Category Archives: Creative

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Top 10 ways art inspires psychological healing and self expression

I love being creative and finding inventive ways of promoting the carer journey and mental wellbeing. One of the best ways of expression is the use of art. I am not a brilliant artist, and to be honest I am more of a poet. Still, art therapy has come a long way into helping others find ways to.

I often find poetry and developing visual art as a calming and relaxing hobby. So I decided to create a video post on 10 ways art inspires psychological healing and self expression. This video is called “10 ways art inspires psychological healing and self expression”.

For those grappling with trauma or stress, art provides a non-verbal outlet to externalize complex feelings that may be difficult to articulate. For instance, painting or drawing allows individuals to symbolically represent their inner world, creating a sense of control and mastery over overwhelming emotions. Additionally, the act of creating art can promote mindfulness, grounding the person in the present moment and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Top 20 artworks that focuses on mental illness

Welcome to another blog post by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie. This time I thought to do a short blog about something that often intrigues me.

How art can reflect mental health or mental illness. I have done a video of Top 20 artworks about mental illness.

If you want to check out the video, please check below.

The video provides information about the artwork and artist on how mental illness inspired the work.

Hope you enjoy.

Providing care & other short stories update for January

Welcome back to another blog post by former mental health carer matthew mckenzie. I am also an author, poet, carer activist and faciliator of carer groups. This blog is going to be a bit of an update on how my new audiobook development is getting along.

The audiobook is called “Providing care & other short stories”. This new audiobook is about the experience of care provided by families to someone suffering mental illness. The audiobook will be my first attempt at fiction, although to be fair I have done some fiction before mainly through blog posts.

The short story titles are as follows (titles subject to change)

  1. Providing Care
  2. Digging out of a hole
  3. A family Affair
  4. Never thought it would be me
  5. Angry
  6. Just when I needed you
  7. A story of Hope
  8. Discriminated
  9. View from the other side
  10. Communication
  11. Banding together
  12. Solitude
  13. Its my right
  14. Wellbeing
  15. Empowerment
  16. Former Carer
  17. Trying to make sense of it all
  18. Young carer
  19. If Only
  20. Until the end

Since the short stories are about providing unpaid care, expect some dark subject content in these stories. The stories might be fiction, but I did want to add some realism. Within each of the stories, there are challenging things that happen to the carers or I could say families and friends. These would be not knowning what to do when someone becomes unwell, encounters with professionals who are not carer aware, struggling with their own mental health and being neglected by health and social care.

It is unfortunate that although many carers do get some level of support, the are those out there going through the same challenges as the carers in my stories

The good news is out of 20 stories, I have finished 4 of the stories. I should pat myself on the back, because I started the project over christmas.

The first story is the main story about providing care, but seen through the carer’s eyes.

The second story is dark with some glimmers of hope when a person is trying to pick up the pieces, but not finding any answers. As the picture shows, there is a mistake as I labelled it

The third story as shown in the picture below shows how not all things are equal in caring

The fourth story regards experiences in the hospital

I am just about to start my fifth story, which is probably quite depressing, but it does open up the struggles of carers and misunderstandings concerning mental illness.

List of 100 books about mental illness

Open Old BookHello everyone welcome to another one of my new blog posts. As a reminder, this website is there to help raise mental health awareness and also raise awareness of those who care suffering mental ill-health. This time I have decided to do a blog about books delve into the subject of mental illness.

If you wish to see the video about a hundred books about mental illness then click on the video below.

There are many ways to entertain and educate those about mental health. As you may have already known I often make videos about mental illness or about mental health carers. Plus I also do podcasts which also helps raise awareness of carers, and lastly when I get the chance I tend to write a bit about mental health and what mental health carers go through. One day perhaps I would like to write a book about what I have gone through as a carer.

A very famous writer once told me that in order to write one must meet often, so it is a good idea to check and read up on books that help describe how mental ill-health affects people. They will probably come a time when I will look into books that help describe the world of a carer.

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To be honest I am not a heavy reader of books but when a book does interest me then I will skim through it, anyway for those who have watched the video feel free to track down one of the books and perhaps you could do a review of the book.

Belief for carers

Belief

I know its hard, so unexpected.
You struggle each day and your mind wanders
Where next? who to turn?
You have to believe you can cope

A carer’s journey is filled with doubt
You mind wanders and does not sit still
Sometimes you are alone
But belief can take you through

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Each day brings change so fast
Just as much as you can care
Life is tough, but you have to be there
Belief will give you the strength

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They need you, we need you
Be their strength and support
They may not show it
But you have to believe you can do it

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The clock ticks and you wonder
You wonder about mortality
You wonder about life
Time is all thats left
But with belief more will come each day.