Skip to main content

R U OK? Day (My Snakes and Ladders Mind)

This year's R U OK? Day is more important than ever before. 

Mental health is something that should be talked about on a regular basis and with current statistics indicating that anxiety has increased up to 40 percent due to COVID-19. 

Having someone check in is a simple way for us all to help each other. 

On a personal note, I know that I have stopped a panic attack a day during the COVID-19 crisis thanks to the support of my family. 

It is time we get rid of the stigma attached to mental health. 

People don’t look at me funny when I take pain killers for my pain. So in my opinion the same curtesy should be extended to people seeking treatment for mental health conditions. 

This R U OK? Day take the time to ask just one person if they are okay because you never know if you might be the person who helps them climb out of their snakes and ladders mind. 



My Snakes and Ladders Mind


How fast my thoughts make my head run until I think my brain might start to unwind.

This is the beginning of my snakes and ladders mind. 

Life is more than a childish game when I am strong it is easier to fight off the feeling of being insane. 

Every time I roll the die I wonder if I’ll have the strength to give it a try. 


When things are going good it is easy to find the ladder

 Then I am bitten by the snake and the slide back down to where things don’t matter. 

Each day I picture myself climbing the ladder of success and hope I am not crippled or overly anxious

The never ending round of snakes and ladders continues until you win or the mind shatters. 


This game represents virtue and vice; our mental health should be fought for at any price. 

The serpent that is depression likes to find a home at the bottom of a bottle of alcohol 

So we can slide even deeper into anxiety's dark hole. 

Every time a friend asks 'are you okay?’ I know that this not a game I have to play and can temporarily hit rewind on my snakes and ladders mind. 


Chris van Ingen | 10 September 2020

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sexuality Through the Ages

 It is twenty years this year since I was first approached by the School of Occupational Therapy to speak on the topic of transition to adulthood, disability, and sexuality. Since that time I have expanded to deliver disability education across Australia and yet disability and sexuality is still the most common topic I get asked to speak on.  With this in mind I am going to shock you all by saying I wish I had never had to speak on the topic. Sexuality is such a fundamental part of life that from the teenage years till death it should be assumed that anyone engaged in helping a human being with the occupation of life should automatically include the topic of sexuality.  Society has conflicting views when it comes to talking about and expressing sexuality. Add the word disability into the mix and people tend to run away or shut their eyes.  I started my sexual life like all young people by going through puberty. In the mid-nineties the environmental factors and condit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lights! Camera! Rhyme Time!

Chris Van Ingen and William McInnes on set of Rhyme Time Photo credit: Charlie Kinross  For regular readers of this blog it is no secret that acting is my life, and my life is acting. I can now share with you a joyful experience I had shooting a film called Rhyme Time . Rhyme Time  is a thought provoking, sweet comedy about an old school librarian coming to terms with an ever changing modern world.  Throughout my career I have been lucky enough to be billed alongside great casts such as Rachel Griffiths, Claudia Karvan, and Matt Nable to name a few.  Rhyme Time continues my blessed luck working with Australian legends such as William McInnes from Blue Heelers , Sea Change , and NCIS Sydney fame. William is joined by Emily Havea best known for her work in Wentworth . The cast was rounded out by an amazing group of adorable and rambunctious children that completely stole the show and made the final act of the film one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. Lastly I ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Circle of Life or Circle of Tech

 I have written extensively about how assistive technology helps me be independent. In blog posts such as More Than a Test Drive and Tony Stark's House (an Assistive Technology Dream) . My disability has turned the circle of life into a circle of tech.  Every few years I have to go through the assistive technology merry go round because all of my equipment seems to break down at the same time.  I am in the process of applying for a new hoist and sling, shower commode chair, bed, front door opener, and new abductor cushion.  I also am aware in the not too distant future I will have to attempt to try and get a new wheelchair. Every time I have to apply for a new piece of equipment my therapists and I have to make the case as to why that particular piece of equipment is 'reasonable and necessary'.  The frustrating thing about this is, even though it might be clear that I need a piece of equipment, one or two words in the funding form can make a difference on wheth...
Post a Comment
Read more