About

Smashing Skulls is the personal blog / mind dump of Skully, an outgoing introvert, writer, researcher and blogger of gen X vintage. This blog offers social commentary and personal anecdotes on mental health, women’s health, pop-culture and a whole range of topics that interest, amuse and energize me. It’s basically my personal play ground and retreat from other blogs and forums where I write on a more formal basis. I created this blog to share my thoughts and interact with other curious souls prone to pondering the ways of the world. It’s also a space where I reflect on the general and mental health challenges I have faced, and have some fun! Comments are welcome, pompous gits are not.

Blogs & Blogging
In October of 2007 I started the Henry Rollins fan blog Hello Henry. It features weird and wonderful things found on the internet relating to Henry Rollins and his fans. Hello Henry started out as a bit of joke, but to my surprise it quickly developed a loyal following and over two years later it is still going strong. It has a lovely bunch of readers who never fail to make me smile.

This year I started a new blog dedicated to one of my favourite TV shows, Spooks. It’s unimaginatively titled the Spooks Fan Blog (all the cool Spooks related names on blogger were already taken!). It’s only been going for a couple of months but it has been great fun so far. Like Hello Henry it’s more silly than serious and it too has a great bunch of readers who are happy to indulge my silly Spooks antics.

Madness & Mental Health
One of the things I talk about on Smashing Skulls is my mental health. It went into a sharp decline and into the realm of madness over five years ago when I started to have visions of smashed skulls (hence the title of this blog). In my psychosis induced state my mind thought certain skulls of real living people I knew would make good company to a sledge hammer. Fortunately my stint in wacko land was relatively brief and no one got hurt, but it heralded the beginning of life on the edge of reason and hope for several years to come. I’ve been in various states of ‘soul sickness’ (as the philosopher William James has called it) and have received an assortment of diagnostic labels. Depressed, dysthymic and cyclothymic are the ones that have stuck. Right now, with good management, I’m doing well, and now it’s time to reflect, research and write.

PMS, PCOS and PMDD
Although I am grateful to have been born female, a plethora of health problems in recent years has led me to resent all the reproductive trappings that come with it. Especially as I have no plans to use it – not that I might be able to anyway. A few years ago I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). This diagnosis explained the awful periods, acne, excess hair and thunder thighs I’d had since my early teens. My condition had gone undiagnosed until my mid-late 20s because most women with PCOS have trouble with their weight but I do not (I am what is known as a “thin cyster”). Prior to this I was diagnosed with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), an extreme and debilitating form of PMS. PMDD is a highly controversial diagnosis, and rightly so. I am an advocate and critic of PMDD. As someone who has had an experience that is consistent with the diagnostic criteria, I know it is real. How this experience is classified and treated, however, is an entirely different matter and one where my criticisms are directed.

Postgraduate Nerdiness
Amidst all this general and mental health madness I’ve been working on my PhD. I’m not going to reveal the subject of my research here for reasons of anonymity. Whilst I have no shame regarding my mental health challenges, I don’t think I’d be doing myself any favors by alerting my peers to the fact I was suffering from mental illness while conducting my research. In any case, the subject is unrelated to the things I tend to talk about on this blog. What I do discuss about the PhD here are the trials and tribulations of doing one. Hopefully some other post-grads out there will find these posts useful.

Some other things about me:
- Scottish accents delight my auditory erogenous zones
- I own more books than I will ever read
- I love the BBC!
- I have never seen the movie Titanic
- My other car is a Tardis

Please feel welcome to reach me via the contact page.