A fish out of water... Pretty much on the sand... in Life as I know it...

So I just came back from a 2 hour talk focused around detoxing and cleansing with a tad of vegan propaganda mixed in. Now let me make this clear, I have a very strong dislike for people who talk about "the earth's vibrations", "chakras", cries for execution of the meat eaters and having them try to force their views down my throat and make me feel guilty, which I won't, so don't waste your energy, you'll probably need a 2nd helping of wheat grass if you do. Okay, that was a low-blow, I apologise...

Agreeing to go to this talk was pretty much a knee-jerk reaction. I was asked if I wanted to come along by my best, and pretty much only real friend at this point, who, just like me, suffers from severe depression, has her history with psychiatric clinics and suicide attempts. And let me just clear up something, there is an enormous difference between suffering from debilitating depression and anxiety and feeling a bit down and sorry for yourself. I hate it when people say "I feel so depressed today". No, you do not feel depressed, you feel a bit down. Depression is something serious and using the term in that way takes the seriousness away from it. Also, there is a big difference between someone who takes prozac every now and then that their doctor prescribed to them, and having your own little pharmacy of schedule 5 medications that you need just in order to function some times, but I digress...

So I decided to tag along, partly because I had nothing else to do, I like spending time with her and I am always interested in something that is good for my body and my health due to the strain that is put on it by the medication, the anxiety and the rather substantial overdose I took about a year ago. I arrived at the meeting and my friend bought me a slice of raw-vegan pizza. It was quite good, I enjoyed it. She has converted to vegan-ism and it has helped her tremendously. She almost looks like a different person. So I though I'd pay very good attention to the talk and find out what I can do to improve my health.

The guy who presented the talk is the owner of a couple of very popular health and wellness stores around the Western Cape and the author of a couple of books on the related topics. I was incredibly surprised to find out that he used to be a pastry chef, like me. I wondered how he had come to making such a radical change. He was a tall and lean man with long blonde hair and a healthy glow to his skin. He was wearing a dress shirt, dress pants and flip-flops, which he took off and proceeded to present the talk barefoot, not that I mind, I'm an Afrikaans boy and we played rugby barefoot in the freezing cold and often walked around barefoot. The man was very confident and had a slight hint of arrogance.

I valued the information he gave and I intend on doing further research and implementing some of the stuff he talked about into my lifestyle and I thought all the information, proof, sources and research he presented was of a really good standard. The way he spoke, his attitude and some of the words he used was a bit different though. I felt like I was being attacked and berated for not being raw-vegan and for what I was eating (even though I eat very healthily). He referred to some items that feature in the diets of a typical Westerner as being "toilets". He acted as though he was superior to everyone who did not agree and follow his views, that we are less intelligent, a step behind on the evolutionary chain, even Neanderthal-like.

The biggest problem I had with his presentation was the way he spoke about emotional and spiritual problems. What he said, in a nut shell, is that if you think you are unhappy or depressed, then that's the reason why you feel that way, and vice versa. I truly hate it when people say that. He implied that drinking green smoothies, going for walks in the forest, meditating and positive thinking will cure all of this and that medications are poisons. I took great offense to that and I felt offended and as if he was undermining and almost laughing at the 14-year-long struggle that I have had with severe depression, social and general anxiety disorders and everything else. Diet, ways of thinking and exercise does help. New research even showed proof that mild to moderate depression can be cured with exercise alone. However, it doesn't magically cure people who have a serious illness.

The way he was almost prescribing stuff to people, especially the one lady who was asking some questions due to her being pregnant, and he would just say "yes, that's fine if you take that" or "you can take as much as you want of x,y and z". That is something he really needs to be careful with and needs some serious qualifications to do, in my opinion.

Overall, I learned a lot and I have decided to try some stuff out and I am happy that I went, but this guy just rubbed me the wrong way and at times I almost wanted to interrupt him and tell him what I thought of him. My anger issues, although it is waaaaay better at this point than it's ever been, still needs some attention payed to it.

My eyelids are starting to get heavy, my Seroquel is busy taking affect. It's about 10:40pm here in Cape Town. Hope you all have a happy day.

Adriaan