Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Professional
  • Past posts
  • Poems of a patient psychiatrist
  • Poems
  • Publications
  • External links
  • Contact
  • Dr Rebecca Lawrence Tipper’s Twitter

Doctor & Patient

Mental health from both sides

Lucy

23rd October 202123rd October 20212 Comments on Lucy

Soundless you ceased to be, Oh my daughter. Unliving A shell of a life A sigh with no start. Is it better To live, twenty years and more, To long and yearn, To lose the distance That never comes? Or does the pulling darkness, The lack of time, Beguile you more? I never saw your…

Continue reading ➞ Lucy

Being good and staying alive

16th October 202116th October 20211 Comment on Being good and staying alive

When I was young and hopeful and sixteen, striving for dreams and ideas, I learnt German at school. I must have learnt quite a lot, because I read Bertolt Brecht and listened to Lieder, and was probably quite a pain in the arse. I’ve forgotten most of it since, but there is a phrase that…

Continue reading ➞ Being good and staying alive

Risk and fear

18th September 202118th September 20211 Comment on Risk and fear

I sometimes wonder why we talk differently about risk in psychiatry than we do in other medical specialties. The risk of harm or death is high in many illnesses, yet in psychiatry we manage risk in a way that seems much more personally attributable. There are balances of risk in diagnosing and managing heart disease,…

Continue reading ➞ Risk and fear

Depression – a lack of energy

10th August 202110th August 20213 Comments on Depression – a lack of energy

What is energy, as we experience it? It is a word with a positive force behind it, that glows and lives, and is the opposite of all that one usually experiences when depressed. Personally I find it quite difficult to recognise the feeling of low mood when I’m depressed, but reduced energy is actually more…

Continue reading ➞ Depression – a lack of energy

Wellbeing

29th May 202129th May 2021Leave a Comment on Wellbeing

I’ve really been doing pretty well over lockdown, at least I thought I was. I’m not so sure now, and I’m finding myself wondering what I mean by ‘doing well’. It is with some dismay that I realise that for me this means not relapsing into severe depression, or requiring even more noxious psychotropic drugs,…

Continue reading ➞ Wellbeing

Alcohol – pleasure or poison

8th May 20218th May 20212 Comments on Alcohol – pleasure or poison

I think a lot about alcohol. This is inevitable, given that I work on an in-patient unit in a psychiatric hospital, treating people who have become alcohol dependent, but my views are less clear than you might think. When I talk about mental illness, I do so from the perspective of both psychiatrist and patient,…

Continue reading ➞ Alcohol – pleasure or poison

The effects of ECT

26th April 202126th April 20212 Comments on The effects of ECT

I have always written fairly confidently that ECT has not caused me any brain damage. I have had around 70 treatments in total, over nearly 30 years, and during that time I have – mostly – lived a full life, sitting professional exams and postgraduate degrees, and working as a psychiatrist. I have nothing to…

Continue reading ➞ The effects of ECT

Is mental illness the same as physical illness?

12th April 202112th April 20211 Comment on Is mental illness the same as physical illness?

Lots of people ask this question, or variants on it. Perhaps not that it’s real, but is it what it says it is? There are many possible answers, and these may depend on what is meant by mental illness; but, to my mind, if something has gone wrong with your brain, then you are probably…

Continue reading ➞ Is mental illness the same as physical illness?

Thoughts about confidentiality

22nd March 202122nd March 20211 Comment on Thoughts about confidentiality

When I looked up the meaning of the word confidential just now, it stated that it was information that was intended to be kept secret. Intimate, personal, privileged – these were the kind of words I found. To me that implies something you would keep to yourself and about your person, sharing it only if…

Continue reading ➞ Thoughts about confidentiality

Remission or recovery

16th March 202116th March 20214 Comments on Remission or recovery

As a psychiatric patient you don’t always hope for a cure. The best you can expect is to go into remission from your illness, perhaps with medication, perhaps with psychological help, or even just with the passage of time. Illness is more often controlled than vanquished, lurking in the wings, ready to return when you…

Continue reading ➞ Remission or recovery

Stories of illness

1st February 20211st February 20211 Comment on Stories of illness

I’ve wondered recently why we, as doctors and other health professionals, choose to tell our own stories of illness. You would think that we would want to swerve away from all such things, faced as we are with illness and suffering, often on a daily basis. But not only do these stories continue to be…

Continue reading ➞ Stories of illness

Can a psychiatrist be a real doctor?

19th January 202119th January 20211 Comment on Can a psychiatrist be a real doctor?

This is a question that is asked seriously by some, and tongue in cheek by others (usually other doctors). Yet we too go through the slog of medical school, followed by two years as foundation doctors in a variety of specialties, including those in acute hospital settings. At this point, some embark on the long…

Continue reading ➞ Can a psychiatrist be a real doctor?

Merry Christmas!

20th December 202020th December 2020Leave a Comment on Merry Christmas!

2020 hasn’t been the best of years. Think where you were this time last year, and what you expected from this one – I doubt that it was learning to share your screen on zoom. I can’t think of any other skills I’ve attained, and I’m not even very good at that. Break-out rooms sound…

Continue reading ➞ Merry Christmas!

Lockdown Toxicity

10th December 202010th December 2020Leave a Comment on Lockdown Toxicity

This year has been one of lockdown and restrictions, that have been grim for many. All the normal human things we do, like touch each other, smile and gather in groups, have been snatched away or rationed in a way that we could never have imagined. There is growing concern about the effect on people’s…

Continue reading ➞ Lockdown Toxicity

Changing minds

21st November 202021st November 20201 Comment on Changing minds

Why do we change our minds, and what does this actually mean? Every day we do things, and then decide not to – ‘I’ve changed my mind, I’m not going to come with you to the shops.’ It implies free will as well as a mind to change, neither of which are concepts that are…

Continue reading ➞ Changing minds

Posts navigation

← Previous 1 2 3 … 5 Next →

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Subscribe to Doctor & Patient via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this website and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 8,957 other subscribers.

  • Dr Rebecca Lawrence Tipper’s Twitter
  • Home
  • About
  • Professional
  • Past posts
  • Poems of a patient psychiatrist
  • Poems
  • Publications
  • External links
  • Contact
 

Loading Comments...