Rambles and some casual pimping.

Hello all,

I hope everyone is well!

First off - I will be updating stuff soon! ( like Tiptoe... and Lord of the Rings) but Uni is a bitch and this year I actually have to do work...which sucks.

Also- chuck any decent stories my way ( Anything but band-fics would be awesome :D)

Now onto the rant about mental welfare - you may want to scroll past this bit if you dont fancy a long rant.

I've just finished reading, 'My Mad Fat Diary' (it's also a program on E4...I'm not sure as of yet if it's been broadcast anywhere but the UK) and it focuses quite a lot on mental illness, although the book itself is less explicit, it gives a very honest and blatant view of how a mental illness ( in this case OCD and extreme anxiety) can affect a persons life and confidence.

This got me thinking and I wanted some opinions if people care to share - How well do you think mental illnesses and disabilities are portrayed in the media?....

This is something that I've always been interested in and something I think I may bases my dissertation on next year ( the terrifying final year of my course!)

Personally I think in many ways it is rather negative, not just in how it is rarely look at... but when it is it itself is always negative and often a fault of the 'antagonist' of the piece. (this is more mental illness than disability) and I dislike how it seems to be an insult of kinds, and... I have done this before, a girl I didnt like who could switch from horrible to nice in one minute I used to refer to as Schizophrenic. - Simply because of ignorance but this hasnt happened for quite a few years.

I think it's because it's never explained, there is and probably will always be a stigma surrounding it and I don't think that's fair, my boyfriends dad is a paranoid schizophrenic, and he's rather open with his condition.
The voices he hears are never hurtful towards others, instead he says they taunt him, and in some ways it is similar to the OCD need of having to check everything multiple times. He has his medication that helps and that's it.

I also have a friend who previously spent time in a special home for anorexia. She will openly talk about her experiences and has even done a lot to raise awareness in our area by going on the radio and telling her story etc... But yet other people never want to talk about it.

But I think that only makes it more stigmatised, understandably if the person itself does not want to discuss it then yeah sure, leave it alone... but so many people seem willing but no-one wants to listen, its bred into you to be an uncomfortable subject, even though the percentage of people who will suffer from some kind of mental illness in their life is surprisingly high.

And the media just accentuates this, many seem to play on a mental illness as a negative trait, like anything with a person it does not define them unless they choose to let it too, it does not create a person but the minute you hear something like that it creates an atmosphere.

It just seems odd that in so open a culture it is still such a stigma, attached to so many negative thoughts.

Well, this is far longer than I expected, but I was just talking to my lovely room mate about it and thought I would reach out for any further opinions... although as the title suggests I have more rambled than put across a coherant argument.

And now to the pimping.
- I'm starting an Inception story which basically, you should read... cause I'll love you forever ( and comments - even if you think it's a pile of shit are really appreciated) -Reality is wrong

OH!

And I've also got a batman story in the works, ( and am now just coming to the realisation that Joseph Godron Levitt is the love interest in both - damn him for being so pretty) Phobia

Well, to anyone who's actually read this far- HELLO AGAIN and welcome to the madness that it is my mind :P

I hope you have a lovely day.