Update

Hi guys.


First of all please accept my apologies for not writing a blog for a very long time.


As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs that I want to keep you guys updated with the training I have been doing for the Paris Marathon I thought that I would now give you guys a bit of an update.


To be honest the training hasn't been going well. There have been times where in fact I have even been de-motivated and not want to train at all which has resulted me in not doing the correct amount of training that I want to do. As it stands so far I have only done a couple of sessions in the gym as well as 2 short distance runs and 1 long distance run..


On one of the short distance runs (approximately 3 miles) I remember how disappointed I was on that day that I felt like I really wanted to do more but my body just didn't want to do it and I couldn't force my body to do it neither. However on the opposite side I also saw a positive that I somehow got the energy to run even if it was a short distance as some days I just really didn't want to train.


However over the last couple of days I have felt a lot more positive and on Sunday I even did a run that was between 7 and 8 miles long. I did this in approximately 1 hour and 45 mins. It felt amazing and even though with that distance I was hoping for a better time, i'm just really glad the distance was covered and now I feel a lot more positive and have some self belief that I can push myself more and achieve my goal.


I am also currently looking at finding a personal trainer as well as a nutritionist who can set up a diet plan to help me eat a lot more healthily in preparation. I'm really looking forward to hopefully working with them both.


In terms of the sponsorship I am not doing too badly. I have currently raised £100 for the 3 charities. I aim to raise £500 for the 3 wonderful charities that I am supporting which are Lilly Uganda, Mind and St Catherines Hospice. If any of you wish to donate, please visit the following website link. Every donation is appreciated even if it is only a small amount. The website link is http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=lillyugandamindstcatherines


Thanks again guys for your support and I hope to keep you updated more in future.

Blimey another marathon

Hi guys. Hope you are all well and are enjoying the lovely bank holiday weekend.

At the moment I'm feeling very well. In the last couple of weeks my sister has got married and I have got a new job which I'm really excited about so I guess you can say things are on the up. I've also been enjoying going out with my friends and seeing them more since the start of the month.

As some of you may know in 2013 I decided to run the London Marathon for the wonderful charity Mind. It was honestly one of the best experiences of my life and looking back I now feel that it was once of my greatest ever achievements. I have now decided the time has come to run another marathon for Mind as well as 2 other wonderful charities called Lilly Uganda and St Catherine's Hospice.

Some of you may or may not be aware of the struggles and the difficulties that I have had with my own mental health and this was the reason why I decided to run for Mind and have been supporting their work ever since. I think it is vital that people get the right amount of support and treatment at such a difficult point in their lives.

I've also decided to run for Lilly Uganda who are an amazing charity who strive to improve the lives of underprivileged children in Uganda and assist with their education. Through the hard work of the charity they have set up a home for the children called Rafiki House and have been able to send 12 children to secondary school which is something that they may not have had the opportunity to do. They do however require the generous donations of members of the public to maintain the success of the project and I'm already enjoying working with them. For more information please click on the website link. http://www.lillyuganda.org

Lastly the third charity that I have decided to run for is St Catherine's hospice as this is an incredible place which offers comfort and support to those who are severely ill. I had first hand experience of witnessing the manner St Catherine's worked as this is the place where my grandma passed away and I can honestly say the care, comfort and support she recieved in her final days from the staff was very special and something me and my family are very grateful for. For more information about St Catherine's hospice please click here for a link to their website. http://www.stcatherines.co.uk

If anyone wishes to donate for the marathon please follow the link here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=lillyugandamindstcatherines

I also want to keep you updated on my training progress so will hopefully keep updating my blog.

Also feel free to follow me on Twitter to follow my progress @falidude.

Thanks guys.

Mental Health Voices

Hi again guys.

Can't quite believe I am writing my 2nd blog post in 2 days after not writing 1 for 2 years but I really wanted to write this post. Some of you maybe aware that I have been curating for a Twitter group which was set up a couple of months ago.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience of curating as it enabled me to host discussions about important mental health topics that people genuinely feel passionate about which made debates both informative and interesting. I really liked engaging with other people who I wouldn't have normally engaged with over Twitter. I noticed we all have different stories but one thing in common. We all want to help end the stigma regarding Mental Health and this group are great.

I also sent a few quotes from a book I have written by Katie Piper which has 365 affirmations of positive thinking. Wanted to do this because people with Mental Health illnesses can often have low self esteem and I wanted to show rather then being worthless they are worthwhile. Overall I enjoyed bing part of this project and hope to be so again in future!

If anyone wants to follow them they are @MH_Voices on Twitter!

Education on Mental Health

Hi guys. Been a long time since my last blog. I hope you are all well.

I've decided to write a blog that I know a lot of people feel very passionate about and that is the importance of Education of Mental Health issues.

When I went to school I did PSHE which mainly involved talking through the physical changes our bodies were going through but there was nothing regarding any form of Mental Health importance discussed. Looking back now I guess I feel this is something that should have been discussed as I think it would have given me a greater understanding of my own illness and how I can support myself and if any friends or family were going through the same how I could support them too.

Back then I guess I only knew about the aspects of physical health as my illness didn't start until I was 18 so I guess I was uneducated about what mental health really was. I feel passionately now that this should be discussed in schools as they affect people in daily lives and it could affect the lives of the people they are trying to educate in future. I also feel it would go a long way towards challenging and breaking down the negative stereotypes and stigmas around mental health because people would then be educated and they wouldn't judge people who do have a mental health issue. If people were educated stigma could reduce and help people gain more confidence in speaking to others about Mental Health as we all know how hard it can be.

However I don't just see it as a responsibility of the school. Parents can also sit down with their children and discuss and educate their children about the importance of health both physical and mental so the children themselves can gain an understanding of how at times life can be hard and challenging.

I believe education is key and paramount and I really hope Mental Health does get included in the PSHE syllabus.

My Mind Marathon

My Mind Marathon

Hello everyone and thank you for coming to visit my blog. As this is my first blog I think its best that I explain a little bit about myself.
My name is Faisal Ali and I am a 22 year old guy who lives in the North West. I work full time for the best mobile phone company in the world (Talkmobile) who do some amazing deals. Get onto them guys! I love sport and play snooker but I like to play football too. Just like to keep fit in general.

My life has been a little bit like a see saw fluctuating though happy times and sad times. The see saw keeps going from one side to the other but doesn’t seem to have a good balance in between which I guess is something that we all want and yearn for.

One of my saddest life events began 4 years ago at the tender age of 18. I had just finished college, just had my birthday in France with some amazing friends of mine and I was really looking forward to going to university. To others I looked happy and seemed happy. However deep down I knew I was suffering but I was really confused because I had never felt anything as painful as this before. I was struggling with intrusive thoughts about harming myself and harming others and I was really frightened and worried.
Taking the first step and admitting to yourself you have a problem is hard. Anyone who has had a mental health issue will be able to vouch for this. One things I did realise though was that in order to get better and possibly find a way past this was to take the first step and admit to myself I had a problem however hard it may be. I found it really difficult to accept this as many people with OCD (what I have) will tell you the nature of the thoughts against their personality and the person they truly are deep down.

I knew I had to make an appointment with my GP to try and find a breakthrough and to find a diagnosis. Plucking up the courage to do so can be very difficult due to the stigma that constantly seems to surround those who have any form of mental health issue. The stigma made me wary and I was aware that people can be very judgemental so for me sitting in the doctors preparing to talk about it for the first time made me feel very anxious, like I knew I didn’t want to be there but it was something that I had to do. Talking about it takes lots of courage and inner strength and that is something which I really felt I had.

The first time at the GPs I don’t really feel like I got the point across as clearly and effectively as I wanted to mainly due to anxiety and the naivety of an 18 year old boy. One of my life morals though is that if at first you don’t succeed, try again and keep trying. I went again and by this time the intrusive thoughts had been with me for about at least 3 weeks now and I still didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere or any closer to finding out why they were there. This time I really felt the doctor who I spoke to (different to previous one) really listened and I felt comforted by the fact she was trying her best to help me. OCD can make a person feel like they are in a constant bubble but they want that bubble to burst and be set free. By now this is how I was feeling. The doctor referred me to my local CMHT (Community Mental Health Team) so I could see for myself what services I could use once an official diagnosis was put in place. It was here that I was analysed by another doctor and
it was confirmed that I had OCD. Kind of felt a bit relieved to get a diagnosis as I felt relieved. First time since I started getting intrusive thoughts that I felt I wasn’t going insane.

It was at this point where I began to realise the seriousness of OCD and what it entails. Like most other people, I always thought OCD was something only associated with hand washing and germs. How wrong was I! The reality is that OCD just isn’t about germs or hand washing. There is so much more to it than that. There are many types of OCD including Pure O (Intrusive thoughts) Religious OCD, Hoarding and checking. The reality is that OCD is an anxiety disorder that can have an effect on a person’s daily life and make them think they are something they are not (own definition)

Once the diagnosis came through I was referred for CBT. I was told at first the waiting list for CBT was 2 years. A that point I felt like I could cry because it felt like I was going to have to go through this for 2 years without finding any source of comfort or a resolution. However the councillor I was seeing said she is going to see what she can do to get this done sooner. Suddenly I was filled with hope.

Instead of having to wait 2 years only 2 weeks later I was having my first CBT session. Other are not as fortunate to get seen so quickly and I know I was one of the lucky ones. I felt being seen to so quickly would help me in another step towards my recovery.

For those who have been through it before they know CBT can be one of the most emotionally draining processes that a person could ever wish to go through. I always see talking about your emotions as a good thing though because it shows a true representation of who the person really is and how they really feel.
The date of my first CBT session came and I was very apprehensive about what to say and what to do. I knew it was inevitable she was going to ask me about my thoughts and feelings but apart from that I didn’t really know what she was going to ask or what she was going to say or do. I had not even met her yet so I didn’t even know if I was going to like her as a therapist.

The therapist I saw was called Denise and from that first session she made me feel very comfortable. I felt like I could talk to her freely about the depressing, despairing and agonising thoughts that were engulfing my mind on a daily basis knowing she wouldn’t judge. From the first sessions I told her about my thoughts and the nature of them because I knew in order for myself to receive the best help and treatment I had to be honest about how I felt at the time.

In total I was allowed 18 sessions and I really felt these sessions taught me a lot in terms of how to control my OCD and let it have as little control over me as possible. CBT for me was about finding ways and methods of me controlling my OCD and not vice versa and to a certain extent I think I managed to achieve that. One of the most important techniques that Denise taught me was that I could lessen my anxiety whilst having a thought itself. I was told to trigger and intrusive thought I was worried an anxious about at the time and think about it full on for 2-3 mins. Those 2 -3 mins seemed like a lifetime and at first I wanted to break the cycle and not think about the thought. However the more I thought about the thoughts in those 2-3 mins the more I realised they were not actually happening and thoughts were all they were. I found this helped a lot in decreasing my anxiety and the control OCD had over me For anyone who has had OCD they will tell the 2 things OCD wants is anxiety and control.

My main aim in this blog is to show the realities of what having a mental illness can be like and to portray it in an honest, creative and thought provoking manner. I think I best stop here for now otherwise you will be reading my whole autobiography in one go. This is just part of my journey and I wish to share the rest of it with you guys soon.

In the meantime I am getting my trainers on and want to help make a positive difference to the lives of others who are suffering any kind of mental health issues by running the London Marathon on April 21st 2013 for the Mind charity. I really thing it’s important for people who do suffer with mental health issues get the services they need and require but also feel like they can have somewhere to go and someone to turn to and that I why I want to run for this incredible charity because I feel this is something they offer. I also hope to share my training and fundraising efforts with you guys. Please help me to help myself by sponsoring me on www.justgiving.com/Faisal-Ali5/Faisal-Ali5

If anyone wants to keep updated please also follow me on Twitter @falidude