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Get Ready For Maternal Mental Health Week 2018

4/26/2018

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I'm told many mums struggle with mental health issues.

A recent report by Dr Louise Howard of King’s College London stated that 1 in 4 mums struggle with their mental health during pregnancy. Another found that more than 1 in 3 mums struggle post-natally.

​This might seem high, but in a recent MummyLinks survey 70% said they were currently, or had suffered with a mental health issue. Almost 30% struggled with depression, 30% with anxiety, and 15% with other issues such as OCD and PTSD.

So why are these figures so high? And seem to be rising?

One reason is that we are talking about it more. We’ve seen leaps and bounds in progress regarding talking about mental health recently – and the celebrities and key figures have been great at helping this cause from Gwyneth Paltrow, to Stacey Solomon, to Andrea Leadsom.  This does make it seem that the instances are rising. But is it just that people are more open about it? People didn’t used to talk about cancer after all, and now we wouldn’t dream of hiding that away.

But is there a bigger issue? Founder of MummyLinks, Emily Tredget believes so. She says: “Depite feeling more connected through social media, mums are more lonely than ever.”

Her MummyLinks survey also asked mums how lonely they felt and a staggering. Almost half of the mums surveyed had high levels of loneliness (66 or more out of 100), and all mums said they were lonely some of the time. Interestingly she found that being part of a service such as NCT reduced loneliness by 22% - coincidentally, the same percentage that being part of NCT reduced mental health issues by. Of those not part of NCT 2 in 3 mums struggled. But for those part of NCT it was just 1 in 2.
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“This doesn’t surprise me at all”, says Emily. “I found NCT invaluable – not only for teaching me about the birth itself, but more importantly for connecting with mums local to me who were going through the same experience, all within a month of each other.”

But Emily believes that 1 in 2 struggling is still too high, and something needs to be done.

“Yes NCT is invaluable, but for some it’s too expensive, and even with this the rates of maternal mental health issues is just too high. Four mums close by is great, but this isn’t enough of a community to help you through when things get tough, or you just want to get out of the house and they’re not free.”

Maternal Mental Health week is 30th April – 6th May and Emily is arranging a campaign called #ShoutieSelfie. It aims to raise awareness of maternal mental health and fight the stigma. She ran it first in 2017 having just 2 months of social media experience, and 10 days to plan it. Despite this is got maternal mental health trending in its first half an hour and 1 million impressions. This year she is arranging an even bigger campaign with thousands of supporters – from NCT, to PANDAS, to ready to hit social media with their “shoutie selfie” to get people talking. Watch closely and you might even see a celebrity face or two shouting that week!

“#ShoutieSelfie is so important to me. I struggled with PND, PNA and PTSD after the birth of my son in 2015. Instead of being the best time of my life it was the worst. I went from being a confident and successful woman, to being scared to have coffee with a close friend. I was anxious whenever I was left alone with my son because I didn’t believe I knew how to look after him. It wasn’t until I started hearing that it wasn’t just me that was struggling. That others did too, that I realised it wasn’t that I was an awful person and mother. I was ill, and I could get help. And that’s why I’m now on a mission to ensure all mums – and dads – currently struggling know they are not alone and that they can get better.”

The campaign helps to reduce the stigma, but doesn’t do anything to reduce the loneliness felt on a day to day basis my millions of mums UK (and world!) wide. So Emily isn’t stopping there. She has been working tirelessly to create a new app to help mums beat loneliness through safe and local playdates. MummyLinks is currently a facebook group, but by summer the app will be out for mums to test.

“When I was struggling with loneliness – which for me lead to post natal depression – I set up a local whatsapp group of mums I knew, and they added mums they knew locally. It was great as if somebody cancelled last minute, or you haven’t arranged a playdate, you could ping a message out to a large number of local mums at once and usual find someone also keen to meet –whether you knew them directly, or not. But I realised I was lucky to be in this situation, and even with 15 or so mums in the group, sometimes nobody was free. I often wanted an app to do this – I didn’t mind meeting a new mum, I just wanted a reason to get out of the house and a chat!”

It’s invite only, which for Emily is key.

“Being invite only makes it a bit harder to join, but it’s key that mums using the service feel safe. It’s something I always felt, and in chatting to many mums around the UK I’ve found that it’s really important to most of them too.”

Similar services have been popping up over the last year or two – most notably Mush and Peanut which both have millions of pounds backing and are headed up by marketing and tech gurus (Peanut is a collaboration between Deliveroo and Badoo founders) – but this isn’t deterring Emily.

“I may not have tons of investment, but I truly believe that the community we are creating is going to be highly beneficial. Not just to mums struggling with mental health issues – to all mums. And if we can reduce loneliness, and therefore some cases of mental health issues, then I have achieved what I set out to do.”
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To get involved with the campaign on 30th April search for #ShoutieSelfie or @MummyLinksApp on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook and follow her lead!

To ask to join MummyLinks head to: www.facebook.com/groups/MummyLinks



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Why I Love Doctor Who

4/23/2018

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I think everyone knows I love Doctor Who...having watched the very first episode in 1963 when I was seven, and not missed one once. And that it was the inspiration for me to become a professional writer. 

I'm part of a wonderful Doctor Who online community, and regularly discuss this incredible show with fellow Whovians on Twitter, both young and old. 

My guest blogger today, Thomas Bracken (Twitter handle https://twitter.com/TomInTheTARDIS), explains why he loves Doctor Who so much.


By Thomas Bracken
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​The story of my ever burning love for Doctor Who began in March 2005 after being told it would be something I’d adore by both my dad and my year 2 teacher. Needless to say they were right and my love for the show has never dwindled, but burned stronger becoming inspiration to be a good man viewing the world with a sense of wonder, trying to find the good in the darkest of places.

Doctor Who also kick-started my interest in acting, directing and writing by tapping into the creative side of my mind.

When Doctor Who burst back onto our television screens in 2005 our face-changing adventurer was wearing the face of none other than Christopher Eccleston, but the Doctor joined the 21st century with a dark secret that would burn his soul for more than one of his regenerations. 
The concept of the Time War to me as a young boy was both intriguing and terrifying, our hero was shell-shocked and had lost his home planet along with his own people in order for the universe to stand strong. I had never known a protagonist to have such a burden on their shoulders and still smile when saving the day, and this was before I knew about the concept of regeneration. When Eccleston changed into Tennant I remember being confused and sad to see the big-eared northerner replaced with a skinny cockney man, but I was interested by the premise of how they could renew the character and show with ease, it was by the series 1 finale, Parting of the Ways, that I knew this show was unique and I could never let it go.

In my early teens Doctor Who became an escapism from reality, somewhere to run off to and be okay when the world was too much. It was around the Matt Smith era I began to realise that I wasn’t just shy and I in fact had anxiety. The fairy tale vibe of the Eleventh Doctor’s era was exactly what I needed at the time and Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Doctor being the ancient child of unlimited knowledge yet somehow is still a bumbling idiot helped me form an idea of who I wanted to be as a person.

I never wanted to be like everyone else following latest trends and fashions despite attempting said things in the early years of secondary school and the Doctor was the perfect break from the norm for me, though I could never be the Doctor travelling around the universe in reality I could at least adopt his morals and adjust them to fit myself. To think who I would have been as a person without Doctor Who as an influence is a haunting thought.
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By 2013, the year Doctor Who turned 50 years old, I was so in love with the science fiction program that I had begun my dive into the classic era of the show with my first two classic stories being The Five Doctors and The TV Movie. I someone managed finding myself falling in love with Doctor Who all over again. The format was so different yet exactly the same except this era was the pre-Time War and though you didn’t see the Time Lords all the time, it was lovely when they turned up and you got to learn about the Doctor’s culture. With the Culture of the Doctor come his oldest foe in the form of the Master, formally known as Missy in their latest regeneration.

The complete opposite of the Doctor yet very similar, for me the Master quickly became my favourite villain of the show and still remains that to this day, being on the same level as the Doctor. Yes it’s always great for the Doctor to face off with the Daleks, but when the Master was revealed it’s always going to be a battle of wits and the two of them, more times than not, trying to persuade the other in joining them.

I think what I love most about the Doctor and the Master bouncing off of one another is how they both consistently insist they’re not human, yet they’re both so human when you get to the basics of their dynamic, a friendship that died out long ago but neither wish to admit that it’s truly gone due to their love and respect for one another. After all, they’re both Time Lords, nobody knows the Doctor better than the Master does and nobody knows the Master better than the Doctor does.

Doctor Who is thought provoking, it requires you to use your brain when watching it which is a great thing in a day and age where things are spelled out to the audience. No show does what Doctor Who does. After 55 years and the ever changing nature of Doctor Who, regenerating if you will, I believe that Doctor Who has become its own genre after being so many different things from educational to gothic horror to fairy tale and it will continue to change and renew itself in years to come through the TV show, audios, books and of course, the fans.

With Doctor Who about to embark on possibly its biggest change since Hartnell became Troughton, I can’t wait to see what Doctor Who is about to become with Jodie Whittaker at the helm of the TARDIS and Chris Chibnall as head writer. A whole new adventure is about to begin I feel like an ecstatic child waiting for autumn to roll around.

Doctor Who is much more than a TV show now it’s inspiration, passion, escapism for those in the darkest of places. It brings people together and shows them the best of one another. I’m very glad I watched Doctor Who and still have it now, as I truly dread to think what growing up in East London would’ve made of me without the Doctor in the TARDIS saving planets on Saturday evenings.


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The Long Lost Future

4/8/2018

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Randall didn't know he had a destiny until it interrupted his lunch one day; and it was bigger than he could possibly have imagined (his destiny, not his lunch).
That's when he met the mysterious Marcus Han - brainier than a clumsy butcher's floor, and secretly the richest man in the world, he would be Randall's companion and mentor through the challenges they must face in their struggle to stop the entire Galaxy from vanishing.

With a supporting cast of talking trees, mutant psychics, bungling cops, extremely refined resistance operatives, military trained birds, enlightened mushrooms, hallucinating AI units, cutlery collecting crabs, and his definitely EX-girlfriend to help him, he must travel back in time to the twenty-first century and begin again in a new, less tyrannical timeline.
​

If his departed dad, the World Police, the Planimals, or the ancient aliens don’t stop him first that is…
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About the author.
​Ian Cattell is a software developer who wanted a change from staring blankly at a computer screen all day. So he decided to write a book.
 
Over the next six months he learned that there are many advantages to writing a book compared to writing software, the main one being that he doesn't have to re-write it whenever Microsoft decides it's “time”.


Contact details.

Website : iancattell.online

Email : [email protected]

Twitter : https://twitter.com/IanDCattell/

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Lost-Future-Ian-Cattell-ebook/dp/B07C9M9NPQ/

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​Some reviews of The Long Lost Future, from Amazon.co.uk:


If you are a fan of Pratchett and Adams then look no further than this book. A wonderful array of characters from an eccentric very British submarine crew to a malevolent talking Raven with the added bonus of time travel for good measure. I loved it.

A really fun Romp through space and time. I laughed out loud in some places and started my own game of 'get the reference'. More than a sci-fi parody, more than a nerd's accumulation of snippets from almost every tv, radio, film and book involving space or time ever made in the history of the universe ever. A really good story and a good read.
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Thoroughly enjoyed this marvellous tale. Well written, full of excitement, lots of great jokes and a big dose of proper old fashioned sci-fi. Looking forward to more.
A wonderfully eccentric take on time-travel and saving the universe. A real page turner, I enjoyed every second. First class.
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Fantastic read. Both intelligent and laugh out loud funny. Great plot from beginning to end, with humorous footnotes.
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If you want an adventure, sci fi, spy story with a twist? This ones for you, I laughed, felt sad, felt clever, you name it. The must read of 2017 by a fantastic new writer.....Go on give it a read, you know it makes sense!!!
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Funny and intelligent laughing out loud from the beginning
He best be quick writing the sequel!
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​Bought this on a recommendation. So much better than I expected! Take the DNA of Adams and Pratchett, mix with a cutting cornucopia of modern issues, and add a huge dose of humour, and you not even close to how good The Long Lost Future is. Amazing and thoroughly engaging book, read it!
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A thoroughly enjoyable piece of modern literature. Witty, funny and very well told, this author is one to watch out for
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Really enjoyed this especially the twist in the end. Can't wait for the sequel.
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"The Nightmare Of My Life"

4/6/2018

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​As you all know, I'm currently recovering well from a potentially fatal blood clot in my lung.

​We all take good health for granted until it's snatched away from us. 

But I'm 62 - I guess I must expect my body to start playing nasty tricks on me. But not so when you're young! 

My young Twitter friend Harish Rajora tells of his frightening health scare, that began on his last day at college. 

Over to Harish Rajora:

I  am a computer science graduate and passed by Bachelor of Technology in 2017. I love tech and gadgets. Apart from my field I love reading books specifically autobiographies. I blog regularly and try to make a place in this crowded world.

This is what happened to me:


I took my empty bag, I took my jacket, dressed in college uniform I started my ride. I was going to my college to give my final semester presentation for the project I had done in LTI, Mumbai. I was happy about the fact that after today, there will be no exams, no attendance and my college life would be over. I had my days planned. Since I had been on the flight from Mumbai to Delhi to come home, I had planned all my days. I wanted to learn driving at a driving school. I wanted to learn swimming. I wanted to go to the gym. I wanted to go on at least three trips in one month. I had all planned but I guess life had other plans for me.

I gave my presentation to a four judge panel out of which three were ladies. They were chit chatting and I don't remember any of them listening to me after I told them the company and brief of the project. My presentation was over as soon as they told me "Thank You". It was a moment of epiphany. My college was over with that sentence. I was very happy and I scampered on the stairs and reached the ground floor and figured out something was not right with my eyes.

I was walking on the road when I found out my vision was a little blurred. With the increase in step count my vision worsened. I had acquired diplopia, bipolar diplopia to be precise. At first I thought it is the result of not wearing the specs but quickly dropped this possibility. The second possibility that I could figure out is that it has something to do with projector's blue light. But I had given several presentations before and never encountered such problems.

I met my friend Priya on the way to home. She lives close to college, We went to a cafe near Clock Tower which I think is the most crowded area of Dehradun. The cafe called Just Cafe, is my favourite cafe in Dehradun. Being very close to Clock Tower and in the peak rush hour, you cannot hear the sound of even the loudest Royal Enfield sound you have heard. Peace is always preferred as you grow up I guess. Coming back to my situation, I told Priya what I was facing. She consoled me by telling me her story which was quite similar to this but instead of diplopia she faced a blurred vision. She told me it would be fine within a day or two. She showed a great solicitude and I was no more infuriated. I was quite restless though. I averted here and there but I could see no improvement. I bade her good-bye and rode my bike approx 80 kilometers with that condition to my home back to Haridwar.


As soon as I reached my home. I got down my bike and started walking towards my room. I collided with the chair I was not able to walk straight at the normal speed but I could slowly. I slept expecting everything would be fine when I will wake up. I contacted my friend, Ruqaiya who told me to rub wet cloth to my eyes. I did. Nothing happened. My other friend, Gurpreet, told me that it could be due to blue light from the projector and gave me assurance that it will be fine tomorrow. I slept at 9:23 pm after talking to him. Less that I knew that it would remain my "Last Seen" on Whatsapp for more than a month.  

The next morning became the nightmare of my life. I opened my eyes around 6:50 a.m. and saw the fan above my face. I could see it as it was. Clear and single. But then I looked down at the door of my room and it was still not normal. I got down off my bed and stumbled upon taking my first step. I got really nervous. My hands were numb. They were so numb that it looked blood has not been circulating in my hands. They were not responding normally. It seemed that they were responding late. They were out of control and when I started walking I found out my legs were also not responding how they should. The gait was not normal. My legs were trembling and I could not properly bend my knee while walking. I immediately asked my dad to tell me if I am walking straight or not. I walked on the straight green line of marble to give my dad a demo. He said no, you are not. I told him what has happened with my eyes and what is happening with my limbs.

We rushed to an eye specialist who lived in the same locality about 1 kilometers away from my home. Her name was Drs. Vibha Trivedi. She was a retired doctress from BHEL hospital which was a government hospital owned and run by BHEL. She refused to check me because her clinic timings were from 10:00 a.m. It was at her clinic door I found out my voice is slowly slowly losing its power. "It's an emergency", said my father in a slightly loud pitch to the doctress who was standing on the back of her other room's gate and said, "No, come after 10". I puked in front of her house, got on the scooter of my father and puked again after 20 meters or so. I went back to my house and I couldn't eat anything, drink anything. Anything that I took was refused by my oesophagus. I waited for the clock to strike 10. I waited for 3 long hours and as it was 9:55 a.m., me and my father went again to the clinic.

​She carefully examined me, asked me numerous questions and her countenance made me nervous. She told my father, "There is something wrong and it's not related to his eyes. His eyes are fine. I think it has something to do with his brain. Quickly take him to a neurologist in the Metro Hospital." Metro hospital was located about 6 or 7 kilometers from her house and neither of us has been there before. We didn't know the way. It took us more than 30 minutes to reach the hospital and found out they don't have a neurologist. The receptionist said, "We haven't hired one yet." I was really nervous at this time and scared too. "Where shall we go now?" I asked my father. He did not answer. We went back to our home and my father said we have to go to Dehradun to Max Hospital. It was a really big hospital and he was sure we will find a neurologist there. He quickly booked a private cab and in no time we were on our way at around 11:30 or maybe 12.


It was Kaavad Mela in Haridwar and all the roads were full of motorcycles and four wheelers resulting into heavy rush and jam. I had never heard about the way that we took that day. Driver knew it and surprisingly my father knew it too. It was an odd way with villages and dirt road. I was not listening to the conversation between my father and the driver. I was recalling the eye doctor's words, "I think something is wrong with the brain." Brain complications are not so easy to treat. I knew that. I was very worried about my condition and my mother constantly repeated that it is nothing to worry about. You will be fine as soon as we reach hospital.

My father kept telling me the stories of our relatives. The stories always started with the notion that none of us thought that he would be fine and ended with, he was fine within two days. I constantly kept on recalling memories of my past. Any random memories just to check my brain's condition. I calculated some really complicated multiplication. I assured myself that there is nothing wrong with my brain. I was confident. We reached hospital and were immediately sent for MRI scan.

My MRI was found normal but on my way from home till the hospital, my voice was not audible, my right eyelid drooped, I could not walk without the support of my mother, I could not stand on my own. Dr. Deepak Goyal examined me and within one minute he declared that I have acquired Gullain Barre Syndrome. Unaware of the disease, I asked the doctor whether I will be fine. He confidently said, it is 100% recoverable. You will be fine. I was relieved but less that I knew, there were really tough days ahead of me. 


Follow Harish Rajora on Twitter: https://twitter.com/harishhere

And you can keep up to date with Harish Rajora on his blog:
​www.themeaninglesslife.com/

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    Stewart Bint supports mental health charity Lamp Advocacy.

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    Author

    Stewart Bint is a novelist, magazine columnist and PR writer. 

    He lives with his wife, Sue, in Leicestershire in the UK, and has two children, Christopher and Charlotte, and a budgie called Sparky.

    Usually goes barefoot.

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