As you'll have seen from the previous post, I've more or less shut up shop here at Intermittently Rational. Fortunately (and completely unexpectedly), the mental health stuff isn't such a day to day problem for me anymore and as a result I have a significantly reduced urge to blog primarily about it - it no longer fits. However, I like having a blog, so I decided to set up a new one.
Now, more than a month later, I've finally actually done it! Not much there yet, but there will be . . .
If you've been reading Intermittently Rational and would like to see my new blog, send me an email and I'll send you the address. It would, of course, be simpler to just put a link in this post but I want to keep the two blogs separate and putting up a link to the new one would, well, link them.
Cheers!
19 November 2010
08 October 2010
Hello Out There
I've been done with my degree for a little more than a month now and while I have been reading everyone else's blogs, I haven't written anything myself. This is because I am planning to bring this blog to an end. I'm going to be cleaning it up over the next week or so and I plan to leave the blog itself up for now, anyway.
I started Intermittently Rational almost two years ago when I was trying to finish my undergraduate degree and I was still in the middle of making a recovery from a very bad episode of depression. I put the emphasis on my experiences as a student with mental disorder. Now, many months later on, I seem to have recovered from mental disorder and it doesn't seem like it's going to come back anytime soon. I haven't been cured, mind: I take my lamotrigine, I have bad days and mini-mood swings, I'm obsessively careful about keeping stress, late nights and alcohol to a reasonable minimum. It has, however, remained all sub-clinical and hasn't interfered with me doing what I want and living my life. I have a mental disorder but I'm not suffering from it anymore.
Because of this, I feel that what I have to offer on a blog doesn't fit into the nature of this blog anymore. I still have things to say about mental disorder that are - at least in my opinion - interesting and I'm pretty sure that I will occasionally add something on this blog in the future. I will not, however, be doing so regularly. I plan to start a new blog (I like having one) with my real name (!) and a broader emphasis over the next month and I plan to continue to use this google account to read and comment on the blogs I've been reading, so I'll still be reachable at this address.
Starting Intermittently Rational is one of the best decisions I've made. I cannot thank all of you who have read and commented over the years enough for all the support. It was a real and tangible help to me as I put my life back together (again). While I'll miss being here, I hope some of you will come follow my new blog (I'll send out an e-mail with the address once I have one) and whatever happens, I'll still be following.
I started Intermittently Rational almost two years ago when I was trying to finish my undergraduate degree and I was still in the middle of making a recovery from a very bad episode of depression. I put the emphasis on my experiences as a student with mental disorder. Now, many months later on, I seem to have recovered from mental disorder and it doesn't seem like it's going to come back anytime soon. I haven't been cured, mind: I take my lamotrigine, I have bad days and mini-mood swings, I'm obsessively careful about keeping stress, late nights and alcohol to a reasonable minimum. It has, however, remained all sub-clinical and hasn't interfered with me doing what I want and living my life. I have a mental disorder but I'm not suffering from it anymore.
Because of this, I feel that what I have to offer on a blog doesn't fit into the nature of this blog anymore. I still have things to say about mental disorder that are - at least in my opinion - interesting and I'm pretty sure that I will occasionally add something on this blog in the future. I will not, however, be doing so regularly. I plan to start a new blog (I like having one) with my real name (!) and a broader emphasis over the next month and I plan to continue to use this google account to read and comment on the blogs I've been reading, so I'll still be reachable at this address.
Starting Intermittently Rational is one of the best decisions I've made. I cannot thank all of you who have read and commented over the years enough for all the support. It was a real and tangible help to me as I put my life back together (again). While I'll miss being here, I hope some of you will come follow my new blog (I'll send out an e-mail with the address once I have one) and whatever happens, I'll still be following.
01 September 2010
Thank You!
I'm now a fully dissertated former grad student. While I'm really looking forward to sleeping for more than two hours at a time tonight, I'm really not happy that my year is over. If I thought I could actually get away with living in the common room in the philosophy building - as I not infrequently threaten to do - then I would. There are shower facilities and a kitchen in there, after all; I could make it work.
I'm really pleased with myself for getting my dissertation done and turned in. It was a fascinating project to work on and hopefully it turned out well. As I know I've said before, I was writing about mental health policy and legislation and I want to thank everyone who has ever commented on this blog and everyone who writes the blogs I read - I couldn't have done it without you. I've been keeping this blog for going on two years now and the ongoing conversation has been a great help not only in crafting my dissertation but also in deepening and elucidating my own personal understanding of what mental disorder is and who I am. Not the least important, I have enjoyed it!
I'm really pleased with myself for getting my dissertation done and turned in. It was a fascinating project to work on and hopefully it turned out well. As I know I've said before, I was writing about mental health policy and legislation and I want to thank everyone who has ever commented on this blog and everyone who writes the blogs I read - I couldn't have done it without you. I've been keeping this blog for going on two years now and the ongoing conversation has been a great help not only in crafting my dissertation but also in deepening and elucidating my own personal understanding of what mental disorder is and who I am. Not the least important, I have enjoyed it!
27 August 2010
The Bit I Forgot
I remembered what the third thing was! (please see previous post)
I heard of what seemed to me a rather good insomnia suggestion that I had never heard before. Happily, I'm not suffering much from that particular problem these days but I'm ever on the alert for new ways to deal with it when it does arise. True, the fact that I'm typing this at 12.22am might seem to belie this assertion but I'm staying up all night on purpose, which is dangerous, I know, but I haven't done it in an age and I don't want to stop working when I am so damn close to being done. The end is tantalisingly close and I really, really childishly want to be the next person to put 'dissertation finished' as a facebook status update. I know how silly that is. I'm also terrified that I won't finish in time - I've been having a horrible time trying to work for the past two weeks and I really want it to end. Tangential self-excusing over now.
The suggestion is this: if you cannot sleep and you know you're not going to sleep, try to spend some of your time meditating. The meditation is not meant to relax you so that you can then go to sleep but rather as an obviously inadequate sleep substitute that is clearly a hell of a lot better than pacing, poking around on the internets or watching television. That way, you can have some rest even if you can't have sleep.
Whilst it's not a viable option for all and any kind of sleepless night, it really appealed to me as a positive option. I like that it is something that is not intended to lead to sleep but rather to ameliorate sleeplessness. It's perfectly possible to follow all of the good, long term habits for sleep and still not be able to sleep: I'm pleased to now have sleep-loss amelioration suggestion.
I heard of what seemed to me a rather good insomnia suggestion that I had never heard before. Happily, I'm not suffering much from that particular problem these days but I'm ever on the alert for new ways to deal with it when it does arise. True, the fact that I'm typing this at 12.22am might seem to belie this assertion but I'm staying up all night on purpose, which is dangerous, I know, but I haven't done it in an age and I don't want to stop working when I am so damn close to being done. The end is tantalisingly close and I really, really childishly want to be the next person to put 'dissertation finished' as a facebook status update. I know how silly that is. I'm also terrified that I won't finish in time - I've been having a horrible time trying to work for the past two weeks and I really want it to end. Tangential self-excusing over now.
The suggestion is this: if you cannot sleep and you know you're not going to sleep, try to spend some of your time meditating. The meditation is not meant to relax you so that you can then go to sleep but rather as an obviously inadequate sleep substitute that is clearly a hell of a lot better than pacing, poking around on the internets or watching television. That way, you can have some rest even if you can't have sleep.
Whilst it's not a viable option for all and any kind of sleepless night, it really appealed to me as a positive option. I like that it is something that is not intended to lead to sleep but rather to ameliorate sleeplessness. It's perfectly possible to follow all of the good, long term habits for sleep and still not be able to sleep: I'm pleased to now have sleep-loss amelioration suggestion.
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