About

Before Medibolism, this website was known as Natural-Tys. It came into being after many years of suffering side effects from conventional medication, a miss-guided marriage, that lead to divorce, causing much heartache and pain, as well as a swift kick up my backside that took me back to my school days. Here a chance meeting with an excellent tutor fed my appetite for more of the same.

Read the full story

Originally I set the website up to offer information on Diabetes and a Walk-through for PC games of the time. (Tomb Raider, American Mcgee’s Alice etc.) The games walk-through only got as far as the drawing-board. (the rest is history so to speak)… How did I get started… Well, back in 1992 I had hit a really low patch in life.

Since my teenage years, some years ago now, I had battled daily with depression. Why? A baby on the way (I was lead to believe), an early marriage, an unfaithful better half (wife), god I was so naive. Doctors and their wonder drugs as they called them back in my teenage days were supposed to help me through my problems. Like a good patient I took the pills without question, got on with my life, remarried, had a couple of kids, held the same job I would in a much later part of my life be forced to give up. I did not realize then that medication would become away of life for me.

My doctor did not say, or looking back what he did not realize then was that some years down the line I was not going to be able to give up this wonder drug, because unknown to me then, I was becoming addicted and was soon to learn I could not live without the drug, even though as time went by my life improved 100%, thanks to my new girlfriend, now my wife.

I admit here that the medication also helped in the early stages, and after the first 3 weeks of feeling rather drowsy, which cleared up, I settled down to getting on with my life. Some years and a divorce later found me still pill popping, which had by now become a daily ritual, but when the time came that I started questioning my GP about the validity of taking the tablets any longer I was soon to learn about, and sufferer increased withdrawal effects as I, with my doctors help, started to reduce the medication.

Come 1992 found me working long and tedious hours 14+ a day six days a week something I had been doing for many years previous, and regretting with each year passing missing my kids growing up. My new doctor reckoned I was close to burnout.

Like I said I had hit a really low point in my life, so much so my doctor gave me one of two choices end up in hospital, or pack up my work. It took sometime for me to come round to his way of thinking I had responsibilities mortgage, new wife, a family I deeply loved (still do) I had never been out of work, so the decision to quit my job of some 28 years standing did not come easy, plus finding a new job of work back then (1992 sound familiar) was becoming impossible for most people.

After months of repeat doctor appointments I agreed. The thought of going into a certain type of hospital just did not float my boat. As part of my rehab my doctor got me into a charity run day center for depression. That was where a total new life style took place. In a very short space of time I went from being a member to becoming a volunteer within the charity based organization. They funded me to qualify in an area I had taken to quite quickly counselling…

Back To School

I first discovered my tutor at an Anger Management course all staff and volunteers within the charity had been asked to attend as part of Mental Health Awareness week. I enjoyed the course that much I checked up on my tutor and discovered she tutored near by at a local Uni. So from late 1992 it was back to college for some 12+ years… (I confess here I never did like school, so going back to that environment was a challenge, a battle I won). My Uni. schooling was to last 12+ years, my learning would be life long, and consisted of my first certificate; NCFE City and Guilds for Basic Counselling Skills Core And Development Modules, Code of Ethics, and Practice for Counsellors (1992 through 1993).

This only increased my appetite for more especially where my new-found tutor was concerned, (if you ever come a cross this page you know who you are and how I think the world of you). With the help of a new found colleague, who also lived close by the uni. in Whitley Bay, soon became a very dear friend, she knew my strengths and weaknesses and guided me ever so gently. (Thank You) Our courses and passes were many and most all founded on the rights of the individual, something I had been starved of in my then previous occupation.

The main area of learning leaned toward Carl Rogers, and his belief that being prepared to take people as we find them, regardless of whether they appeared willing, unresponsive, even skepticism then create an understanding from the very beginning that the client/parent/child had arrived at a place which would not impose, or judge, and would focus on helping them to clarify where/what next. In a nut shell (so to speak) Carl Rodgers believed, as I do, each client is/was an unique individual, and despite their lives being a struggle to survive circumstance, and experience, they would still continue towards growth. “This actualizing in the human being can be trusted, and the therapist’s role would be to create the best possible conditions for its fulfillment”… Enough you did not come to a lecture …

Other courses were NCFE City and Guilds 3703 In Counselling (1994 through 1996) this included Counselling Skills, Counselling Theory and Practice, and Personal Development. Next came my NCFE Counselling For Professionals (1996 through 1998) this included Psychosynthesis, Counselling Issues, The Process Of Change, Creative Processes, and Techniques, Gestalt Theory, and Practice last but not least Transactional Analysis, and to think this all started with my doctor. Further courses included Bereavement Counselling, Counselling For Professionals, Carl Rodgers Client Centered Therapy, Sexual Abuse, Aromatherapy, and a further course on diabetes.

Still connected to the charity found me in the The Basque city of Bilbao, Spain. Myself and other members of staff had flown out for a week to studying their mental health regime… we stayed at the Hotel Petit Palace Arana, before its make over. This 18th-century building is set on the edge of Bilbao old town. I have nothing but praise for the hotel staff. Especially one particular member of staff. She had just returned to Spain after completing her course at Newcastle University, in the North East of England. Many Thanks for the kindness you showed toward me and my colleagues during our stay at the hotel. (you know who you are) Bilbao itself, the Guggenheim Museum, the glass fronted stores, the scenery, the people all brilliant, certainly worth a visit.

About 18 months later found me in Belgium Spa attending a world seminar also for one week. Here we met, spoke on and exchanged information on mental health issues with other delegates from around the world (brilliant). I have been involved in the setting up and running of Care programs for almost 3 years. The program was a weekly venue and covered all the relevant information on mental health. It became a platform to give Carers a voice to a topic that even today most people would like to brush under the carpet. I can not emphasize enough the feeling of sadness I experienced at how this army of Carers had very little going for them at the time… If you are still with me, I guess I have bored you enough. To cut a long story short then (so to speak)…

The Final Mile

This is where mum enters the story. Looking back I remember thinking to myself what was wrong with setting up my own website. I had plenty of college courses and practice under my belt, and if you count my own personal experiences it gave me more than just a casual view into mental health and diabetes problems especially when I myself had suffered with many issues (I had been used as a guinea-pig back in those days for the many so called wonder drugs of their time).

Mum had had Diabetes for many years, trying to get easy understandable information was hard to come by. I figured the more I understood then the more I was able to help mum understand about her diabetes. I was trying to help mum something a nurse, or doctor should have done many years previous, and never did.

Mum came from a generation that thought the doctor knew best, because of this attitude mum never learned anything about her condition other than when, and how to inject the needle. I was going through a bad patch with depression at the same time, so I included mental health as a topic in the hope I could help myself while helping others. It seems to have worked out OK.

Well mum has since died, she had suffered pain, and serious discomfort for many years she was also  an insulin dependent diabetic, which in the end knocked out her kidneys. I decided on this page to write a little verse to mum. Kind of saying thanks mum if it had not been for you this website would have never gotten off the ground. – Medibolism Webmaster