Mental Health Awareness Week Post 5: Myself

This week is Mental Health Awareness week, with a theme of 'relationships'. I'm going to be publishing a blog post each day talking about different ways in which relationships with various people (or groups of people) impact on my mental health. I've struggled with depression for years now, and my journey has been shaped by relationships and interactions with others.

Today, I'll be writing about my relationship with myself, leading up to the lowest point in my depression.

 

I've tried to be accurate and descriptive, so don't read this if you think that might get to you.

Mental Health Awareness Week Day 4: Animals

This week is Mental Health Awareness week, with a theme of 'relationships'. I'm going to be publishing a blog post each day talking about different ways in which relationships with various people (or groups of people) impact on my mental health. I've struggled with depression for years now, and my journey has been shaped by relationships and interactions with others.

Today, I'll be writing about my relationships with animals.

Mental Health Awareness Week Day 3: Medical People

This week is Mental Health Awareness week, with a theme of 'relationships'. I'm going to be publishing a blog post each day talking about different ways in which relationships with various people (or groups of people) impact on my mental health. I've struggled with depression for years now, and my journey has been shaped by relationships and interactions with others.

Today, I'll be writing about my relationships with all the assorted doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health nurses I've had dealings with over the years.

Mental Health Awareness week Day 2: Family

This week is Mental Health Awareness week, with a theme of 'relationships'. I'm going to be publishing a blog post each day talking about different ways in which relationships with various people (or groups of people) impact on my mental health. I've struggled with depression for years now, and my journey has been shaped by relationships and interactions with others.

Today, I'll be writing about my relationships with my family.

Mental Health Awareness week Day 1: Friends

This week is Mental Health Awareness week, with a theme of 'relationships'. I'm going to be publishing a blog post each day talking about different ways in which relationships with various people (or groups of people) impact on my mental health. I've struggled with depression for years now, and my journey has been shaped by relationships and interactions with others.

Today, I'll be writing about my relationships with my friends.

What a time to be alive... and a Microbiologist

I am so excited to be a microbiologist; it is so fascinating, and there's so much to find out and so many new things to discover that I could spend my entire life in the lab and not take a chunk out of the unexplored world of bacteria.
I studied microbiology for four years at university, including a year in an industrial lab, and now I'm a fair way through the first year of my PhD, but my enthusiasm for the field is only getting stronger. The fantastic thing is, that enthusiasm is getting more and more prevalent in society.
From regular people hearing more about their gut microbiome, being aware of things to do to avoid food poisoning and knowing that there are some friendly bacteria out there, right the way up to the most powerful people in the world.

MHAW2016: Sharing my Experience

Next week is Mental Health Awareness Week. Mental health is something that affects a huge number of us, including myself; I suffer from anxiety and depression, and over the last few years have really struggled with it. Now that I'm beginning to recover, however, I'm keen to help others going through the same sort of thing.

Next week, to help raise awareness and understanding of mental health, I will be posting a blog post every day of the week. The theme is 'relationships', so I'll be looking at different types of relationships and how they all affected me throughout the worst patches of my illness.

Then, I'll share a bit more about my general experience with it all, and answer any questions people might have! 

If you have anything to ask send me a message here or on Twitter (@friendlybugblog)! I'll keep everyone anonymous so ask absolutely anything!

Dear Sir David

Today (May the 8th) is Sir David Attenborough's 90th birthday! I am a gigantic fan of his, growing up he was a tremendously big influence on my interest in nature and my love of animals, and the source of a lot of the random animal facts that are stored away in my head. I think it's fair to say that without a diet of documentaries by Sir David, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Other kids would be allowed to stay up late to watch the football, reality shows or movies, but I didn't want any of that. I begged and pleaded my parents to let me stay up to watch the latest documentary series. I'd have to get ready for bed, be in my pyjamas (teeth sparkling) and I'd be allowed to stay awake to watch it. I'd sit hugging my knees, right in front of the TV (which looking back was probably a big indicator that I was in desperate need of a trip to the opticians, but that's not the point) and just absorb every word, every animal behaviour, every jungle sound, and the beautiful sights and sounds that our planet has to offer. I fell in love with the natural world, and Sir David Attenborough was the matchmaker for that love.

As I got older, his work was still ever-present in my life. This time in school, if we'd been good or it was near the end of term, we could spend a class with Sir David on the screen rather than the teacher on the whiteboard. This turned the whole idea of the documentaries into more than just a fascinating show, it became the highlight of the school term, even the whole year. And still my mind filled with wonder at the brilliance of what Sir David was showing us all.

Even as I became an unruly eighteen year old, he was still a factor. I remember one night out up in Norwich, where after getting back from the pubs we put on Planet Earth and made up drinking rules for it. My brother, who I assume felt self-destructive, chose to drink every time Sir David said anything interesting...

Afterparties aside, I'm still a great lover of everything Sir David puts on TV. Walking with Dinosaurs being on Netflix sustained me during the final stages of my undergrad studies. And tonight, after posting this and eating dinner, we'll be marking Sir David's birthday in the most fitting way I can think of; I'll be sitting in my pyjamas, hugging my knees, marvelling at the wonders of the world.

Happy Birthday, Sir David. One day I hope to make a tenth of the impact you've made on the world. You're my hero, my idol, and my inspiration. You were my gateway drug into science, and rekindle my love of nature every time you open your mouth to speak. Thank you.

Word Vomit

I’ve been trying to think up a topic to write this blog post on all day (in breaks from working on some actual work) but I still haven’t thought of anything! It’s a little frustrating to be honest. So I’m just going to type whatever pops into my head in the next fifteen minutes while I drink my coffee, and that can be today’s blog post.

Part of the reason I can’t decide what to talk about is that there’s so much to talk about! Bacteria are so diverse and so widely used that it’s really hard to narrow things down and pick a tiny subset to talk about. Just this morning I’ve read about probiotics, antimicrobials, cheese and the human microbiome, not to mention the assorted endophyte papers I’ve been going over! This is one big reason why I’m doing this blog; not only are friendly bacteria everywhere, but science as a whole is everywhere too! You can look at literally anything and there’s science associated with it. Obviously I’m looking at a computer right now, there’s a lot of science there. But there’s science everywhere else too; my coffee is from selectively bred coffee plants, picked for their flavour and then propagated throughout the farms to bring a consistent product. There are genes involved in that process; how amazing is it that changes in the structure of a single molecule of DNA in a plant on the other side of the world can change the flavour in my mug here in Wales? This brings me back to another big reason why I can’t focus today; sleep. It’s been really hot here over the last few days, which really affects my sleeping. It’s weird that a few degrees in temperature can have me wandering round the house at five in the morning, and shuffling brainlessly like a zombie for the rest of the day. Caffeine to the rescue!

Smell is another cool thing to think about. I love the smell of my coffee! Anyone who reads spy/murder books (or watches TV shows I guess) will know that cyanide smells like bitter almonds. Yum! But the chemicals causing the smells are completely different in shape and composition; the olfactory receptors use quantum to detect smells, which is pretty awesome! I don’t know much about quantum biology (although I’ve got a book on it waiting in my to-read pile) so I won’t go into any more detail on that in case I make a fool of myself.

I live in fear of making a fool of myself; I find it really hard to talk about my project, especially to professional academics, because I’m super scared of saying the wrong thing and sounding like I don’t know what I’m talking about, in case they think I shouldn’t be doing a PhD and I somehow get found out and thrown out of here. This is a real thing called imposter syndrome, but knowing that doesn’t help solve the problem much. Speaking to people has always been really hard for me! That’s a big part of why I’m doing this blog, and the vlogs, and will be making little science videos too (hopefully will have one ready this week even!); I need to practice talking, even if it’s just to a camera, because if I don’t then this will hold me back for the rest of my life!

The fifteen-minute alarm’s gone so I’ll wrap up here. A bit of a jumbly word-vomit type post but I don’t mind that too much!