Letter on the Galway Independent website re. the Seanad referendum.

Why not join in the discussion on the Galway Independent website re. the Seanad referendum: http://www.galwayindependent.com/20131009/opinion/why-i-changed-my-mind-on-the-seanad-S25684.html
Don't forget to check out www.thomastoddy.com and www.tommyroddy.com to see all my recently published letters :)

New page for published letters not in the area of mental health.

Most of the letters I write for the local/national papers are in the area of mental health but I do occasionally write other letters not related to mental health. I have set up a new page for these letters: http://www.tommyroddy.com

Response to article on depression in the Irish Times 27/08/13

The following article was printed in the Irish Times on 27/08/13: http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/heads-up-depression-has-opened-my-heart-and-given-me-courage-1.1506338

Here is my response:

78 Lower Salthill,

Galway,

27/08/13

Dear Editor,

Congratulations to Declan Breen Phoenix for being able to see the silver lining in his cloud; "Heads Up: Depression has opened my heart and given me courage," Irish Times 27/08/13.

Unfortunately there aren't many people who would say "I wouldn’t swap it for the world," as Declan says when talking about suffering from depression.

As a former sufferer of depression I have told people that I'd take cancer any day rather than go back to the dark suicidal place of severe depression which I lived with for a number of years before I got the correct psychotherapeutic help which the psychiatric services which I was dealing with at the time refused to give me,

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Roddy

Response to Minister Rabbitte calling people without TVs "cavemen"

I sent the following letter into the Irish Independent on 27/08/13 in response to the following article on their website: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/rabbitte-no-cavemen-in-the-country-who-dont-watch-television-29530504.html

78 Lower Salthill,

Galway,

27/08/13

Dear Editor,

Communications Minister calls people who do not watch television "cavemen" as reported in your article "Rabbitte: No “cavemen” in the country who don’t watch television." Irish Independent 27/08/13.

I know quite a few people who do not watch television and would be highly insulted by Mr. Rabbitte's description of them as "cavemen." These people have had a raw deal in life through adverse personal experiences and for reasons best known to themselves have no interest in anything television has to offer them. Such a comment from Mr. Rabbitte shows the closeted lifestyle he inhabits far removed from the daily lives of some of the poorest members of our society. I think an apology is in order,

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Roddy.

Letter to Galway Advertiser re. "New mental health model is the way forward says Labour TD"

The following letter wasn't published.
It was written in response to the following article in the Galway Advertiser published on 8/08/13: http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/62896/new-mental-health-model-is-the-way-forward-says-labour-td

78 Lower Salthill,

Galway,

13/08/13

Dear Editor,

Derek Nolan is to be praised for highlighting the area of mental health as reported in last week's Galway Advertiser, "New mental health model is the way forward says Labour TD."

As he states the area has "been stigmatised and neglected for years." He talks about the Vision for Change mental health model and it's emphasis on caring for people in the community as opposed to locking them away in institutions. This is to be welcomed but I would add a few words of caution about this model of care.

Simply moving people into the community while adhering to the traditional biomedical psychiatric model, i.e. a pill for every ill will not work in my opinion. Professor Ivor Browne in a recent interview in the Irish Times said, “The system is worse now: instead of being contained by walls, people are contained by drugs."

People need alternative therapies as opposed to drugs. The chemical imbalance theory on which psychiatry is based is a fallacy. This pays no attention whatsoever to any trauma a person may have experienced in their life and especially their childhood. In general the only help people are offered by the psychiatric profession is which colour pill to be on or more commonly what combination of pills to take. Furthermore to try and "help" people through psychotherapeutic methods such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy while neglecting their biographical history does not work either. To quote Prof. Browne again, this time from his paper "Psychological Trauma or Unexperienced Experience," he states "In persons who have a history of unresolved traumatic experience, it is not only useless but cruel to try and help them, through cognitive or behavioural methods, to change their attitudes and living patterns, when they are exploding with unresolved painful experience."

I know what I am talking about because when I was caught up in the psychiatric system over 20 years ago as an out patient, I was trapped inside the walls of my mind, walls that were more impenetrable than the Great Wall of China. It was only through the process of psychotherapy and dealing with my "Unexperienced Experience," through holotropic breathwork that I became the free and happy person that I am today,

Thomas Roddy

What will be your dying regrets

The above article was published on 6/08/13 in the Connacht Sentinel.
I wrote in the following letter which wasn't published.

78 Lower Salthill,

Galway,

12/08/13

Dear Editor,

I read with interest the article by Carmel Sheridan in last week's Sentinel: "What will be your dying regrets?" It reminded me of a Youtube video that was filmed in Galway two years ago: "50 people one question, Galway." In the short film people on the streets of Galway were asked what their biggest regret in life was. That video has clocked up over a million views. Consequently it can be seen that having regrets is something that resonates with people.

In Carmel Sheridan's article, she details "The top five regrets of the dying." Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who had worked in palliative care carried out interviews with dying people to research her topic. However what's really interesting is what people were saying to her in their final days.

It's difficult to negotiate the various paths in life without having regrets. We may regret not having asked that particular person we fancied out on a date many years ago, not having gone for the job promotion and so on. However according to her Top Five Regrets number one is "I regret that I wasn't brave enough to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."

It's amazing that is at number one. It started me thinking, how many of us in our daily lives are living lives in which we are not true to ourselves. Are we all so tied up in what people are thinking or expecting of us? Are we all living "false lives?" If we are then we really are not only doing a disservice to ourselves but to everyone else as well. No wonder we all live "false" lives if everyone else is doing the same. We do this to protect our vulnerabilities and not to get hurt. However the price we pay is too high in my opinion.

By being ourselves and exposing our vulnerabilities we show the beautiful person that is inside all of us. We also help others to do the same. Be the person that you are meant to be and the only person you can be. A simple request but a gift to everybody you will ever meet,

Thomas Roddy.

Letter to the Galway Advertiser on an article by Mary O Connor.

This letter was not published.
It was written in response to the following article: http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/62726/one-in-five-clients-of-new-counselling-service-seek-help-for-anxiety printed on 1/08/13
Here is my letter:

78 Lower Salthill,

Galway,

5/08/13

Dear Editor,

I'd like to make a few comments on Mary O'Connor's article in last week's Advertiser; "One in five clients of new counselling service seek help for anxiety." The article details the work of the Lets Get Talking Galway health care service which has recently opened in the city. Such a service is to be welcomed at any time but especially in these current times when people seeking help with mental health issues seem to be on the increase.

The language used in referring to people with mental health problems is very important. We all are familiar with such derogatory terms as "loony bin," "nuts," "bonkers." etc. However I question some of language as used in the article. To quote: "Meanwhile a “small” but “significant” number of people who contact the service have mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia or are bi polar."

There is a small but growing group of people both professionals and former users of psychiatric services who disagree with the labelling systems used by the psychiatric profession. Professor Ivor Browne, former chief psychiatrist of the Eastern Health Board, Professor Pat Bracken, Clinical Director of Mental Health Services in West Cork and Dr. Terry Lynch. G.P., psychotherapist and author. In fact Terry Lynch became so disillusioned in constantly prescribing medication for people with mental health difficulties that he abandoned his practice, trained as a psychotherapist and has written books in the area of mental health including "Beyond Prozac" and "Selfhood." Pat Braken in the recent Maudsley debate argues that a psychiatric diagnosis can disempower people rather than help them. Professor Ivor Browne also disagrees with labels also preferring to call people who seek his help “clients” as opposed to “patients.”

I do not know if the above words "disorder," "schizophrenia" and "bi polar" are Ms O'Connor's words or were used by someone connected with the centre but we need to be mindful of the language used in these matters. I myself am diagnosed as bipolar but I haven't set foot in a psychiatric hospital in over 20 years.

For a centre offering much needed counselling sessions to people, let's dispense with the labels and give people dignity in recognising their emotional distress rather than further stigmatizing them in saying they have "disorders,"

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Roddy