#Ask Ruby 22 May 2014

Here are the answers to the latest #AskRuby in full.  You can send me questions to answer on twitter by tweeting @RubyWax and using #AskR

mark langford ‏@langford_mark 
@Rubywax #AskRuby what are your reading? apart from tweets...

I’m reading books about the brain to figure out how to make mine better; they make me feel like I’m feeding it.  I like David Eagleman’s stuff.

 MillyMollyMandy ‏@Amandastock1 
@Rubywax will you be doing another tour? Please come to Chelmsford! #askruby

I’m going to be at the Edinburgh Festival August 1-7 then starting another tour in September www.rubywax.net/tour. I will tour until hopefully I hit every crevice and protrusion in the UK. I am a driven woman.

 Rosemary Channin ‏@RosemaryChannin 
@Rubywax What were the best and worst parts of the Oxford Mindfulness course? I'm thinking of applying at some stage #AskRuby

The best bit was I had Mark Williams as a professor who is one of the founders of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy so I learned from the horse’s mouth. The worst bits are trying to write a dissertation with some confidence when you know you got a D in English in High School.

 Sooper8 ‏@Sooper8 
@Rubywax #askruby Is Mindfulness a radical political ideology ? And if not , should it/could it be?

Absolutely not. Practicing mindfulness sharpens up your mental muscles so you can pay ‘attention’ to what you want to focus on. Not easy when your brain is going 2,000 miles on hour dragging you through an endless list that never ends.

 Charlotte Warwick ‏@teacakeuk 
@Rubywax #askruby Do you think they'll ever repeat 'Girls on Top'? I loved that show!!

I hope not, we were not in our right minds.

 miss musical ‏@missmusical3 
@Rubywax Do you think being in the public eye makes your mental health issues harder to deal with? #AskRuby.

It’s hard to deal with mental illness whatever eye you’re in; public or private. First, you feel you have to hide it and when you do get busted for having it they burn you at the stake metaphorically.

 Pete Burns ‏@PeteBurnsICON 
@Rubywax what are your views on ECT #AskRuby

What works for one person can seriously screw up the next. I have friends who had Electro convulsive therapy and got over their depression then other’s who disappeared in a fog. 

 lee boyle ‏@slowliving1 
@Rubywax hey Ruby, would you recommend long-term medication for depression? #AskRuby

Who am I to say? Each man for him self.  If you have a real mental disease (I don’t mean you’re a little sad) then I say you need as much as a diabetic needs insulin. I wouldn’t tell them to not take it and it’s the same with depression.  With depression I’d add the therapy, you need both.

 Kenny D-S ‏@Kipplewinker 
#AskRuby What is your favourite silent movie? #unusualquestionputtoacelebrity

“The Artist” .  You didn’t even realize no one was moving their lips with no noise coming out.