Month: June 2013

Some group members were struggling a bit today with various issues in their lives. It was sad to see people in these places but also encouraging to see after speaking to group members how they felt less alone and had gained more hope.

June (Action on Depression) was back after a few weeks to do the 5th part of the “Living Life To The Full Course.” everyone was very happy to see June again as she has made a big positive impact on the group. Today we looked at “breaking things down.” June talked us through the process of breaking down big issues/goals on our minds into small chunks, so as to make it easier to achieve them. If our thought process has always been “black and white”/”all or nothing” style thinking we are more likely to put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve these goals. This exercise showed us that by breaking things down we can take a lot of the pressure of us and see things more rationally, gradually putting the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle to reach the original aim.

In September the group will have its first anniversary! We used this “breaking things down into small pieces” method to look at how the group wanted to do to celebrate this great achievement, but also to further publicise the group and recognising the achievements of the first year. The tasks of preparing this was looked at and will be split between the group utilising everyone’s many talents!

Today was the biggest group we have ever had and shows that there is more awareness of the group now!

We received very good news today that we have managed to secure some funding from the Recovery Initiative Fund! It’s great to see all the hard work the group had put in to the application coming off. The group has so many good ideas on how to use this funding. The group felt the main aim of having it was to use it to help others. does. The group would like to develop new leaflets, posters.. to market the group more and to further raise awareness of the group. We would like to send out our leaflets further afield, not just GP’S surgeries, Community Centres etc… but look to send them to bars, police stations, schools and other places that are not commonly thought of a place to raise awareness. We would like to thank Lesley Galbraith and all the people at the Scottish Recovery Consortium for giving the group the opportunity to further develop the work it does.

People were giving very positive feedback today about what the group means for them and how although we look at painful issues during sessions there is a lot of fun in the group. Through our raising awareness of the group we would like to further explain what the group is all about and that it does not make you feel more depressed coming to a group like this (some people would have you belive this) but in fact makes you feel part of something and inspired.

We did an exercise where everyone one in the group had to write a positive word on a sheet of paper descibing each group member. Once this was all done the person would read out what people had written about them to the group. Group members were touched by people’s words about them but had some trouble believing them. The beauty of this exercise is that people can do what they want with the piece of paper, put it in their wallet/purse or on fridge for when they are not having a good day, they can look at the positive words people have used to describe them.

Next week we have June Dickson back doing the 5th part of the Living Life To The Full course (The group is really looking forward this!).

Today we had a good group where people were allowed to express how things were going for them. Even though people in the group are struggling with issues in their lives, people still manage to attend the group and not feel judged and fully supported by other group members. It is truly touching to see people leaving with more hope at the end of a group session.

The group filled out an application for funding. If we were succesful in receiving the funding we would like to use it to publicise the group more with new leaflets and stalls at events to talk about the group. One group member commentated on how she feels coming to the group gives her a bit of light/hope in a darkness that can affect us. We want to spread the good work the group does and offer it to others.

We thought it would be good to have a fun “guess who” style game where people were given names on a “post it” attached to their forehead where they could ask questions to find out who the celebrity was on their “post it” note and have others to ask questions for the person to guess what the celebrity name was on their head. Everyone had a big laugh doing this game and reinforced how important it is to have fun within the group!

Today we had another big group. Some group members have been struggling lately with situations in their life. Once again, it was great to see the power of the group support each other to see things in a more positive way and learning to be a bit kinder to ourselves. The common thing with a lot of people is that we tend to not see our own strengths and qualities, but can see them so easily in others. Doing the “thought record” sheets from last week’s group helped group members see things a bit more clearly.

Today we had a guest speaker who has been in Recovery. Listening to his story was very touching and inspiring in that with all he has been through he has managed to change his life around with keen interests in sport and studying fitness. Eating healthier and exercising can have great benefits to not only our Physical Health, but also our Mental Health.

We looked at how we could fill in a funding application form to raise awareness of the group.

A group member showed the rest of the group his own photography website and explained the stories behind the pictures . This was very interesting and thought-provoking as the photos were taken from all over the world.

At the end of another good group we watched our “inspirational videos” from our very own YouTube page!