Matt Streuli: Kimmy Schmidt, No Bipolar Meds and the #UnfairWCA

A short sweet and simple blog post this week. LOL

My good friend Mr Lee Hall has a blog which normally follows the progress of writing and publishing his fantastic books. This week he has written a post on my subject of mental health and whether it is time for society to change.A really good read from an outside view. There is a brief mention too of our campaign to improve WCA towards the bottom of this email.

IHDC has been very busy recently with the passing of a former member and President; Mr Brin Rosser. Brin was a member from 1984 and was passionate about drama and the community as a whole. You can read more on the NEWS page of www.ihdc.co.uk plus see some archive photos and programmes which I slowly scanning in on the club’s Facebook page.

Finally I have run out of medication. YAY. I’m pretty bad at calling people. Perhaps it is an anxiety thing but I spend all day on the phone and I don’t want to be on the phone any more than I have to. I ended up faxing my GP today asking him to call me to arrange a repeat prescription. I feel my dose is right despite the bit of anxiety it has caused as mentioned in a previous post. I have been happy – almost hyper at times – and I am ok with that. At times it has felt like I have had a slightly short fuse where I say something which could upset people Vs staying quiet like I did before. I guess there will always be pros and cons.

I live in a fear that I might not get better. I worry that my bipolar or anxiety will get worse and then I will be judged by an Unfair WCA system which will force me back to work or not give me the medical support I need. The courts have ruled that the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is unfair, as it puts people with mental health problems, autism and learning disabilities at a “substantial disadvantage”. However, the court said it did not have enough information to compel the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to make a specific change to the WCA.
That’s why Rethink Mental Illness, the National Autistic Society and Mind are campaigning together to fight against the #unfairWCA. This is really important to me. We all understand that some people abuse the system – but that doesn’t mean everyone abuses the system and it is UNFAIR to make those genuine people suffer. I want to fight whilst I can.

Please do keep supporting my YouTube channel. My recent video for Falcon’s showreel and my music videos have been really well supported but please keep tweeting and Google+-ing it.

AND FINALLY, thank you to all my facebook and twitter friends who saw my new #take5 #timetotalk #timetochange T shirt (Thank you Time to Change!!) which sparked some really good honest conversations. You are all wonderful and we are unbreakable…

Which reminds me…. in the words of my new favourite TV show… Just take it 10 seconds at a time.

Much love! Matt xx