Recently I have spent a quite a big slice of time recovering from severe anxiety and agitation, at the local mental health day hospital at Newham. Due to the cultural differences in the groups it was hard to tell exactly how many patients suffered from anxiety and related agitation. From the number of walk-outs, particularly with relation to talking workshops, I would think it’s quite high. The quickest people to calm down were the smokers, who also made up quite a large subgroup within the patient population. All including some non-smokers regularly attended together in the smoking room where for some, precious cigarettes were borrowed and begged by stressed-out nicotine addicts. Although it saddened me to see sick patients, suffering because of the dire financial situation they found themselves, the bright side was the development of a very positive group dynamic. They all shared their fags with who ever was in need and this led to low-key, direct communication. After nearly an hour sat in groups where at times the only sound was the odd cough, the scrape of a chair when some-one legged it or the facilitator verbally having a hard time encouraging patients to talk about there experience of mental health problems, within ten seconds of the end of the session, all the smokers where in place on their favourite chair, puffing away and most talking freely about anything that took their fancy! The quite ones or the silent, were in the main only at the start of their accelerated journey towards recovery. By the end of my stay at the day hospital and I found the whole experience immensely beneficial and enabling in my return to positive health, I was left wondering just how much help “ the smoking room” culture had been in my recovery, I suspect quite a lot! At least we didn’t have to become friends in adversity, having to stand about smoking outside in the January cold. I don’t think that would have helped in the slightest and most likely would have resulted in someone either throwing a wobbly or succumbing to hypothermia. Now I do realise that the coffin nails will get most of us in the end but in most cases that should be well into the future. Anxious and agitated people have a hard enough time living healthily in the present and as such tend to not be too concerned about the distant future. Sometimes a wee puff is just what the doctors didn’t order, but there are times when they willing to allow the nasty habit, especially if they think it will help. Where as the hospitals staff actively encouraged affected patients, to cut down or stop their heavy drinking or substance abuse as negative influences on mental health, smoking was not seen as a particular priority at this sensitive time. Seeing as I am writing this, I may as well take this opportunity to publicly thank all the staff and fellow patients of the Newham Mental Health Day Hospital, who helped me and others along the road to a better life, struggle it may be!