Trying to break down the stigma around mental health – Inverness woman reveals her own experiences
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In the past six years, Elizabeth Marsden has experienced three manic episodes.
The first two resulted in her being hospitalised.
But thanks to the understanding and support of NHS staff, her family and neighbours, she was able to recover at her home in Inverness the third time it happened.
The 50-year-old has now spoken of her experiences in the hope it will help break down the stigma of mental imbalance, as she prefers to call it, and to thank her family, local community and NHS for a successful mental health intervention.
She also wants to deliver a message about the healing power of a friendly chat and human connections.
Mrs Marsden, who lives with her husband and two children, is a pupil support assistant.
Highly academic with 12 languages plus a degree in Arabic, she was diagnosed with bipolar mania although she does not agree with the diagnosis.
She feels people are often worried about mental imbalance.
"I am not embarrassed," she said. "I am very proud of the fact I have survived all these episodes of psychotic experiences."
Her first episode was in 2017 when she lived in London and had returned from a conference in Los Angeles with high levels of energy, a racing mind and was also suffering jet lag and sleep deprivation.
She ended up being taken by ambulance to her local A&E department.
"In my head, I was half in reality and half in my imagination," she recalled.
She was admitted to a high security psychiatric ward in Lambeth where she spent three nights.
"It is a scary experience being locked up," she said.
The second episode happened three years ago after the family had moved to Inverness.
She was admitted to New Craigs Hospital for three weeks and although she found it an ordeal, she said overall she had a good experience.
An ardent believer in the nature's healing powers, she found it hugely beneficial when she was eventually allowed to go for a walk.
The third episode happened late last summer.
"This time was different, as I have gained more knowledge and the NHS has listened really well to what I know helps me, and I was supported by my wonderful family and neighbours, so this time I was able to remain at home which was a win-win situation," she said.
She said when she recognised the symptoms of a manic episode after a week of very little sleep and with a racing mind, she saw her GP in Culloden.
"She listened to me very deeply which was incredibly healing and reassuring," she said.
"Although I found it very difficult to be in an indoor environment, with no plants or natural elements, she opened the window wide, which helped me.
"The healing benefits of plants is well documented, and surgeries and other healing spaces could do with more of them."
Paramedics who had been called out to her home by a concerned neighbour had listened and chatted to her and left her at home to recover and neighbours had also been helpful such as taking her to the supermarket.
Mrs Marsden said having such support close by helped her and also saved the NHS money, as she did not need to be hospitalised.
She also had a message for the NHS and those in a position to change things.
"The healing power of a friendly chat with a person with good eye contact and a calm, reassuring manner is vastly underestimated," she said.
"For successful mental health interventions, the healing power of connection, to ourselves, to families and friends, to our local community and also to nature needs to be incorporated.
"Frontline staff, like receptionists are incredibly important in helping reassure people who are in a vulnerable or nervous state on arrival in the GP surgery or hospital, and can affect the whole healing journey.
"Replacing them with screens to self-register, is a false economy."
She acknowledged her experiences with her psychiatrist was more challenging due to their differing opinions about medication but she felt over several meetings her viewpoint was heard.
She said a move towards more open, collaborative practices is taking place nationwide with a report due out in April, publishing the results of a trial of the ‘open dialogue’ system, which focuses on exploring the connection between the patient and those around them, rather than on medication.
"I have told many people about my experience, and virtually everyone I have spoken to has a family member or friend they know who has experienced poor mental health or mental imbalance at some point in their lives, if not themselves," she said.
Although her episodes are seen by the NHS as an illness, Mrs Marsden views them as an "experience", prompting many creative ideas and says there can be a spiritual to mental health which is not always recognised.
"All my episodes have been about finding ways to bring more connection into the world – one of my passions, and connected to my previous experience as an environmental campaigner in bringing about positive change," she said.
During her last episode, she left a pink bag with a message inside on the Prisoner’s Stone in Culloden Woods in the hope of connecting with people.
"I haven’t found who picked it up yet but am still looking!" she said.
