Well there is lots going on in my life at the moment and it is all really good stuff. Things in my new job here at Vinnies are going great. I really like it. My first big task has been to ring up all the volunteers and introduce myself and see how things are going between them and their friends. Most people have been great and have been very open in telling me their stories and sharing their struggles. Some of them I really don’t know how to respond to which makes me feel a little overwhelmed but I think they just like the opprtunity to talk. Some of the issues I can relate to. They are similiar issues that I have dealt with at Rough Edges. Namely feeling like I am not really doing anything and feeling like I will never understand people’s issues.

I have to run a peer support meeting soon and I think I will address the issue of understanding. I want to use a quote from a fantastic book that I just read called “the curious incident of the dog in the night time”. I think that is the name. Anyway I totally reccommend it to anyone it is so good. It is written through the eyes of a little boy with Aspergers Syndrome and it gives one more understanding of the illness than any text book could give. Most of it is specific to Aspergers but some of it can give you a small glimpse into the issues that many people with Mental Illness may have. I will write a section here that I may use which I just love.

“All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I am not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are. I’m meant to say that they have learning difficulties or they have special needs. But this is stupid beacuse everyone has learning difficulties beacuse learning to speak French or understading Relativity is difficult, and also everyone has special needs, like Father who has to carry a packet of artificial sweetening tablets around with him to put into his coffee to stop him getting fat, or Mrs Peters who wears a beige coloure hearing aid, or Siobhan who has glasses so thick that they give you headache if you borrow them, and noe of these people are Special Needs, even if they have special needs.

But Siobhan said we have ti use those words becuase people used to call children like the children at school spaz and crip and mong which are nasty words. But that is stupid too because sometimes the children from the school down the road see us in the street when we are getting off the bus and they shout, “Special Needs! Special Needs! Special Needs!” But I don’t take any notice of them because I don’t listen to what other people say and only sticks and stones can break my bones and I have a Swiis Army Knife if they hit me and if I kill them it will be self defence and I won’t go to prison”