I had a very interesting conversation with a lady in a Coffee Shop the other afternoon, over the meaning of "Normal".

What is normal?

Oxford English Dictionary: • adjective 1 conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

Does that help?

I have always been told l'm different, not normal, quirky and way out! All because l am artistic or because l didn't and don't follow fashion etc....! I was once told l didn't fit into any of the expected Boxes!!! What boxes l wanted to ask, l was about 8 at the time. The best piece of advice l was ever given concerning boxes was from an Art Tutor at college. She told me that as long as l thought out of the box l'd be o.k but if l started to conform and tried to fit inside this "box"...l'd fail. GOOD ADVICE. If you are a star shape or oblong... how can you fit in a square box? So l suppose l don't fit the norm expected of "A Therapist"... but that's o.k because what does a therapist look like? how do they talk etc. I wear 2 different earings, my hair is longer on one side than the other...need l go on ?.......Still no wiser to what "Normal" really means!

Did you know that 1 in 4 of us will have some sort of mental illness in our life time? I feel that we are all individuals, so how can a person with mental heath problems be treated the same as the next mentally ill person? o.k. you can have the same label but act differently. That is why l think each person should be able to have a therapist that suits them. Unfortunately in the NHS that isn't so easy. There are not enough Therapists to go round and not enough money to help either.
We are a Mulit Cultural society and l think that must cause problems too. From my own life experiences l know how different people are from region to region let alone country to country. So finding a Therapist that understands your rituals, language etc is often difficult. As a person who say ...has anxiety problems..seeing a Therapiste who doesn't understand your culture or language puts even more pressure on the poor patient. I don't speak other languages ...but...hand jestures and using Art often gets over the language barrier. I lived and worked all over the world and been lucky enough to be able to study many cultures. I also know how difficult it is to be ill in a strange country and not to be able to explain how you feel because you don't have the words. Any form of Mental Health problems is distressing, add language and cultural differences on top and life gets very difficult indeed.