Good day dear readers!
Thanks for your patience. It has been longer than I like to go since I made my last blog entry. What have I been up to? Well, health wise I have had a few problems. I have been diagnosed with bursitis in both hips which means I can’t go for long walks anymore without doing harm to myself. Many will recall how I often talk about my healing process after being in a psychiatric hospital for 6 months. Basically, my dad (RIP pop) would drive to the group home I lived in, and would take me for a walk in Edmonton’s beautiful river valley. This habit turned to longer walks, me quitting smoking, and then taking up the hobby of photography, much of which you can view on Facebook or Instagram (gregersen.leif is my Instagram handle). Those days are gone, but I have made a conscious decision to stay as active and healthy as I can. I have had my antipsychotic increased, which caused me to sleep more, and in response to this I started drinking more coffee than I should have. Then I discovered that if I get on my exercise bike and pedal for a few minutes my hips don’t get too bad, and I also do some limited weight lifting, which has served to wake me up and feel a lot better about myself.
I could go on about ways to improve your life through simple exercise, but I also wanted to talk a little about my recent reading habits. I have been going to the Edmonton Public Library almost daily for some time now, reading fiction and nonfiction books about mental health, policing, addictions, and a few other topics (I still have been keeping up with my Lee Child/Jack Reacher novels as well) I don’t know how much time I have to write, so I will mention the most influential read I have had. I took out a DVD set that contains 24 half hour lectures on the topic of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. I have heard a lot about CBT and have been desperately wanting to find a therapist, so I was very happy to come across this course that has the goal of making you your own therapist. The course is called, “Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Daily Life” and the instructor is Jason M. Satterfield. Jason is an incredibly intelligent and compassionate teacher and therapist, and I have been getting a great deal of benefit from the course. I am actually hoping to watch all 24 lectures, renew the course at the library, and watch it again. This is mostly because I want to take notes and also try and double the impact of this course.
In the lectures, so much is explained about how our thoughts affect our behaviours and emotions, as well as there being a lot of practical exercises one can do to help banish unwanted thoughts or behaviours. There are sections on addiction, trauma, abuse, and so much more. I hope you get the chance to either buy the course from the “Great Courses” website or take it out of your library (I checked, it is in the Vancouver Public Library if that helps). One of the things from the course that is already helping me is that I have started to recognize when I experience rumination or negative thinking, and I pull at my watch and say a “Hail Mary”. It has been helping me reduce negative thoughts.
Along with the course, I have been reading other books. One of them was called “Same Time Next Week” which is a fantastic book about mental health therapy. Another is “And How Does That Make You Feel?” which has a very unique format to it, the author shows dialogue from himself and his patient (fictionalized) and then shows how different thoughts come up in his head and what they have to say.
Aside from reading a ton of non-fiction, I have had some great opportunities come my way, I have been asked to speak to a medical school over Zoom later this year, and have also been approached to be on a TV panel about mental health. Perhaps the most amazing thing that has happened is that I have connected with an author who has written some incredible books about trauma and mental illness and there is a possibility she will help me get invited to a writer’s festival in Vancouver.
I don’t really want to talk about all of these things to brag. In truth, what I want to say about having so many wonderful things happen is that, 22 years ago I was living in a minuscule apartment that was cluttered and filthy, I was barely eating and was very mentally ill. I ended up having to be hospitalized and the next 6 months of treatment was literal hell for me. What I want to say here is that, given effort, hard work, a good treatment team, and people in your life who care for you and love you, there is a way out the other side for people with mental illnesses. Thank you for taking this journey with me.
Mental Health coping skills blog by leif gregersen 