Diabetic Drugs and Mental Health.

Diabetes is a very serious and complex illness. I got diabetes in 2006, at the age of 31, which young by any standard. I was on Olanzapine age 21 at the highest dose for several years, before getting fed up with sleeping for 16 -18 hours a day and pushing my doctor for a change. I reduced my dose over the course of a year or more, right down as low as I get it, then switched to a different drug, which caused seizures. I reluctantly went back on to Olanzapine, but decided to try and come off it. I had 5 or 6 attempts, the longest one being about 5 weeks. But it was no good. I couldn’t sleep without them and it left me with early symptoms of a relapse.

I struggle with food addiction. I am fairly certain that without Olanzapine and mental health problems I would be as big as I am. But I crave carbs as if I were a heroin addict, suffering severe withdrawal symptoms with them. I got my eating under control a couple of times, losing 33 pounds in weight and getting my blood sugar levels down to single figures. But I could not sustain this and now my doctors are adding more and more different drugs to get my sugar levels under control. I know that taking any amount of drugs and any sort of new and exotic drugs, isn’t going to make much difference. It is not medication that will solve the problem. It is bringing my eating under control that is the solution. Even if I was on ever diabetes drug going, if I am still eating the wrong food then it won’t deal with the problem at all and I will open myself up to severe side effects.

I got diabetes because of Olanzapine. I then take another drug to deal with that side effect, which then gives me a new illness and new set of drugs, the most likely being Pancreatitis. Perhaps the drugs that would be prescribed for Pancreatitis, will cause another illness and so on.

An episode of Dispatches on Channel 4 recently explained that GLP1 type drugs prescribed by my doctor for diabetes, causes cell growth in the Pancreas. This leads to enlargement, inflation and sometimes cancer. In a sample of deceased US diabetes sufferers, who took GLP1 drugs for diabetes, all of them had an enlarged Pancreas. There were only eight samples.

Needless to say I chucked out my Januvia drugs.

Vast and Gruesome Is Being Kickstarted!

The Vast and Gruesome Clutch of Our Law, is now being featured on kickstarter! Please come and support us and get this animated film done. I am offering the first stage in the production process - the making of a trailer to help us raise the funds needed for project completion.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/655904664/the-vast-and-gruesome-clutch-of-our-law

Vast and Gruesome.

Hi - Please check out my little film about my book:

Mental Health Human Rights Survey.

Hi - I have now published a survey which will form part of a research paper, looking at how patients feel about the law, and how they may feel in the future, should the law change.

The Uplift of Human Rights in Mental Health.

About the Research.

As part of a response to the UN Convention on the Rights for People with Disabilities (CRPD), which made it illegal for people to be detained and forcibly treated for having a mental illness, I am conducting some research into how patients might feel about having more rights and maybe the use of magistrates to help patients and their doctors make decisions about their care. Although the CRPD doesn’t prevent the state from detaining mentally unwell people and compelling them to take medication, this new international law, makes it harder for governments to continue the practice of detaining people and compelling them to take medication. The UK government for example, has not changed the law in the light of the changes to international laws. This research is being carried out to find out more about what patients think about such laws.

Who is Carrying Out This Research?

My name is Ben Bamber, and I am a patient who has been involved in helping the local Trust, as Chairman of the User Forum, in 2001-2003 and I work as a writer having been published in the psychiatric literature several times.

Why Am I Doing This Research?

Last year I decided, inspired by the changes to international laws, to look more closely at why patients are denied some of their basic rights and how patients might feel should they get the same or similar rights to people accused of a crime. This research will seek to establish patient’s views on increasing the rights for mentally unwell people.

Funding.

The research is being funded by Ben Bamber.

Who Has Approved this Research?

This research has been produced with the assistance of 2gether NHS Foundation Trust R&D Department.

What Will Happen to the Information Collected by the Project?

The information will be collated and will form part of a report, supporting or otherwise the introduction of more and better rights for mentally unwell people. The report will be made available to patients, carers, professionals and MP’s, plus the news media in the form of a press release. No personal data will be included in the report. All data relating to your identity will be destroyed.

Also an article will be written and submitted to a psychiatric journal, which has not yet been chosen, for publication and to be made available to clinical staff. This will help professionals understand what it is like to have your rights restricted when detained in hospital.

Other Information.

You are not in any way obliged to take part. If you do not wish to participate then that’s okay. None of your personal details be recorded as all questionnaires will be completely anonymous.

Go to survey...

Nicola Edgington.

This case is horrific in the extreme. Nicola Edgington who killed her mother, got released after a few years and then attempted to kill someone, then after making several calls to the Police to warn them that she was going to kill someone, murdered a stranger, almost decapitating her. She got 37 years in jail, but as the judge signed off on her sentence, he effectively blamed her and told her that she must take responsibility for her actions. The laws are there to bring dangerous people like her into hospital, and the law is there to ensure that people with a diminished capacity to prevent themselves doing terrible things, should not then be blamed when things go wrong. While a sane Edgington could feel regret, remorse and see her actions as we see them, she clearly could not.

If the law was adequate in this case, if mentally unwell people were given a habeas corpus protection, then this woman would have been arrested for threats to kill, (even though her threats were non-specific), she would have been arraigned, her case would have been argued and examined in court and she would have come into custody for further treatment. But because the law is vague and depends largely on doctors to make assessments, whilst knowing there are pressures on beds and resources, the automatic system that would have kicked in at the point at which she was seen by Police, she was left to kill and maim people instead.

Also, the Police did not take her seriously. They had her in their care and for some reason did not listen to her claim that she felt that she wanted to kill someone. This is just a mystery to me.

Lastly, this is the second case in recent months where the media have been allowed to openly discuss decapitation of victims of mentally unwell people. If one mentally ill person, decapitates someone - a stranger, and that story is openly discussed in the national media, it is the equivalent of a hundred killings by mad people, in terms of the impact on the lives of mentally unwell people who would never kill anyone, no matter how ill they are. Now there have been two horrific murders, the media have reinforced very powerful stereotypes and has made life even harder for mentally ill people, trying desperately to reintegrate into the community. Shame on the government for allowing these details into the media and shame on the media for repeating them.

Kalkion Publishes Short

Kalkion the online short story publisher has just published my story The Rioters Candle. Please go read it...It follows a young man arrested during the Arab Spring uprising. He is put into jail beneath the Presiential Palace, where he is visited by a mysterious stranger.

Vagabond Unlimited Relaunches

I have just launches a new version of http://www.vagabond-unlimited.co.uk, which uses HTML5 instead of flash to keep up with changing web use on phones and tablets. Flash has for a long time been unavailable for use on many hand held devices. I've added some new content including some new Ted on Street cards and some articles, including one on post apocalyptic literature. Please check it out before you go.