My New View on Mental Health

Hey guys, just thought I would take a bit of time out to talk about something that inspired me. A chance meeting on the train that has changed my view on mental health completely.

The other day I was on the train to university and the train was pretty full. So I found the nearest seat, at a table with a family of three.

I took out my shorthand notebook, plugged in my iPod and began working, whittling away the time until the train arrived at Queen Street.

It wasn't very long before I realised that the young girl (probably about 12/13) of the family was talking about me to her parents, asking what those squiggly symbols were.

I quickly realised that she obviously has some kind of mental illness, just by the way she was acting and speaking like a child of much younger than 12, more like 5 or 6.

So, being the confident journalist-to-be, I pulled out my headphones and started talking to her. I showed her how to write her name in shorthand, and she told me that she was going shopping with her mum and dad. What a pleasant girl she was, so friendly and bright, even though she was speaking in a childlike voice.

I soon began to realise that her illness was actually schizophrenia, due to her mood swings and the way she kept asking what my name was again and again.

Her parents seemed friendly and chatted away, all the while anxiously glancing at their daughter like she was about to explode, but all I could think was how easy it was to talk to her.

*I should point out at this stage that I do know her full name as she told me plenty times I just don't want to disclose it to the general public, as you can understand.

As I left the train, and said goodbye to the girl, it started to hit home who I was speaking to, and the seriousness of mental health.

Those parents are true heroes, it really does make you wonder what's wrong with this country, when football players are on X-hundred thousand pounds a week and families like the one I met are struggling to cope, perhaps because they do not get the help, or cannot afford it.

Closer to home, as I walked up Buchanan Street, I realised that I am the guy who calls the disabled retards and spastics, when really I'm the one who is retarded when it comes to knowledge about mental health.

I will always remember that girl that I met on the train, and I will try to live a better life because of her.

Cannot believe Scotrail actually did something useful for once!!

British Pride. Isn't it about time we found a sport that we can be proud of??

Ok, so in my last blog post I described how Scotland seemed to be ‘glorious failures’ in all sporting events. Heroic losers is how I would describe our bold little nation.

The way we get riled up watching a Scotland football match is rather epic, like the famous Braveheart speech. But it would still take more than “fireballs” and “lightning bolts” to put us into an international tournament.

So, still glorious failures. We are the Neville Longbottom of world sport. Huzzah.

But instead of wallowing in our own self pity, crying our eyes out while watching Andy Murray getting put through the tennis equivalent of a Nazi firing range against Rafael Nadal, why don’t we get up off our bottoms and find a sport that Scotland can be proud of.

Grand Prix. Nope, the last great driver we had could barely get his anvil of a chin into his crash helmet.

Cricket. Too civilized, and besides, we don’t have a strong Asian community to hold our country up. With the exception of the south side of Glasgow. No.

Equestrian. Pur-lease.

Cycling. Yeah righ- HANG ON!!

Cycling. Why didn’t we see it before?? Cycling is the answer to our sporting nightmares. Explained so in these three quick and obvious points.

1. We are good at it. Chris Hoy, Danny Macaskill, Danny Hart. All big cycling names who are at literally the top of the cycling world.

2. There are so many different disciplines that incorporate cycling. TheUCI, which is the governing body for all forms of cycling rules over the disciplines: Road, Track, Mountain Bike, Cyclo-cross, BMX, Trials, Indoor cycling and Para-cycling.

3. This is the most important thing: WE CAN GET INVOLVED IN IT!!

Little is it known but Scotland has some of the bike venues  in the world.

Fort William, the home of the UCI Downhill World Cup in the UK and considered the best mountain bike track in the world by professionals, is just an hour’s car journey from Glasgow.

In Glasgow, a brand new Velodrome is being built for the up and coming Commonwealth games, supposedly able to hold 9,000 spectators.

And it’s not vastly expensive to do it yourself. A regular mountain bike from Halfords will cost you anywhere between £200 and over £1000 depending on how keen you are to get involved.

Now, a grand doesn’t sound like back pocket cash but if you compare to the likes of golf, where a bag, clubs, shoes, trolley, clothes AND membership to the country club are pretty much standard it is relatively cheap. And you won’t have to wear those awful chequered sweater vests. Well, unless you want to.

So, it seems we have succeeded in finding a sport that we can all enjoy, young and old, and that we can take pride in being the best in the world at.