Around this time of year, readers of this blog may well be enjoying - or preparing to enjoy - a summer holiday. Whether it's a
modest 'staycation', a more exotic trip or just a few snatched moments relaxing
in the outdoors, it's good to make the most of - in the words of the old song -
"those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer."
For those working in mental health, summer brings, along with its
pleasures, its own particular challenges. For example, while most people's mood
is improved by more sunlight and milder weather, some mental health practitioners observe people
with bipolar disorder may be more prone to manic episodes in the summer. Could
this be a manifestation of what Shakespeare called 'midsummer madness' - a
temporary insanity attributed to the heat of the sun or the phases of the
midsummer moon? Those working with younger adults sometimes report an upsurge
in psychotic episodes which they relate to increased cannabis use as the music
festival season gets underway. And then, of course, there is the increased risk
of photo-sensitivity and dehydration which can have serious consequences for
service users taking psychotropic medication. There's a lot for practitioners to think about in these summer days, which could cause more haziness and
craziness and leave little time for laziness.
This time of year always reminds me of those long, childhood summer
holidays when my brother and I would while away time on the putting green.
Neither of us grew up to have the slightest interest in golf yet those games of
miniature golf kept us happy for hours. A variant of mini-golf was crazy
golf, which seemed to delight in causing the players to put or chip the
ball over, under or through various impossible obstacles. On a recent visit to
Keswick in the Lake District I was pleased to see they still had a crazy golf
course but surprised that the sign announced it as 'Obstacle Golf'. I imagined
the heated debate that might have taken place in the local council chambers:
"We can't call it crazy golf
anymore. That's insensitive to people with mental health issues."
"What about obstacle golf?
After all, that would more accurately describe the nature of the game without
using a term disparaging of psychological distress."
Perhaps renaming crazy golf as obstacle golf gets to an even
deeper truth. Part of mental wellbeing is the ability to maintain equanimity
whilst skilfully navigating life's obstacles. It is the obstacle course of life
that makes people ...crazy. So let's all try to approach the gradients, mazes
and tunnels ahead with calmness and good humour, to acknowledge their inherent
absurdity and, nevertheless, endeavour to play the game.
