Novelist Marian Keyes reveals fight against constant "suicidal impulses"

The novelist Marian Keyes has revealed how she battled constant suicidal urges at the height of her mental illness.

The Irish writer opened up to Kirsty Young about her struggle with alcoholism and depression on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Sunday.

At her worst – an 18-month period beginning in 2009 – Keyes said she struggled not to harm herself.

She had stopped being able to eat, sleep and interact with others, and was eventually hospitalised.

“Then the suicidal impulses started and it was very hard to physically to stop myself from going through with it,” she said. “For months and months, every day was an enormous effort not to do the acts of wounding myself.”

Her recovery was “really speedy”, but the experience altered her perception of what it meant to be depressed.

“Nothing worked but the passage of time … It’s an illness and it ran its course.

“I had always described myself as melancholy or depressive but I hadn’t a clue. Anything I had before was a blue day by comparison. This was altered perceptions, a mental illness.”

She wrote her novel The Mercy of Mystery Close in that period. She told the Guardian in 2013 that a scene in which the heroine planned to kill herself in a hotel room was inspired by her own experience.

“I had two goes going out assembling the whole kit and buying paper and Sellotape to write the note,” she said. “The conversation Helen has with the man in the shop, I actually had that, with him asking: ‘What is it you’re proposing to cut?’

“It was so bizarre to be standing in a DIY shop, buying a knife to open my veins with. I was absolutely going through who would find me, leaving money for her to apologise … I wasn’t in my right mind.”

Keyes, 53, also told Young about her experience of alcoholism while living in London in her 20s.

“Alcohol was the love of my life. It was my best friend and, in the end, my only friend … I had stopped eating, stopped hoping, I was constantly suicidal. There was only one way it would go. I couldn’t stop drinking and was preparing to go under.”

Writing was her “rope across the abyss”: she wrote her first short story, then a few months later began a rehabilitation program for alcoholism. She has now been sober for more than 20 years.

“It was that primal urge in all of us to stay alive, saying ‘I can give you this, will you live for this?’ It didn’t get me sober but gave me something to hope for.”

Keyes’ debut novel, Watermelon, was published in 1995.

Her 12 novels to date have sold 35m copies worldwide and been published in 33 languages.

Her 13th book, The Break, will be released in the UK and Ireland on 7 September.

• In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. Hotlines in other countries can be found here

Novelist Marian Keyes reveals fight against constant "suicidal impulses"

Fox Information Professional With On the web Degree Blames "Homosexual Impulses" For Santa Barbara Shootings

In the wake of the mass shootings by a disturbed guy in Santa Barbara, California final week, Fox News featured feedback from Robi Ludwig, a self-described psychotherapist, who blamed the shooting on the “homosexual impulses” of the shooter. Her remarks induced an fast firestorm, and a couple of days later, real estate company Coldwell Banker, for whom she consulted, announced “we really feel it greatest to element techniques with her as our way of life genuine estate correspondent.”

As Salon.com’s Sarah Gray pointed out, it is unethical to diagnose a patient whom you have never met. This didn’t seem to be to stop Ludwig, who also claimed that the shooter might have been in the early phases of schizophrenia. Ludwig later attempted to take back her comments on her Facebook page, claiming she was misunderstood.

Does it matter if Ludwig, who uses the title “Doctor” in all her media appearances, is a true medical professional? It’s presumably why we are supposed to consider her critically when she diagnoses a mass murderer on television.

The title of medical doctor also issues to the 1000′s of men and women who have invested years of research and research to earn a Ph.D. or an M.D. Robi Ludwig, it turns out, has neither.

Facebook Professional (Photograph credit: mkhmarketing)

Ludwig previously hosted a reality Tv show on TLC in which she presented marriage advice. Her listing at Psychology Today shows “School: University of Pennsylvania” and lists her graduation 12 months as 1990. Sounds legitimate, proper? U. Penn is an Ivy League college a doctorate from there is surely impressive.

Her web site reveals a various story.  Her “doctor” title, which she makes use of in each mention of herself and the identify of the website itself (drrobiludwig.com), is primarily based on a Psy.D. degree from Southern California University for Expert Research, an on the web-only, for-revenue correspondence college, which altered its identify in 2007 to California Southern University.

Note to readers: an online degree is not a doctorate. Any on-line, for-profit university that claims otherwise, and this naturally consists of Cal Southern, is just attempting to fool men and women.

I’ve acknowledged hundreds of scientists and scholars who’ve place in the sweat equity required for a Ph.D.: years of program function, mastery of a specialized region of review, and additional many years undertaking original analysis and writing a Ph.D. dissertation. The Cal Southern Psy.D. requires nothing at all a lot more than program function – no dissertation necessary – and the courses are all on-line. This falls grievously brief of a genuine doctorate. Taking a bunch of on the web programs at a third-fee online school does not earn one the correct to be referred to as “doctor.”

I checked the American Psychological Association’s site to see if the Psy.D. system at California Southern is accredited. It is not. (Quite couple of Psy.D. applications, which are much significantly less rigorous than Ph.D. applications, are accredited. Most clinical psychologists have Ph.D.s.)

In other words, “Dr.” Ludwig has a mail-purchase degree from an unaccredited program. Her undergraduate degree is from Cedar Crest College, a modest women’s college in Pennsylvania. So why does her Psychology Today profile listing the University of Pennsylvania as her only school? Apparently she does have a master’s in social work from U. Penn, but her undergrad and Psy.D. degrees are from less prestigious institutions. Her Psychology Nowadays profile also lists a license quantity, with out saying what the license is for. Apparently it’s her license as a social worker, not as a clinical psychologist.

Being referred to as a physician is obviously critical to Ludwig. But it wasn’t crucial ample for her to commit the years of study needed to get a Ph.D.

Let’s return to Ludwig’s Psychology Nowadays profile. Does she claim to be a psychologist there? No: despite the fact that she employs the title “Dr.”, she is listed as “Clinical Social Work/Therapist.” Psychology Today explains that

“Clinical social workers commonly hold a master’s degree in social work (or the equivalent) and have completed two many years of supervised practice to receive a clinical license. They may possibly use a selection of therapeutic tactics, which includes psychodynamic therapy or cognitive-behavioral treatment.”

So Ludwig is a licensed social worker who has an unaccredited Psy.D. from an on the internet university. Not to criticize social staff, who supply useful services to society, but they are not doctors.

Fox Information possibly does not care that Ludwig is not a true physician or a licensed psychologist. I’m guessing that they don’t care significantly about what her “Dr.” title means. But that is just a guess.

Possessing a Ph.D. is no assure of competence. A lot of people with Ph.D.s make stupid feedback on television, specifically when they are spouting off about topics outdoors their knowledge. But the Ph.D. degree does imply one thing, which is why so many people operate so challenging to earn them. But an on-line Psy.D. degree from California Southern University isn’t even remotely comparable to a Ph.D. If Ludwig desires to earn the title Medical professional, she has a lengthy way to go.

Fox Information Professional With On the web Degree Blames "Homosexual Impulses" For Santa Barbara Shootings