Author Archives: gulliverunravelled
Eyes Turned Skywards: When Hope Against Hope is Not Enough
‘For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.’ Leonardo Da Vinci Ever since I was a teenager, I have been … Continue reading
The Time Traveller’s Knife
I have a secret: I have a superpower. I can travel in time. I need no police box, no DeLorean. I slip backwards and forwards with ease. Now we are mid-January and the demarcation between this year and the last … Continue reading
Hidden Realities: The Consequentialist Problem of Mental Illness
This week I attended a referral appointment with a bipolar specialist, at the behest of my usual psychiatrist who had somewhat hit a brick wall in finding effective ways to treat my increasingly intense and unmanageable symptoms. I had already … Continue reading
[TW] Clock-watching: the countdown to the specialist
It seems that I’m a bit of an enigma to my current psychiatrist. I say current because his coming Monday I am seeing yet another doctor at the request of my current doctor. The pattern and intensity of my bipolar … Continue reading
[TW] Music and Lyrics: Soundtrack to my life
If it weren’t for my iPod I struggle to see how I would exist at all. My entire life, I have searched for the perfect playlist: the soundtrack to my life. I search constantly, ceaselessly excavating the bowels of iTunes … Continue reading
Layer Cake: Misery, Meditation and the Panic Monster
[TW: some content inappropriate for those in a precarious state] I am in a state: I am in sea of agitation and panic. It is easy to see, but impossible to tame. I can’t make decisions. I can’t speak fluently. … Continue reading
Russell Brand preaches revolution, but will disenfranchise the vulnerable.
Who will guarantee those with mental health conditions legitimate representation? A few months ago I posted a short piece discussing Russell Brand’s revolution narrative. I criticized him for essential duplicity: he calls for revolution, he calls for disengagement with the … Continue reading
Bipolar Wars: Failure to Compartmentalise
Recently I have had to confront the consequences of my ill health and begin to tackle a huge element of the sickness that falls upon me with ever-increasing frequency: my inability to compartmentalize the good from the bad. This is … Continue reading
The Art of Shame: ‘What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.’ (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Since writing my last blog post I have begun to think about the roots of shame; the cunning tendrils of guilt that invade the mind and poison the fabric of one’s being. At least that is how it has felt … Continue reading
Disparate Threads: ‘Arrange whatever pieces come your way.’ [1]
Originally posted on Gulliver Unravelled:
I aimed to write this post some months ago, after an experience in one of the more unlikely of places gave made something unexpectedly positive to hold on to. I believed this to be the…
Gulliver Unravelled 