Ode to my Cerebral Cortex

And the rest of it.

As my psychology lecturer said, it's usefully for a lot more than its nutritional value (echoes of Hannibal for those of you not in the know) and the complexity of it is pretty amazing.

Not that I didn't know this already but finding out the tiny little details of the brain and how it all works kind of makes me in awe of this wrinkly bottled looks thing that exists inside my skull.

I'm loving neurology. Well I have finished it now but am looking forward to getting into it again. It just amazes me that we have this complex little thing that controls everything we do. It also amazes me that we can cut out large parts of it or separate both lobes and still be able do certain things, albeit perhaps a little disjointedly.

My brain hasn't been totally up to scratch over the years. Obviously certain neurotransmitters don't do what they are supposed to be doing and also I get migraines. But for the main part it's doing a pretty good job. I can walk, I can talk, and I can get pretty good grades at varsity!

So I'd like to say, good on ya brain, keep up the good work...

Maiden Voyage

One way to to exercise your fingers is to wiggle them aimlessly at a keyboard whilst wondering what you can possibly write that would be interesting to someone else, someone who doesn't even know you no less.

This is the first time I've written a blog. It's got no theme or reason behind it. All it is, as the title states, is a mental vomit so to speak, a way of mentally regurgitating the thoughts and feelings in my mind and changing them from a complete shambles to something mildly comprehensible.

So what do I have to say for myself? Well, I'm a 26 year old student from Wellington in New Zealand. I've just moved to Christchurch which is over 300km away from my home town. After working in the corporate game for over 5 years I decided it wasn't for me and moved to Christchurch. A change that didn't progress nearly as smoothly as I had anticipated.

You see, I suffer from an unfortunate illness called Depression. This is something that, although it is not totally incapacitating, plays a big part in my life.

It's taken me a while to find out about my Depression and to understand what part it actually does play in my life. It's taken me even longer to realise that it's something I will never "cure". It has taken even longer than that to realise that it's something I can keep under control and accept as a part of who I am.

Diabetes is a disease that can be controlled. People are given medication, they learn to adapt their lifestyle to make sure that they don't exacerbate the effects of the disease. They live a normal life and are able to do most, if not all, of the things that other people can do.

Depression is the same.

I told you it was a mental vomit. Seems I puked out something worthwhile though, I now have a reason for this blog. To give an example of living a life with Depression and to show how it doesn't necessarily mean that you are "weak" or "hopeless" and to try to explain how there really is no such thing as "normal".