{"product_id":"9781783822942","title":"Mental Survival","description":"Description\u003cp\u003eMental Survival is a collection of articles, personal experiences, poems and songs, mostly centred around the theme of mental health. The writer draws on a wealth of experience to focus on psychiatry and counselling, the side effect of drugs and ECT, stigma and abuse, shedding light on much that is wrong with attitudes and care for the increasing numbers of people suffering debilitating mental distress. He also shows that despite an often daily battle against suicidal thoughts and chronic mood swings, it is possible to have a rewarding life, with moments of caring companionship, mostly winning the struggle to maintain a positive attitude and self-respect.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOliver Swingler was born 10th March 1948, and is currently actively retired despite physical disability and being a mental health survivor for 55 years. His working career has included 37 f different jobs, from factory labourer to Customer Services Supervisor, Sales Manager to Hospital Porter, Shop Assistant to Volunteer Co-ordinator, barman to Adult Education Lecturer - and over the years he's done a variety of voluntary work, including VSO on island of St Helena, working with people recovering from head injuries, housing advisor with a Shelter Housing Aid Centre. Apart from 19 years semi-retreat from the world in the Emin esoteric cult, Oliver has been an active campaigner on a variety of issues, a student Socialist Society Chair, NUPE Shop Steward, Chair of Lifeboat mental health co-operative, and two Tenants' and Residents' Associations. As well as writing songs for a left\/green choir, he's most recently been active against fracking and global warming, as part of White Ribbon Campaign anti-violence against women, seeking justice for families of victims of the DWP, Atos, Maximus, Capita, and most recently re-joined the Labour Party after 50 years absence to support Jeremy Corbyn. A believer in social housing, Oliver has lived in a council flat in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for 26 years; he's divorced and has one son.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBook Extract\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eELECTRO-CONVULSIVE THERAPY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere it comes again pain, pain, pain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElephants don't arrange to have memories wiped out\u003cbr\u003eLarks don't sing tunes that awaken chronic doubt\u003cbr\u003eElectric eels don't give shocks to others of their kind\u003cbr\u003eCheetahs don't advise speedy cures that damage the mind\u003cbr\u003eTortoises don't punish those who are a bit slower\u003cbr\u003eReindeer don't stigmatise whatever they see as lower\u003cbr\u003eOwls don't manufacture darkness for hunting their prey\u003cbr\u003eCrocodiles don't submerge animals in terror for pay\u003cbr\u003eOysters don't clam up if treatment is put to the test\u003cbr\u003eNightingales don't wilfully disturb other creatures' rest\u003cbr\u003eVoles don't produce the dependence on hibernation\u003cbr\u003eUnicorns don't pretend what's real is an invention\u003cbr\u003eLocusts don't strip bare while announcing that it's healing\u003cbr\u003eSpiders don't weave to confuse other spiders' feeling\u003cbr\u003eIguana don't make ugly innocent hope and belief\u003cbr\u003eVultures don't pick at the bones of those suffering grief\u003cbr\u003eEarthworms don't aim to undermine the vulnerable naïve\u003cbr\u003eTigers don't lurk behind caring postures that deceive\u003cbr\u003eHornets don't sting to sell results in published research\u003cbr\u003eEagles don't use old, weak ones to establish their perch\u003cbr\u003eRattlesnakes don't have hidden agendas that cause fear\u003cbr\u003eAnts don't build nests that alienate every ant near\u003cbr\u003ePsychiatrists and their drugs often do - they've done it to me\u003cbr\u003eYours may be the next mind to be raped by ECT\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chipmunkapublishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47053097369840,"sku":"9781783822942","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781783822942_p0.jpg?v=1763725488","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781783822942","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}