A Difficult But Important Article

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTACTED ME WITH REGARD TO THE POST BELOW. AM SO PLEASED AND GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE POSITIVE COMMENTS ON THIS, WHICH IS JUST THE OUTLINE, THE MAIN ARTICLE WILL BE ADDED VERY SOON. 

AGAIN, MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO CONTACTED ME ON HERE, BY EMAIL, TWITTER OR FB. AM SO TOUCHED BY YOUR KINDNESS.  I WILL DO MY BEST TO PRODUCE SOMETHING, WHICH I HOPE, WILL BE OF HELP TO MANY OF YOU.
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It has been a long time coming but I feel I am now ready to write rather an emotional and personal article. It will not be easy, but I'm determined to tackle this somewhat delicate and sensitive subject. Talking candidly about depression, anxiety and bullying takes a massive amount of courage and strength of mind. Recently many well known names have chosen to speak out on this broad and deep subject of mental health which has made it a little easier for the rest of us to do the same. My experiences over the past few years has revealed to me such diverse attitudes in people, from the cold and contemptible to the warm and compassionate. What finally provoked me into making this decision was one particular incident, amid many others. I had brought up the subject of bullying to somebody who may well be related to me. My memories of being bullied, whether at school or at work is something I have NEVER spoken about to anyone. Why on earth I decided to speak about it at this particular time, I will never know. The reaction I received to my admission shocked me and left me totally appalled and hurt. I wll explain a little more later, all I can say here and now, is that it was trivialised. The inference was, as it happened so long ago it had no bearing on any current situation. This played on my mind for months and months, along with other comments of a similar nature. I really needed to deal with this. Writing all of it down, could that be the answer? I ended up with copious notes on many different incidents both past and present. The whole thing needed rationalising and compiling into some logical format.  

This is not intended to be a chronological list of depressive and bullying experiences. On the other hand, I can speak from my viewpoint having endured some pretty rough times, especially in recent years.

I promise to complete the article as soon as I can. In the meantime, there is just one last thing I want to mention, or really I should say four things, my fab four that have kept me going through all of this.

• my two beautiful cats
• my sense of humour
• some wonderful friends, who are undoubtedly my real family, some are old friends I have known for years, some are new, some are even on social media whom I have never met, you all know who you are and how special you have become. You don't have to have a DNA link to care and be there for someone.
• my work and work colleagues who have unwittingly helped me by being there and being such kind and considerate people. Thank you Arran and the team, both present and past, certainly some of the nicest people I have ever worked with.

With the work environment in mind, I really want my colleagues to gain something from this too. My employer certainly has embraced the concept of mindfulness by recently holding a week of workshops, lectures etc examining different areas of this social practice. Yes, I did gain quite a bit from this, parts of which I can certainly draw upon. But, from another standpoint, there doesn't have to be a massive infrastructure put in place to facilitate people and their well-being. Aspects of this can be a lot simpler. Awareness, understanding and compassion for a start. How do you go about applying these? Well, I will attempt to explain this, certainly from my perspective anyway. People need to learn how to listen, how to observe, how to be more sensitive to others and their situations. As a teacher, I endeavored to practice these qualities and I'm pretty confident I was reasonably successful. There comes a point when you have to stand up and and say "enough, I will not let anyone manipulate, control or put me down again," how you get to that point is one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. Initially, I was writing this article for myself, but I now sincerely hope that others, who maybe in a similar situation will also benefit from this. That would be a fantastic outcome. I look forward to any responses. Now the task begins....

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