Trying not to think about death

Content warning: death, suicidal ideation ‘I’m worried you’re planning your own death’ my care coordinator says, looking up from the piece of paper she has balanced on her knees. She’s been scribbling on it for the last half an hour, stopping occasionally to ask me questions. We’re sat in a strange half-finished room in the

She’s bonkers, she is…

She’s bonkers, she is…

By @lifeinunreality

PIP is described by the government as ‘extra money to help you with everyday life if you have an illness, disability or mental health condition’. For disabled people, that now means ‘PIP can help you with the extortionate costs of having a shower’

PIP is described by the government as ‘extra money to help you with everyday life if you have an illness, disability or mental health condition’. For disabled people, that now means ‘PIP can help you with the extortionate costs of having a shower’

EMDR and Xena, Warrior Princess.

Heather’s #MadCovidDiaries 25.04.2021, CW: trauma, suicidal & self harm thoughts. I haven’t written a Madcovid diary for a little while now because I have been focusing on my weekly EMDR therapy sessions. I suppose I felt as though writing about therapy might jinx my chances of it working out. I’ve also been conscious that many

Putting my needs first has been something that I constantly have to consider…

Sunitha‘s #MadCovidDiaries 25.04.2021 TW: Suicide, death, bereavement. I’m feeling really anxious again, not sure why but I feel like I have so much on my mind and so much that I need to do. All I feel like I do at the moment is focus on getting through the day but it feels like there’s

My word against theirs

As psychiatric patients, we are so often disbelieved or not listened to in the first place. Our accounts of poor treatment and trauma are dismissed as an overreaction; we reach out for help only to be deemed attention seeking; even our interpretation of the world is pathologised and declared as symptomatic of our madness.

‘We don’t fuck about, do we?’: MadCovid, 1 year on

On this day last year – 17 March 2020 – the Hardship Solidarity Fund GoFundMe page was set up for donations after Bethan and Jo had been in conversation about it since early March. Around the same time, Bethan set up the MadCovid WordPress site to publish Mad people’s diaries, with the aim of documenting

Mad Makers : Episode 4, with @stitching_4_change

Cross-stitching! This month’s episode saw us creating our first ever Mad Makers packs and posting them off to crafty folk across the UK – and we were pleasantly surprised how quickly they were snapped up! It was also the first time that someone approached us about recording an episode. @stitching_4_change first encountered Mad Covid at

Mad Makers : Episode 3

Mail Art! Welcome back makers! This month we’re creating some mad mail art. It’s a bit of a change from the previous episodes because mail art can be interpreted in so many different ways – but that’s sort of why we think it suits Mad Makers! You can use almost anything you have around you,

Mad Makers : Episode 2

Flower pressing & making cards Welcome back, makers! This is month we’re breaking things up into an easy-going 2 parter. Flower pressing, which takes 5-10 minutes (and about 2 weeks left alone to press), and making cards, which take about 5 minutes each. Thank you so much to everyone who engaged with our last episode,

My motivation for volunteering during lockdown was almost completely selfish. That’s fine.

This blog is a reblog from Jo‘s personal blog! I am intensely interested in other people. This was even the case when I was sectioned on back in early 2017. Why were the other people on the ward there? What diagnoses did they have? What was their home situation? Did they get visitors? Who were

Mad Covid’s Alternative Christmas Gift List: Supporting MadArts and Crafters

By Robyn Timoclea Let’s face it, 2020 hasn’t been kind to any of us. There’s been a lot of talk about the impact on the nation’s mental health but those of us who have been mad for a long time will know that talk doesn’t mean anything. With another impending recession and increasing unemployment on

I only now realise that my whole life has been this internal struggle between the person that society wants me to be and the person that I am.

Sunitha‘s #MadCovidDiaries 28.9.2020 On the way to work today, I had some idea about what I wanted to write about but right now, sitting here in the semi dark, I am struggling to recall or function when all I am able to think about is how much I want to sleep. Last week was really

As a daughter of parents’ who have themselves inherited so much trauma from their parents, was I always going to be this way? All I do know is the concept of who I am is constantly moving and adapting.

As a daughter of parents’ who have themselves inherited so much trauma from their parents, was I always going to be this way? All I do know is the concept of who I am is constantly moving and adapting.

Sunitha’s #MadCovidDiaries

Mad Makers: Episode 1

Matchbox Shrines! Welcome to our first episode of Mad Makers! This tutorial is for making matchbox shrines. It takes roughly 20-30 minutes, although you can make it at whatever pace you’re comfortable with. Below is a kit list, a link to the video tutorial, and finally a few pictures for reference. We hope you enjoy

PIP in a pandemic

I’d never heard of PIP before I realised I was eligible – at least 3 years, I might add, after I should have made a claim. Only after I’d begun the application process did I begin to tune into the conversations about unfair and discriminatory assessments. Suddenly it was all I was hearing or talking

Mad Makers – coming this Monday!

Mad Makers, a new project from Mad Covid will be launching this Monday 27th September! The last Monday of each month, the mad makers will bring you an arts-and-crafts video via our Mad Covid youtube channel and Instagram. They’re small projects which we hope will be financially accessible (if not free) and actually fun! We’ll

I embrace the fact that I am having a terrible week but that all I can do is survive. Survive to maybe have the possibility of living again.

Sunitha’s #MadCovidDiaries – 8 September 2020
I embrace the fact that I am having a terrible week but that all I can do is survive. Survive to maybe have the possibility of living again.

I felt a pang of sadness waving my daughter off and a flood of worry for the world she’s growing up in. Will it harm them more or less, the fact that our “new normal” will simply be their “normal”? It’s all they’ll have ever known.

I felt a pang of sadness waving my daughter off and a flood of worry for the world she’s growing up in. Will it harm them more or less, the fact that our “new normal” will simply be their “normal”? It’s all they’ll have ever known.

Human Bean’s #MadCovidDiaries, Week 24: August 31st to September 6th 2020

My daughter is really excited about school and I know being with her friends again will be good, even while I am angry that it is mandatory to send them back. I question the morality of trying to get us all “back to normal” with the virus still raging through the population.

My daughter is really excited about school and I know being with her friends again will be good, even while I am angry that it is mandatory to send them back. I question the morality of trying to get us all “back to normal” with the virus still raging through the population.

Human Bean’s #MadCovidDiaries, Week 23: August 24th to August 30th 2020