Famous Fives – with Dave Briggs

Today we’ve asked Dave Briggs about the most important things he does to stay mentally well. I asked Dave if wearing orange was part of a much grander plan?

“To be honest, the tshirt I am wearing in my Facebook pic, and the one to which you were referring, I think, is red rather than orange. I don’t know if the clothes I wear have much effect on my state of mind, other than that stripes often cheer me up and wearing odd socks gives me a sneaky feeling of barely-seen rebellion.

As a type 1 diabetic, the number one of my five a day is to ensure I take my insulin injections at the right times of the day. I’ve only been diagnosed for about a year now, and am still struggling to come to terms with it all. Having to do four injections a day depresses the hell out of me, but not doing them just makes things worse. I had a crippling bout of depression last summer, when I was really struggling to cope with my illness and for various complicated reasons too boring to recount here, my family was apart from me for 5 out of every 7 days. I don’t want to go there again, that’s for sure, so being a good diabetic means not being sad, which is good.

Being clean helps me feel happy I think. Lots of showers are good.

Looking at my 6 year old when he is asleep helps put things into perspective. It also helps me forget what a sod he’s been during the day.

I like helping people, going out of my way to do stuff for them, and doing it quickly, too. I think it probably comes out of some deep-rooted desire to be liked. I dunno. But it’s nice when folk say ‘thanks’.

Taking a break from things always helps. I can get wound up about stuff, especially when it is things that I care about and that I devote my time to. It’s not always as easy to progress things as it possibly ought to be, but getting in a strop generally doesn’t help. On the other hand, sometimes when you ignore a problem, it will go away. Not often, but sometimes.”

Thanks so much Dave. This was so interesting!

Dave Briggs is a full time civil servant, working in the further education sector, building relationships with and between stakeholder groups both on and offline. In his spare time, he is a regular blogger and social networker and has a particular interest in how the social web can bring government closer to the people it serves.