Mental Hospital In Mongolia

I was on one of the travels I always dreamt of the Trans Siberia express with a week touring in Mongolia with old Russian buses. The end of the trip should have been Beijing, China to see the typical houses there, but three days before the end of my trip I was sent to the mental health hospital in the capital of Mongolia in 2010. There I was told I had had a psychosis NAO, I was 32. I never used drugs, I never misused alcohol and I do not smoke, but still I was told I had had a psychosis NAO.

First Psychosis Department UMC Utrecht

After spending a week in the hospital in Mongolia I was back through ANWB, which picks up people with insurance with health problems in foreign. I was sent home after a check up at Altrecht and wanted to pick up my life again. I was sent to the first psychosis department at UMC Utrecht where I learnt about what a psychosis was, had psycho education extensively and there was room for 'psychomotoriek'. I had never, before heard about this disease. 

Back At Work

After a while a plan was made with me at VUMC to start working again as a datamanager and be working all my hours again in half year. It was hard to start with two hours a day. I was spending more hours traveling then working with two hours work. At the beginning of 2011, when my contract ended, I was working all my hours again.

Therapy At Altrecht Utrecht

From UMC Utrecht I was sent to Altrecht to have more therapy and get rid of the antipsychotics (Olanzapine 2,5mg from Summer 2010 till dec 2012) in my life. It took a bit longer because my father died in March 2011. But the therapies I remember having most benefit from where Cognitieve therapie, 'Draagvlak & Draaglast', EMDR, talking to Psychiatrist and psychologist.

Volunteering & Mental Health

My spv’er recommended me to do some volunteer work as I was only working two hours a day in the beginning. I have a blog about being a buddy for buddy ('Boddy For Buddy Project Overvecht Tussenvoorziening'). And also, she told me to go have a look at Anoiksis. I went to their yearly day and wanted to run away when I got there. But I ended up working with them as a volunteer and later also as an entrepreneur. Reed about that in the Anoiksis blogs:

• 'Dutch Health Hackathon'

• 'Reality Keeper'

• 'Stichting Anoiksis'

• 'Veerkrachtfabriek'. 

The one thing I like what was recommended by my spv’er was yoga. I still benefit a lot from yoga. There are several blogs about yoga:

• 'Databeet'

• 'Diving'

• 'Lombok, Not The Asian one'

• 'Long Fonds'

• 'My First Introduction To A Retreat'

• 'Sports'

• 'Swiming'

• 'The Hunger knock'

• 'Yoga'.

Business & Mental Health

On my way to recovery I had some relapse, because I had to change the way I was living, read about:

• living antikraak (Blogs: 'Anti-Squant Living With A Short-Stay Contract' & 'Anti-Squat And Me Not A Good Combination')

• my homelessness (Blog: 'How Close Was I To Homelessness')

• and my time in De Wegloophuis (Blog: 'De Wegloophuis In Utrecht'). 

These relapses were all after I started my business, became a digital nomad and hiked the Camino. These three things opened my eye even more for the rest of my life. The only thing left was finding the balance and putting it into action in my daily life in The Netherlands and still do everything I want.

Recovery Is A Journey

Recovery is a Journey! I never stopped learning and I kept dreaming and making my dreams come through. I did some projects in mental health recovery in which I even applied with others for grants which was granted. There are blogs about these projects:

• 'Veerkrachtfabriek'

• 'And Then I Was A Tour guide'

• 'Reality Keeper' 

• Traveling reporter for mental health recovery projects in the Pacifics (Blog: 'Interviewing For A Guest Blog During My Pacific Travels'). 

I visited and interviewed a lot of peers in Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand (2013/2014). Reality Keeper was my last project in 2019 in mental health. When doing these projects I wasn’t aware I was using my studies Business Economics and Urban Geography in the projects. A bonus of these projects was that I was earning and working on myself in the recovery journey by telling my story, working with my story and listing to the story of others. In these projects I encountered hope and recovery, but sometimes these projects are a frustration. The lack of a way to make these projects profitable to continue them without grants. All these projects where for me about the same thing:

Recovery is a journey, keep dreaming and working on dreams!