Wednesday, November 22, 2023

My thoughts on Shappi Khorsandi's book: Scatterbrain (ADHD awareness & insight post)

Evening all! I hope you're enjoying your week so far. As for me, it's been boring so far. Mainly because I had been stuck at home for 3 days due to having a cold, and not being allowed out.

As of such, I thought about doing some more research on ADHD during the time being. However, what actually prompted me to do some more research on this, was because I specifically wanted to find the link to being a scatterbrain & having ADHD. This was where I had stumbled upon a search result on Google, which consisted of a book on the Amazon website with the very title: "Scatterbrain: How I got off the ADHD rollercoaster" I then immediately thought to myself: "Ah, this must be the right research source I am looking for!"

And sure enough, it certainly didn't disappoint...!

This book turns out to be Comedian, Shappi Khorsandi, talking about her experiences with ADHD. It also turns out that she was undiagnosed with the said condition, and reflects on her own behaviour in the past while being undiagnosed.


(Please do feel free to comment about my picture design!)


Rather than keep using rhetorical questions to form my thoughts, and guide me through what I am going to say, I'll just get stuck in.

I don't know about any of you, (and you may agree or disagree with me on this) but I have always seemed to find ADHD personalities & characteristics highly amusing. And I sincerely do not mean this in an offensive way at all. I think this is because of of the unpredictability that ADHD behaviour brings to oneself. A common example of this would be willing to start something, but unable to get that something finished. Especially within a set timeframe. Like Shappi herself, when she was writing her book, as she highlighted the crazy things she has done when the deadline of her book was looming upon her. This is where the scatterbrain effect gets linked with this type of ADHD behaviour, as it makes you think that you have the capacity of doing so many things while within a set timeframe. But in reality, this just puts you off your primary focus, because you have scattered thoughts/ideas running around in your mind as if each of them are running their own marathon. Again, this is 1 of the reasons why I personally find ADHD amusing. 

Another thing from the book which spoke out to me, was how much focus control there is involved in ADHD focus, (hyper focus) but also the lack of focus on normal focus. It would be stereotypical of people (who do not or have a lack of understanding about ADHD) to label them as "incapable" just because they do not maintain focus like normal people. It has been proven that many people with ADHD ARE very capable of focusing on something, but in their own time. Especially when it comes to something that they are deeply interested in. If this can work for Shappi, then it can work for anyone.

Back onto the scatterbrain topic, having difficulties with controlling your emotions can create scattered thoughts into your mind. Like with most ADHD people, they may experience an overload of excessive thoughts running around in their mind, and they get to a sudden point where they need to blurt how they feel out loud, as this helps them to let of steam inside their mind. Sometimes, these thinking out loud thoughts may become too compulsive for other people around them to hear, as well as being around that ADHD person, so they feel like they are just trying to gain much unnecessary attention as possible. But in reality, that person really cannot help what they are doing.




Saturday, November 18, 2023

MIND, you are amazing at what you do, and never give up... Ever...

Happy Saturday all! Hope you're all enjoying it so far, as for the rest of this week. I know I haven't been paying much attention on here lately, as I have been too occupied with my coursework & my jobs. 

During this time, I was disappointed to see on MIND's social media that the UK government has let down people's mental health, again... Although I do not consider myself to be somebody who requires support from any mental health professional who may have a degree of some sort, but I do consider myself to be somebody who cares about mental health being taken into consideration. Especially when it comes to people suffering from their mental health by having no one to turn to, as well as to seek professional advice. Read about it here: https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/uk-government-shelves-the-mental-health-bill/

Because I am a part of MIND'S workforce, I feel like it's only right if I speak up on behalf of the company/charity. Not just that, but also because I truly appreciate everything they do in a bid to fight for mental health.


MIND, if you're reading this, (or if you ever read this) I just want to say that I am a massive fan of what you do in your workforce. Whether these may consist of encouraging people to get a membership, volunteer or even create partnerships with work companies, you're doing a grand job with getting more people involved in fighting for mental health. That being said, you wouldn't be recognised for who you are, as well as what you do to this day if it hadn't been for any of those above things.

Let's also talk about your campaigning, as I can clearly see that you would happily go above & beyond to achieve. This also includes people happily going out of their way just so they can help you with the campaigning. This is obviously a inspirational success in a lot of people's eyes whenever they view these campaigning events on the media. Just a shame the government do not take this seriously...

On that note Charles, how come you didn't think to mention all of this in your speech last Tuesday? (7/11/23) I mean, it's not like this is a rocket science situation that will just fix on its own, this mental health crisis has to be dealt with by actually putting the mental health bill into action. Words cannot even begin to describe as to how shocked I am that this has been not been sorted out for the past 6 years now, and the UK government think it's okay for people's mental health to go unnoticed in this country?! 

All I can really say at this point, is that something HAS to be done in order for the UK government to put the mental health bill into action, and to ensure no one's mental health gets ignored. But until then...

Keep on fighting for mental health MIND.✊🏻💙


   

 

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