Agoraphobia

If you have visited here before you may recall that I recently started an Open University course on mental health K272, Challenging ideas in mental health, and son 1 is struggling with his own major issues at the moment. So I have sat down eagerly for the last two nights to watch the Channel 4 documentary 'House of Agoraphobics' and found it fascinating. It was so reassuring to see that what my son is experiencing is 'normal' for the condition and that the intervention he is receiving is a wholly appropriate one, even though that doesn't make any of it any easier to deal with for him or us. Caring for someone with mental health problems is so hard, you seem to spend your life walking on eggshells.

Back to the dodgy 1970's videos on YouTube and keeping to the theme of the day, this song by Supertramp is written for someone with mental health problems and is the only one by that band that I still listen to. It is a song which for many years I have loved to play when I am feeling low (though I do prefer the recorded version to this live one) but it is only since I became more aware of the isolating impact of mental health problems in family members and friends that I have fully appreciated the meaning of the lyrics. I wish I could get son 1 to listen to it.