I bumped into one of the nurses who saw me through ect the other day. She told me not to let depression get me down. If that isn’t already a medication advert catchphrase in the USA, it really ought to be. It should also be permitted for me to smack anyone who says it to me. Not that nurse though, because ag shame she was being genuinely nice.
Don’t let depression get you down, don’t let conjunctivitis spoil your view, don’t let syphilis drive you mad…
PS thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post. And my blog just turned two. Happy birthday, blog.
“My father’s unconventional way of thinking showed me that it is possible to construct the life you want, and assured me that it was ok to stand out from the crowd.” My Father’s Bipolar Disorder Made My Life Better
““Bipolar,” it seems, has become a laugh line. An exaggeration of the basic concept of opposites, like up and down, or hot and cold.” Bipolar disorder is nothing to make light of
“When you’re dating someone like me — someone with bipolar disorder — you have to be ready for a bumpy ride. We are extreme. You’ll never be loved harder or shown more affection in your entire life. We’ll shower you with gifts, love letters and all of your favorite things.” This Is Exactly What Someone With Bipolar Disorder Needs From A Relationship
So my ECT got delayed yet again. I went into hospital on Thursday to have it on Friday, but the nationwide taxi protests resulted in things like felled trees burning across roads and so doctors didn’t get to the hospital… To cut a long story short, I left on Saturday and refused to go back. Shrink one then arranged for me to have it as an outpatient, so I’m going in by 6am tomorrow for the first of 12 sessions.
If you read my previous entry, you already know why I found the hospital stay intolerable. What stood out most glaringly this time, was a lot of pressured speech and psychosis all around. Friday night’s dinner of two slices of brown bread and a half litre of maas (fermented milk) didn’t cheer me up either. I kept quiet and just ate the bread, another woman bitched hard and the nurse said, “eat now, complainlater!”
Anyway, I’ll write about the ECT over on OLE and repost it here on Wednesday, I just thought I’d do an interim update here. I feel like I’ve been through the wars guys. I just don’t feel like writing it at length.
Thanks to socialworkerangela for the reminder of this shot straight to the heart mhm… “I think there’s a flaw in my code”. Halsey is bipolar and also genius. Volume UP.
Now go listen to more y’all. Girl got game.
The them section coming up is dominated by Patty Duke, which I think is more than fair considering the sheer length of time she was vocal about her stuff. Aw and then she went and gave us lovely Sam Gamgee Sean Astin too. Rest in Peace, warrior woman.
Some of the us section really are us – you know, our little blogosphere tribe. I know that many of you have blogging gigs in other places and I read a lot of them and then forget to stick them in my own Linkdumps. Bad, bad blahpolar. Please feel free to use my contact form to give me a heads up.
“Sometimes you can do everything and still have a relapse—which is incredibly frustrating and disappointing, no doubt. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of bipolar disorder for many people. It is a complex and chronic illness.” What You Need to Know About Relapse in Bipolar Disorder
Controversy: if the palliative care for mental health wasn’t so shitty, conversations like the ones below would be different. Anyway. It is what it fucken is.
“Contrary to a widely-held opinion, people suffering from mental health problems normally have sufficient capacity of discernment to decide whether they would like to continue living or end their life. Therefore, and as a general rule, they are entitled to ask for an accompanied suicide and receive assistance just as much as people suffering from physical health problems, in order to avoid the high risk of failure. The same applies to healthy people who wish to end their life because they feel that it has become too arduous for them due to old age. There are no rational reasons to patronise these people through paternalism.” source
The next one is a longread.
Letter from Belgium The Death Treatment – When should people with a non-terminal illness be helped to die?
“While I tend to cringe at the concept of a day for everything (I’m looking at you, National Frozen Food Day), not to mention the idea of reliable posthumous psychiatric diagnosis, I understand the impulse here. People don’t like to talk about mental illness. For God’s sake, we still call it “mental illness,” as though the brain weren’t a fundamental part of the physical body. Given the prevalence of this colossal oversight, not to mention a grossly underfunded mental health system that relies heavily on condescension, coercion and incarceration, it’s hard not to support any day that might bring more attention to brain disorders.” Thriving with Bipolar Disorder
“The first time we meet just the two of us, you tell me you have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I hardly believe it. You do not conform to any idea I have of a person with bipolar disorder, though the ideas I do have are received, not based on experience. It’s just that you seem to me all right, not terribly different from the way I remember you, though your affect is flatter, hollowed. You wear your defeat.” H. On heroin and harm reduction (longread)
Big Pharma’s worst nightmare – “Jamie Love has spent years battling global drug companies, unshakable in his belief that even the world’s poorest people should have access to life-saving medicines.” (longread)
By the time you read this, I’ll be dead BY JOHN HOFSESS “Between 1999 and 2001, I helped eight people die—including the poet Al Purdy. Now, as I prepare to take my own life, I’m ready to tell my story.” (longread)
blahpolar 