Here's what Common Wheel means to people who attend:
 
HI, my name is Gordon, known to my friends as SCOOTSTER (its a long story). The last say two and a half years of my life have been somewhat a BLURR, that BLURR happened to be a Mental Health illness. Hey I’m only human, that goes for all of us right?

"You have depression which is branching out in your case, and creating Paranoia" my psychologist explained. I guess out of the many worries that came to mind were... "Rubbish there are really people out there that want to kill me", although another thought was..."Could I be ill? could there be a reason for my panic attacks, suspicious thoughts, not to mention my claustrophobic behaviour?

Well after all that heavy reading above, I’ll put your mind at ease. Its now a few years on, I have a job I love, I’ve got great friends, and most of all I feel I have a purpose in life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still taking the pills and have the odd bout of paranoia, but there’s one huge difference...I’m more in-control of my thoughts and my choices.

"Hope this isnae wan o these long winded articles" *Rab Nesbitt* Well first thing to remember is everyone of us are different in so many ways, each person that battles with a Mental illness has different feelings, symptoms and coping strategies. But we all have a spirit, we can all have hope. Back when I was ill, I couldn’t go out of my front door, because of fear. Of course there are a few factors that eventually got me back on track. Here’s a few things I lacked...Friends who understood, Confidence, a Goal and Acceptance. Now without sounding too corny, one place supplied me with all of the above. COMMONWHEEL.

"The Commonwheel Project" my support worker said " Its a place where you learn how to strip down, clean and build bikes" You know the ones with pedals, that your legs have to rotate in order for you to get anywhere...a DESTINATION. I had my reservations, I wasn’t even sure I could build a bike, I’ve never really been good with my hands, but if I’m truthful, I’ve never tried. The nearest Commonwheel to where I live is Drumchapel, Summerhill rd. I think i started going on a Tuesday of each week.

I met the bloke who ran the Drumchapel Commonwheel, Allan is his name, my support worker introduced me. From the start I didn’t feel as though i was being pushed or preached to, so I thought id give it a try. I cycled my own bike up to Drumchapel and even although I hadn’t been on my bike for some time, it was a breath of fresh air. I was made welcome and eventually felt comfortable with my new surroundings, Tyres, Puncture repair kits, lots of bicycle frames and the kettle... for tea of course.

Soon after learning how to strip my bike down, which i must say was great fun, and when it comes down to it when you’ve the right tools at hand its surprisingly easy. Its not rocket science, thank goodness for that. I found myself making new friends and discovered that I wanted to learn more, so i was able to go to Commonwheel any day I had available, which when your out of work with a mental illness you seem to have in abundance.

I finally built my own bike up as good as new, freshly greased and ran like a dream, after Alan sorted my brakes, gears and stuff. well he’s the expert. I had a feeling of pride and inner self satisfaction, I had built something, and all the while I didn’t seem to notice that my confidence, self-esteem and my personality were building too.

I asked if I could keep going to Commonwheel just to help out, that wasn’t a problem, and I felt good about helping other people settle in and feel comfortable, just as I was.

Well now...who could've predicted it, through the Commonwheel Project I found out about a job I thought I would enjoy and be good at. So now yes I’m a support worker, with SAMH The Scottish Association for Mental Health. I now promote the benefits of Commonwheel to others whenever I can. I feel that at 38yrs young, my life has just started, its as though I’ve awoken from a long nightmare and slowly finding yourself again.

I owe a lot of gratitude to the people behind the scenes at Commonwheel. Here’s the shout outs...Big Al, Token, Andy, Dapper Dan, Colin the bmx kid, all at Drumchapel, Neil Maryhill, also thanks to the makers and brains behind The Commonwheel Project.

Most of all thanks to Dougie, who introduced me to Commonwheel,

Best wishes to all, Scootster

Old Stevie

We have three people called Steven at Maryhill, known as Old Stevie, Young Stevie and New Stevie. New Stevie is actually younger than Young Stevie, buit we weren't going to mess about changing and having "middle age Stevie".

I am fortunate enough to attend the common wheel one day a week and have done so for about three years now. I did suffer from depression and still do but I know what works for me and what makes me feel worse.  The project has made a tremendous difference in my life from being a struggle at first to get up and get washed and attend the project on time. To now looking forward to my one day and that day becoming a hub for my life to revolve around.  I still struggle often to get up get washed and appear out in public but I know I'm guarenteed a nicer day spent doing something at the project than if I did not attend. The project has and is still giving me the nessecary confidence to go places and tackle tasks that would have been impossible before.  All I have to do is get to the project at the right time on the right day and the rest of my week falls nice and tidely in behide the lead of that action.
Even when things are bad from my point of view, attending the project is such a positive action that all  other problems that week just fall in behind and I can at least consider them as solvable problems one after the other, step by step, just like stripping and rebuilding somethng at the project. The tasks I undertake at the project I do slowly, because my head works at that speed and I feel that in other task based envoiroments this speed would be woefully too slow to be of much practcal use to anyone.  In the common wheel this slowness is allowed as far further than would be considered useful elsewhere. I am encouraged to think for myself and allowed to proceed as far as possible with a given task before I do something too wrong.  Support for my ideas is forthcoming if the idea is valid and if not I'm gently steered in a better direction. I have in the past tried to do two days a week at the project and I managed just and no more but I feel that I manage one day easier cos I can be really tired at the end of a day at the project, though I feel I have spent my day wisely and have met far more nice people than if I did something else instead, and to coax me out from under my covers at home takes a lot of drive which I dont feel I have. But the most difficult bit of the day is over if I can get myself there and its easier thereafter.
The common wheel and the people I meet there have made and are still making a great difference in my week to week living and the project is important to me in so many ways that its difficult to measure it's impact in my life without resorting to strange sounding comments which sound as though I'm overstating the case. I'm not.  Trust me.  Thanks for your support.