Jon shares his experience at Nightingale Hospital, following an episode of grief-triggered hypomania
I was born and raised in London where I live with my wife and two young children. I work in the creative industry in Central London. In my spare time, I play, write and record music, and enjoy football, cricket and travelling
In early January 2022, I had some bad news about a friend of mine who died suddenly. This news really rocked me. Not so long before that my father also died, so there was a lot of grief to contend with, within a short space of time. I am pre-disposed to developing acute hypomania, and this grief triggered another episode.
I initially just sought an appointment with a psychiatrist, who happened to be Dr Ian Nnatu at the Nightingale Hospital. He was great. He understood the episode I was going through, was very supportive, and we agreed that it would be best that I had a brief spell in the Nightingale in order to get some intensive treatment to get better.
I look back on my experience at Nightingale with fondness; which isn’t always the impression one is left with after leaving hospital!
Fergal, one of my nurses, was awesome, as were all the psychiatric nurses. They were calm and compassionate. The social side was great, I met some amazing patients, some of whom I’m still in touch with. One has become a football buddy, and we’ve been to some QPR matches together. Also, the food at the Nightingale was amazing!
Towards the end of my stay, I was plugged into a counsellor, Gary Marshall, and I have ongoing sessions with him which are going well.
If you are considering treatment… I suggest you should! The notion of a hospital can be a scary thought, however, the feel of Nightingale Hospital is more like a centre than a hospital.
In the future, I’m looking forward to seeing what types of things my young children develop interests in as they get older. I’d like to do some more travelling, and also establish a ‘Police’ covers band – that would be fun!
Throughout his stay at Nightingale Hospital, Jon wrote and recorded an album entitled, ‘Songs from a psychiatric hospital’. You can listen to this album here.
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