BBC News – ‘Internet addiction’ linked to depression, says study

BBC News – ‘Internet addiction’ linked to depression, says study.

Being addicted to the internet has some link to depression, although what makes up a addiction problem with the internet is not clear. Also unclear is what leads to what, weather depression causes people to become addicted to the internet or the reverse.

The study has received mixed responses from experts in the field of mental health. Some are critical of the theory saying that the data collected was bias because the researchers used social networking websites to recruit the participants.

Thinking of this on a personal level it reminds me that my mum always suggests that I use the internet too much, she thinks I have a addiction problem with being online. I also have depression and whether the two are linked in my case I am  not sure so I am going to continue to ponder.

Enthusiastic city council issues ‘inclusive’ taxi driver license applications – in Braille | Mail Online

Enthusiastic city council issues ‘inclusive’ taxi driver license applications – in Braille | Mail Online.

I’m all for being accessible to people with print disabilities but this is just plain stupid!

Blind woman, 59, tackled intruder with garden fork before locking him in shed until police arrived | Mail Online

Blind woman, 59, tackled intruder with garden fork before locking him in shed until police arrived | Mail Online.

Don’t take on the blindies!

Marian Keyes: ‘I understand the pain of her depression’ – Telegraph

Marian Keyes: ‘I understand the pain of her depression’ – Telegraph.

A incredibly well written and accurate portrayal of what it can feel like to live with a depressive episode, well worth a read for anyone that says people with depression need to ‘cheer up’.

Bill Oddie has also recently hit the headlines for his own experince of depression most recently

 

The Daily Mail – Bill Oddie in psychiatric hospital battling another bout of depression

 

BBC News – GPs access to depression treatment ‘is too narrow’

BBC News – GPs access to depression treatment ‘is too narrow’.

This is not really a surprise or a shock to read in some areas there are 6 month waiting lists just for a 6 week course of counselling! As a result drugs such as anti-depressantws are often used to fill the stop gap in treatment, while a patient waits for some other form of therapy.

The iPod Touch Edition

Hello and may I start by saying I hope you had a fantastic festive season whatever it was you were celebrating.

I have had a most fantastic time myself, we had a somewhat unorthodox Christmas as we were unable to have a christmas tree in fear that our furry friends would simply destroy it. Still Christmas Day was a relaxed affair, presents followed by a beautiful walk around Stokes Bay beach for us all.

Boxing day I went to stay with my other half who surprised me with lots of VERY lovely presents.

The biggest surprise was the iPod Touch I am using to write this.

Those who know me well will know that I was going to buy myself one with my student loan eventually comes through. I have been going on about how much it would enhance my very existence for some time probably driving everyone totally bonkers.

When the iPod Touch with inbuilt text to speech and full screen magnification was launched it went straight on top of my ‘Thing;s I’m going to treat myself to when my loan comes through’ list.

My opinion of its Text-to-speech capabilities it’s utterly fantastic and completely revolutionary I would really recommend it to any blindie who wanted a new MP3 player or for that matter a new phone.

It’s just as good as I imagined and continues to astound me with its sheer greatness.

Not the worlds most objective review I know I will get back to you with a better one at some point.

I Need Some Help…

This is a little random but some of you will know that I am a bit into art. It’s a bit of a long and in places painful story but in the last few months I have really got my creative juices going again after a long time where they where absent.

So why do I need your help?

I need a name for the blog I am going to create to host my drawings.

I have no idea what to call it; I think influencing factors when choosing a name need to reflect who I am, my disability(s) but also be light-hearted.

So come on people let’s get going with some suggestions!

I’m Still Here

I have not quit blogging, died or had some terrible accident that has resulted in the lack of posting – I have just been very busy.

Mum and Tara

University is as hectic as ever, things still fail to run smoothly it seems like the rest of my formal education at university is going to be an uphill struggle against inaccessibility, primitive attitudes towards inclusion and a complete lack of organisation that runs through the place. In short its not going to well, is very stressful but also interesting/fun.

Whilst on the subject of education I did not escape the funding crisis of the student loans failings. Admittedly I applied late but I am still to reciee my student loan. There have been multiple phone calls to my LEA (Local Education Authority) and I am assured it will al be sorted within 6 weeks. Here’s hoping I get some money soon it has been a seriously living on the breadline.

A lot has happened since my last post here, my eye condtion has stableised which was a nice surpise, I never really know how long that will last but its  a bit of a relief.

I now confess to having a bit of a caffeine addiction. I have discovered the wonder that is an expresso and its good! I love a good coffee more than I ever have before. Redbull and other highly caffeinated drinks have got me through some seriously dull lectures and for this I am thankful.

My mum’s Guide Dog Ian has retired and she has trained with a new guide dog called Tara. So now as I am home for Christmas we are a 3 dog household which is a bit of a shock to the system for all of us dogs included.

I have a job! I work 10 hours a week from home or uni or wherever I am really. I am a community executive for a word of mouth project at uni. I recovered from the train journey to get to the training and the 5 days of basically being stuck at a service station in the middle on nowhere with internet at £5 an hour!

Mark and I

I am in love, for those of you that don’t stalk me on facebook I am now in a relationship with a fantastic guy from the Hampshire VI Cricket team called Mark. He also did the Guide Dogs sponsored event that I roped him into.

Writing of cricket I should also mention that I am now joint player welfare officer for Hampshire VICC. I am sharing the position at the moment because I have to do a few courses in child protection before I can officially take on  the role but it’s still great stuff.

This first term at uni I have also found faith in the man upstairs, I go to the christian Union at uni most weeks and also go to Life Church Southampton. The CU guys are a fantastic bunch and very kindly brought me a large print bible which means the world to me. We also went Ice skating together Just before christmas I can’ ice skate but went along anyway and it was a great evening dispite it being really cold!

Heres a few of us in Winchester, I’m not quite sure who took the photo, if I was I would attribute it but hey ho, it’s originally from facebook in the public doman so please don’t sue me people!

CU and Friends Iceskating 09

Train Travel floored

I write this sat in a hotel connected to a garage in the middle of nowhere the hotel has wifi but charges a whopping £5 for one hours access – which I refuse to pay.I am in the middle of nowhere a £8 taxi journey away from Didcot train station, I am here unpaid on a course for the job I am doing at university this year.

To get here I got a volunteer to drive me to Fareham station where I met a support worker and got on a train to Southampton from there we got on another train headed for Oxford, we had to get off at Reading station and change trains again to get to Didcot.

All was going well until we reached our second train, upon boarding it became apparent that the train was hideously in accessible. We asked where the wheelchair area was assuming there would be more space, on getting there we discovered that it was literally an empty space with a small table off to one side.

The train was rather busy and full of older people, who where insistent on sitting down first and finding there reserved sears.

This created a battle field incorporating train staff, my support worker, me Gus and a million grumpy old farts that where fully prepared to pushed there way forward not caring who they ran over with there suitcases or stepped on.

My support worker put her bag down on a chair closest to the wheelchair bay only to turn around and discover a woman had picked it  up and was about to move it somewhere else. There was carnage in the carriage, people and bags everywhere refusing to move to let other people past because there booked seat was that way and they wanted to sit in it now.

The train was delayed by 6 minutes whilst the gridlock continued with train staff and other passengers shouting at large amounts of old farts to move out of the way and let other people such as myself past.

Eventually after much shuffling and complete disregard to other people the large groups of old farts sat down.

Then I discovered that the wheelchair seat had no seats around it, basically there would be space for Gus but not for me. None of the seats around it had any room for Gus to lay under them so what was I supposed to do?

In the end I sat in the wheelchair space on the floor for over an hour and a half, I spent this time having poor Gus being stepped on even after I had warned people that he was there, I was also stepped on, people tried to block us both into the space with bags and even tried to wheel them on top of us.

I remain utterly disgusted by this, I was basically a piece of luggage, one particular old fart of a commuter stepped on Gus  after I had already warned her that he was there, I pointed this out to her and then she patted me on the head and apologised, I was fuming!

Then the guard came through the train and I asked him a question he turned around and answered talking to my support worker instead of to me, referring to me as she and stating that they have special assistance “for people like her”.

I snapped I told him to talk to me not about me I was on the verge of rude but I had had enough by that point.

I have never had a train journey that bad, I am honestly appalled by it I have heard horror stories from other disabled people that have had horrific train journeys, but I have always felt positive about travel by train and enjoyed it as a largely stress free experiences, but now the tables have turned, my journey was utterly horrific thanks to the train company for not training its staff as to how to talk to disabled people, not making there trains accessible and the other passengers being horrible old farts who only cared about themselves with no consideration for others – I hate people that are so selfish!