"Look At That View Dear"

It is "Mental Health Fortnight” at the moment that got me thinking!

How many children and adults are diagnosed with a mental health issue when actually there is a root cause and it is not that at all?

Irlen syndrome can affect the whole body. The nervous system included: Claustrophobia, Agoraphobia, anxiety, apprehension, emotional, behaviour, psychologically, depression all manner of mental health issues.

Movement and distortion causing stress and extreme distress. It can cause meltdowns with the reptilian part of the brain kicking in. We are pretty much stuffed by this time when it comes to normal functionality.

Reactions and body language making others believe you have a mental illness! Picture faces enlarging (Alice in wonderland syndrome) what would that be like with many children and adults as a reflex reaction?

Unfortunately, other conditions are often sharing symptoms and occurring together is commonplace. This can result in a misdiagnosis.

I once attended a very good talk by a lady with ASD. When asked if she heard voices, she of course replied yes, was it her fault to answer yes? That was the truth in “black and white” and taken literally. Could it have been the health professional asking the question that should have worded it in a more obvious manner. He then asked do you see people. Again yes, of course she did!

This resulted in a long term of confinement diagnosing her as schizophrenia. Had she been asked do you hear people in your head and see people in your mind that would have generated very different responses and would not most likely have resulted in the dreadful outcome that subsequently occurred.

When a child or adult is Irlen screened questions are broached that would not necessarily be. I mean who asks if your words move, yeah right! Again this question has to be phrased correctly as it could be taken completely differently and answered as a negative when in fact for that person the words do actually move. A person with Autism may absolutely know for a fact that words do not move. But the question posed as “do words appear to move for you?” well that could be completely different.

I am no expert in mental health issues but can only envisage that the Irlen distortions which can be extremely horrific could in some cases be translated to a misdiagnosis of a mental condition. Given also that Irlen filters calm the brain…………well fill in your own blanks.

Take Agoraphobia if your world is far too bright and everything around is flashing or distorting and moving would you be tempted to step over the threshold. It could be that fence slats, brick or tiles are moving in extreme cases even the blades of grass can be. One lady I screened described her world as the world is there and i am here. For her the world bombarded her space.

Flip the coin here; maybe going into a lift could hold its own trauma’s. The pattern on the wall could be marching towards you. It could be that the pattern is swirling. (This happened many years ago when I was going to use a school office to screen a child. The wallpaper had a fan shape. It straight away caused her to pull her head back,.we had to go elsewhere) likewise the shiny metal door may be causing pain and be blindingly bright.

As an irlen screener I use the questions devised by Helen Irlen. A whole wealth of questions are asked which generally would not be. A result of research which continues today.

I tell clients that every question asked is resulting because all symptoms have taken place with others. .

What does anyone have to lose by investigating the possibility of Irlen syndrome? www.irlen.com for the self-test

This picture came to mind whilst sitting in my chair in Folkestone, Kent.

A beautiful scene or an absolute nightmare?

(I was in a bedroom thirty-three floors up in Tokyo at the time).

A person could be petrified by the height, blinded by the lights. The windows could be distorting as could the lines and corners of the buildings. in addition if could be coming toward you, going away of disappearing.

Now how breath taking is this scene? Hyper-ventilation seems more apt to me!