order to
function at an optimum level. The tapping
on these meridian points release blockages
in these energy paths, allowing things to
fow more naturally.
So EFT treatment involves the use of fnger-
tips rather than needles to tap on the end
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM 17
Nigel Prestatyn
points of energy meridians that are situ-
ated just beneath the surface of the skin.
So its like a kind of fnger acupuncture,
or acupressure.
The process involves one focusing on
their own specifc problem whilst tapping
with fngers on the end points of energy
meridians. The combination of send-
ing kinetic energy to our energy system,
whilst uncovering and focusing on root
causes facilitates a balancing of the
energy system thereby eliminating the
short circuit to the bodys negative
emotion. The tapping areas are:-
1) Top of the Head, 2) Beginning of the
Eyebrow, 3) Side of the Eye, 4) Under the
Eye, 5) Under the Nose, 6) Chin Point, 7)
Beginning of the Collarbone, 8) Under
the Arm. The setup area is the karate
chop area of the hand. These would
be classed as the basic tapping areas,
though there are further areas around
the body.
So the Setup Phrase might be: I really
dont deserve to be happy because
when I was a soldier at war I hurt many
people. (Apparently EFT is great for post
traumatic stress disorder.) This would
involve tapping on the karate chop area
of either hand. This is a diffcult thing
for me to get to grips with, because
its repeatedly stating a negative, and
focusing on that negative, and Ive often
worked hard to do the exact opposite!
But in order to shift the problem, we need
to truly understand the problem and
connect with it on a deep emotional
level.
After stating the problem, youd begin
a round of tapping whilst using the
Reminder Phrase which in this example
might be, I dont deserve happiness.
The key is to get to the real core of
the issue, digging around until you fnd
statements that really resonate with
your problem on a deeply profound
emotional level. These core issues, the
powerful ones which bring about real
change, are often deeply buried, and
stemming back to our early years. So it
takes a little emotional intelligence to
root around until you fnd these core
issues. Often it is suggested to fre off
several arrows in the hope of hitting the
true core issue.
And the way to determine whether the
process has been successful or not is
by gauging the level of emotional or
physical pain before you start, and again
after several rounds of tapping. So if the
emotional pain in our example remains
at 10, we need to try other statements,
if it comes down to 5, then we continue
through as many rounds as it takes to
bring it down to 1 or 2, or even a zero.

Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM 18
Reality Television & Mental Health
L
ong gone are the days when folks
gather from all around to applaud the
Gladiators fghting in the Coliseum, risk-
ing their lives with blood, sweat and tears all
in the name of active entertainment... Or
have they?
I recall being 16 years old and transfxed to
the television screen. Tonight was the night.
Everyone was talking about it. It was a
Saturday night and it was the Pop Idol fnal.
I was glued to the edge of my seat, eagerly
awaiting the results. As I sat in the comfort
of my family home, feet up with a cup of
tea, I watched on as one of the fnalists
was rapidly losing confdence, perspiring
under the bright studio lights, desperately
begging the audience to vote for him and
stuttering as the masses of results from the
public rolled in. They purposefully dragged it
out. The lights got brighter, the music louder
and cheers from the crowd bellowed from
beyond. I remember thinking to myself,
poor guy, whats going to happen to his
confdence if he doesnt win? More to the
point: Why am I watching this in the frst
place? Was it because I genuinely liked the
sound of their voices covering songs I had
heard a million times before, or did I secretly
like having the power of holding peoples
destinies in my hands, knowing that people
all over the country were feeling the same
p
h
o
t
o

f
r
o
m

h
t
t
p
:
/
/
a
l
b
a
n
y
l
i
b
r
a
r
y
.
f
l
e
s
.
w
o
r
d
p
r
e
s
s
.
c
o
m
/
2
0
0
8
/
0
4
/
r
e
a
l
i
t
y
-
t
v
.
j
p
g
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM 19
By Christina Clark, Psychiatric Nurse
way? I was allowed to feel sorry for them,
excited for them or even dislike them,
and with a mere 50p phone call I could
manipulate their destiny. Their future was
in my hands!
But can I really go as far as to compare
a 50p phone vote to that of a Gladiators
fate determined by the crowds thumbs
up or thumbs down? Okay, so we
cant exactly accuse the likes of Simon
Cowell of placing peoples lives on the
line in the literal sense its not as though
contestants have to slay boars three
times the size of them or wrestle wild lions
to the ground. Perhaps though, society
could go as far as to accuse some of
the producers of reality TV shows of plac-
ing peoples lives on the line in a more
emotional sense.
Reality is defned as the state of things
as they actually exist, as opposed to
an idealistic or notional idea of them.
But who exactly defnes this? We are
surrounded by reality TV shows, but do
they really portray reality? I mean, how
many of us suddenly wake up one day
and have become a global superstar
overnight and what mental pressure
must this surreal notion place on people?
I dont think we can even begin to imag-
ine what that must feel like. People are
literally putting their futures in the hands
of unacquainted strangers through a
television screen. And questions must be
asked as to who these audiences are
and more importantly what their motives
are. Are they really there to help people
become a success in life or just partici-
pants in a game, playing with other
peoples futures?
Andy Warhol once said In the future,
everyone will be world-famous for 15
minutes. But At whose expense?
appears to be the question on lots of
peoples minds
Emily Marsden, a specialist psychiatric
Nurse, who works with young people
presenting with their First Episode of
Psychosis explains how an overnight
celebrity suddenly becomes very vulner-
able. The media have the power to
either maintain or crush their over-
night status depending on what sells
at the time. I imagine that the people
in the media industry who are respon-
sible for their overnight fame are more
concerned about making money than
whether that person is feeling okay and
being well supported.
When looking at reality TV and mental
health, there have been a plethora of
cases which have bought the subject
to media attention and some much
cont.
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38
more ongoing ethical debates amongst
professionals. In 2006, a Big Brother contest-
ant, Shahbaz Chaudry, shockingly claimed
he wanted to take his own life whilst being
broadcast live on television. Not surpris-
ingly, controversy and ethical debate arose
after the contestant was placed on suicide
watch and denied exit from the house after
requesting to leave. He was subsequently
pulled out of the show after increasing
concerns were raised around his mental
wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, this raised ques-
tions around how much support the contest-
ants were being given and whether or not
they were intentionally pushed to their limits
to increase entertainment and viewing; in
other words, whether or not he had been
exposed to intentional exploitation. Marsden
agrees that reality programmes regularly
exploit those with mental health problems
in the name of entertainment: In general,
reality TV is purely a form of entertainment
and unfortunately doesnt seem to exist to
teach people anything. I feel that in a lot
of instances, TV producers go for the shock
factor to get good viewing fgures, which
often means issues arent covered very
sensitively. This can often mean people with
mental health issues are depicted as odd
or different to you and I when the real-
ity is that mental health issues can affect
anyone.
Big Brother producers, in a response to the
incident, claimed that contestants are
screened by professionals to ensure that they
are psychologically stable and able to cope
with such experiences. Is this good enough
though? Marsden hopes that frstly, contest-
ants have someone that regularly meets with
the person to check that they are coping
ideally someone with psychology train-
ing that can provide therapeutic support if
needed. I would also hope that producers
and channel executives would have some
awareness of the pressures and make sure
people are not put under too much pressure
Im sure that doesnt happen. I would want
to make sure they were aware of all the
pressures and negative aspects that come
with being on TV/in the spotlight so that they
werent going in to it blind.
Another high profle example of the pressure
that fame can place on a persons mental
health is the alleged mental breakdown
that Susan Boyle endured after coming
runner up on the reality show Britains Got
Talent. Concerns were made public after
Susan was rushed to a private psychiatric
unit the day after the competition fnale. This
too led to numerous viewer concerns that
she was not provided with the correct duty
of care by the producers of the show. This
speed of overnight fame and public expo-
sure must be enough for anyone to fnd hard
to grasp.
Thankfully, after making a good recovery,
Susan went on to become a global superstar
with support from friends, professionals and
even backing from the media. Perhaps in
EQUILIBRIUM 20
cont.
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM
turn, shining the light for those with mental
health problems and in turn potentially
projecting positive outcomes which show
that mental health problems do not neces-
sarily hinder success on reality TV shows.
The public embraced Susan, even those
who didnt watch the show were able to
follow her journey due to the vast cover-
age in the media; some even termed her a
national treasure. She had been exposed
to the world and had shown everyone that
she could overcome mental health prob-
lems and that it would not hinder her future
success.
Marsden discusses how reality TV shows
could also be used to help tackle some of
the stigma surrounding mental health prob-
lems. For example, well made fy on the
wall documentaries can defnitely tackle
the stigma surrounding mental illness. I do
however think its diffcult to get that right as
its a sensitive and complex subject. People
making the programmes need to have a
good understanding of mental illness them-
selves or they risk reinforcing stereotypes.
On the fip side of this, there have also been
a handful of high profle cases of people who
have entered reality TV contests and been
denied continuation in the competition due
to the fact that they have disclosed a current
or historic mental health issue. This may well
highlight the high levels of discrimination still
apparent within the world of show business
and perhaps even more so their concep-
tions of the stigma this may bring from the
wider public. It perhaps leads us to ques-
tion the ignorance of the TV producers; just
because you have a mental health problem,
it shouldnt automatically exclude you from
being a contestant. We live in a nation of
equal opportunities and a history of mental
health problems wouldnt legally be able to
impact your employment aspects, so why a
reality TV show? Where do we draw the line?
Another point to also consider is what nega-
tive affects rejection may have on a persons
mental health and on a larger scale: the fght
against stigma and discrimination. Marsden
emphasises the need to make more effort
to portray people with mental health issues
as normal people rather than highlighting
their differences or exaggerating their weak-
nesses.
Reality TV is a culture that defnes a huge
part of my generation. Sometimes it seems
as though people around me are more
interested in voting off the latest Big Brother
contestant, keeping someone in the jungle or
paying to see a contestant on the X Factor
win the Christmas number 1 (again). I often
wonder how many of these people vote
in the general elections or even know the
name of their local MP.
It is apparent that much more education
and insight is needed for the producers of
reality TV shows and not just around mental
health issues but also on the impact that
overnight fame can have on anyone,
EQUILIBRIUM 21
cont.
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38
regardless of their psychiatric history.
More consideration needs to be given as to
whether the entertainment aspect of making
these shows really outweighs the ethical
impact it has on issues such as human exploi-
tation. None of us can fully predict what
such a phenomenon of becoming famous
overnight would do to our mental health,
hence the necessity for appropriate psycho-
logical support and mental preparation
beforehand, during and after the process.
But on the fip side, why should mental
health disclosure affect the opportunity to
enter these contests? After all, with the right
support and sensitivity around these issues
perhaps more people will feel able to enter
these competitions and be able to spin
some of the unfortunate existing negative
stigma and portray mental health in a more
positive light. Some may even view people
with mental health problems as stronger
than the average Joe; having already
battled through problems they may be more
mentally resilient and prepared for chal-
lenges and diffcult circumstances. They are
also perhaps more able to accept the rejec-
tion and also put into perspective the bigger
picture and (crucially) the more important
things in life.
Humour Dev
Humour, also known as sense of humour, is
defned in the dictionary as the ability to
appreciate or express that which is humor-
ous. There are several theories that make
humour relevant to wellbeing, like the relief
theory, which says that laughter is a mecha-
nism by which psychological tension is
reduced. This is because it releases a chemi-
cal called serotonin, a feel good chemical,
into the brain. The best way to see humour as
a form of entertainment; if you think about it,
it is trying to cheer you up or trying to make a
funny point about a subject.

Over time different styles of humour have
been popular and have changed, from
Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Buster
Keatons slapstick silent comedy to todays
style of stand-up comedy. Slapstick comedy
continued during the 60s and 80s, with
comedians like Benny Hill, Frank Spencer and
Kenny Evert, which is tongue and cheek, and
lots of people still fnd funny now a days, as
it is very visual. However, comedy since the
mid nineties seems to have changed and I
think some comedy sketches have become
too over done. A constant use of one specifc
type of humour could be seen as rather tire-
some; bringing in more new material it could
be more fun.
Humour also has a unique tendency to cross
cultural backgrounds, even if you are from
an ethnic minority. Sometime it is designed
to make fun of how people in their commu-
nity behave. A prime example is Goodness
Gracious Me, which is about life as a South
Asian person in the UK. As a South Asian
myself, seeing this programme reminds me
what people from this community are really
like. You might also be able fnd some similari-
ties from your own background.
EQUILIBRIUM 22
cont.
cont.
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM
Politicians and celebrities are often mimicked,
made fun of and vilifed by comedians world-
wide, most commonly leaders of countries
(i.e. Prime Ministers or Presidents) and other
leading Politicians. Most of the humour is
based on what they are doing or what they
shouldnt be doing. They can be rather over
exaggerated, no matter what country they
come from.
Comedians, or anyone who tries to be funny,
rely on the reactions of people on the receiv-
ing end. So if a person attempts a funny joke
or something silly, and it does not go well,
that person may not try that joke again or at
least re-work the joke. Most comedians tend
to do situation-based comedy or stand up
comedy. One way of trying to be funny is by
using language to play with different mean-
ings, for example I am taking a break can
be seen as a person trying to break some-
thing. Another interesting way is to be funny is
by fnding the meaning of the word in another
language, for example in English Hey dude
mean you are saying hello to someone you
think is cool, but in Bengali (a language from
the subcontinent) Hey dude means Hello
milk.
When it comes to mental health, humour
plays a very important part. When you have
mental health problems you may fnd your-
self in a state where you have trouble control-
ling your moods. Some people describe it as
being in a big hole without any light at the
end. In this state, gentle humour can be useful
in making each step less daunting. It can
slowly helping them get various ideas on how
to get themselves out of any situation and to
see things from a different perspective.
EQUILIBRIUM 23
A quote from Nelson
Mandela

Social equality is the only
basis of human happiness

Comment:
In an ideal society, the human
potential of the individual should
always evolve towards an ever
increasing harmony and diversifca-
tion with others in the direction of
progress, achievement and fulfl-
ment. Social equality should be the
accepted norm, indeed without it
the society would cease to function
for the beneft of all.
I believe an ideal society motivated
by the aspirations of the individual
should involve a technique like
transcendental meditation to
allow the individual to develop his
personality so that the inner happi-
ness of the individual provides a
stability that resolves problems
before they arise, enabling a soci-
ety to be one of all solutions and not
one of all problems.
Ian Stewart
A Personal Interview
Alans Interview with an Anonymous Participant at the Recovery College:

What is your diagnosis and how do you feel about it?
Schizophrenia and OCD. I prefer not to think about it because it makes it worse when I think about it.
How long have you suffered from mental illness?
Around 18-23 years.
How do you manage on a daily basis?
Sometimes I fnd it diffcult to manage but I try to concentrate on what I am doing at the time.
Have you thought about telling your story to the public (anonymously or otherwise)?
I come from a South Asian background and mental health is seen as a NO GO AREA so I just keep it
to myself.
What advice would you give to someone else with a mental illness? What have you found most
helpful?
Take it day by day. If you are having trouble fnd a friend or someone you can trust to tell what you
are going through. Make sure you ask them to keep it to themselves.
What are your hopes for the future?
To deal with it better.
Accepting a diagnosis of mental ill health, with
all of the unknown lifestyle implications is let
me argue easier to come to terms with if the
patient can or could be considered already
intelligent and well adjusted. Preserving the
strengths of your personality is, Dr Johnson E
Sabine might argue, the very essence of the
struggle with your mental illness.

Alan was frst admitted to psychiatric hospi-
tal in 1986 and many years later he continues
to pursue work, leisure, and his pursuit of the
Lords wisdom. He does not deny his needs for
extra agency care and support. He is visited
by his carer once a week on Sundays for help
with maintaining himself and his home a well
appointed and comfortably furnished one bed-
room fat, above and adjacent to the full array
of locally needed facilities.

Living only on a means-tested state pension,
this still allows Alan the relative luxury of eating
in local cafes and the occasional friendly invita-
tion for a home-cooked lunch or dinner.
Alan is self-employed and works in an advisory
capacity doing consultancy work. Alan is also a
well-regarded writer and, himself having been
moved to do so many times, often prompts
others to tell their life stories as a source of inspi-
ration for others.

Alan advises other mental health service users
to carry on regardless. This does test us more
than non-mental health patients. We all have
our crosses to bear, however, and Alan is not
alone in fnding advantage in so-called disad-
vantage. Take the problem-solving route and
make use of relevant and wider learning oppor-
tunities.

As a parent, his day-to-day life consists of
making an earnest effort to provide for his
family and, who knows, one day he may have
time to read a good book. Take one day at a
time, is his maxim: be thankful and count your
blessings in all things.
A Diagnosis
EQUILIBRIUM 24
EQUILIBRIUM 25
Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM Summer/ Issue 38 EQUILIBRIUM 26
Food
Photography
Helen Grace Ventura Thompson
Summer/ Issue 38 Summer/ Issue 38 www.haringey.gov.uk/equilibrium EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM 27