1.  Annually 1 in 4 people
suffer from mental
disorders.
 Anxieties and
depression are leading
causes for mental
health problems in
Britain.
 Women are more likely
to use professional
support.
 Death by suicide is the
most common escape
from mental illness for
British men under the
age of 35.
Knights Of The Idiotic Table
They fight their mental illness every day. Four patients meet weekly to write and speak
about reality mixed with science fiction. It’s a self-prescribed healing process in addition
to their strong medication.
“The world has broken around you. It’s only fragments of reality. You walk over broken
glass. You have to be very careful about where you step. Step as lightly as you can”, says
David Coombes as he makes his way down the decrepit steps into the tunnel leading to his
destination.
He has been to mental hospitals four times in his life. He
can only remember the last time.
But today’s asylum is different.
Holy Jesus Hospital is nestled nearly unimposingly
between concrete bridges in the middle of Newcastle.
Hidden behind stone archways lies the freshly painted
mustard-yellow house where people understand each
other’s pain.
He leaves the rumble of the city behind him to meet the
others. Together they will try to pick up the fragments of
their world.
Stick them together on loose leaves in a tiny room, which
is there every Wednesday only for them.
David always arrives 15 minutes earlier. Over the years he made it from a participant to the
main creative writing tutor - “group facilitator” the Nights Of The Idiotic Table call him.
“My muscles hurt after the walk. Bloody tablets,” the 35-years-old falls into a corduroy
armchair to relieve one of the side effects of his medication against depression.
Another negative development is his speaking difficulties. Every word slowly takes shape on
his tongue before it spits out with the depth of a bass.
They call themselves “Knights Of The Idiotic Table” and meet every
Wednesday in the premises of a mental health charity. The members suffer
from a wide range of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or addictions.
Besides their professional support from doctors they’ve chosen to express
their emotions through written stories or poems. Our reporter Sophia
Schuhmann took part in one of their meetings to find out more about the
group's alternative healing processes for their mental illness.

2. A stocky and heavily built man sneaks into the room. He mumbles some words and constantly
runs fingers restlessly through his short blond hair. It’s the chair on the other side of the room
he chooses to linger on motionlessly.
David Kipping, 44-years-old is titled “the rock”, because he and his schizophrenic
constellation had been there ever since the group was founded eight years ago.
Pushing her Zimmer frame, the new member of the writing-group enters the gloomy attic
room. Carol Robinson is the only one who smiles. Her gleaming orange dress is an eye-
catching contrast to her dark tanned skin. “I’m glad to be back. I love writing,” she greets.
The last one, Andrew Bengal, rushes through the door. His open shirt is flapping widely open
around the key hanging down his neck.
“I’m the satirical sidekick here. I’m aware that I’m impropriate as usual. So should be fine
with all of us,” the mid-aged man says excitedly whilst he repeatedly changes seats. Opens
and closes the window. Flicks his fingers or touches things around him.
Tutor David intervenes - calms him down with his nearly invoking speech about today’s
topic. The writers should try to break down one of their favourite stories into a screenplay.
“Let’s take Oscar Wild who was a brilliant writer for example,” David suggests speaking
through his long hair hanging in strands, “I think he got locked up.”
Andrew nervously attracts the attention back on himself by telling the group about getting
locked up after stealing things to make money for drugs in his friend’s house. He can’t
remember when this exactly happened.
“Back to Oscar. He would totally be around if he would be alive these days. He was clearly
mentally ill,” David interrupts again.
“Wasn’t he gay,” Carol steps into the conversation.
They all agree he was. The Rock remains silent.
Andrew starts to roll filters out of a half lottery scratch ticket. David and Carol get lost in a
discussion about tablets, the term they prefer over pills. The Rock gazes spellbound against
the wall.
“I pinned one of my works up there,” he says suddenly. His story hangs right alongside “The
rules for survival” and “The A-Z of Mind Problems”. It’s the only essay on the wall.
He’s very proud of his folder full of written pieces on his lap. It even makes him smile.
After an hour the creative-writing group gathers for a break downstairs in a neatly clean
kitchen. A paper plate with cookies circulates whilst the discussion centres on their
relationship to their therapist.
Carol loves her “old ladies on a farm who listen for hours and hours”. David tries to persuade
his doctors to take him off medication. “I’m not mentally ill anymore. I know it”.

3. Andrew writes funny poems for his “headmasters”. The Rock bites concentrated into his
ginger cookie.
Back in the airless writing room Andrew inspires the group to actually start to write with a
story of himself getting run over by a truck after “necking on pints” many years ago.
“I woke up on my birthday at exact my time of birth,” he ends.
The last 20 minutes pens scratch over recycling paper. An Oxford Dictionary circles. Andrew
walks in and out. David observes the group all the time: “In case someone gets carried too far
away with his fictional character”.
One after another reads out loud. It is optional. The Rock volunteers first, revealing massive
tears under his arm.
“It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to be afraid. You are not as stupid as people may think you
seem to be,” he starts to read in clear voice.
They all have their own kind of goals in life. But it helps the group to share the dream of
performing in front of an audience and publish a science-fiction book together.
As “Knights Of The Idiotic Table”. One day.