Out of the Black & into the Blue

Janet Addis

The crazy thing is it started out like any other normal day. I got up, washed, dressed and had breakfast. I then went outside for a ciggie and psyched myself up for a day of hard work. Hang on; rewind this a little. I need to put this into some kind of context. I was on a week long course in a hotel in Fife, learning about recovery from mental health issues.

So there I was, learning about recovery and wondering if any of this applied to me. I always was a bit of a sceptical cynic. At the time I had suffered from depression and anxiety for many years and had compulsively pulled out my hair strand by strand since I was a teenager. As a result, my hair was very thin and you could see my scalp; not a pretty sight I can tell you! I also had scars on my arms from self harm. So there was I, sat in a room with about 25 other people, both professional and service users, wondering if my boss had really made the right choice in sending me. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciated the fact that she thought I would benefit from the course, it was just at that point I wasn't really sure if I was actually benefiting from it at all. ... (continues)