Blogs
While substance abuse may or may not be present in one person's case, it is common enough to warrant suspicion on the part of the doctor, and this suspicion affects what kind of medical treatment is received.
Everyone who has been bipolar, or mentally ill in general, for longer than about a day-and-a-half has experienced failed treatments. We've all had medications that didn't work. Therapy that didn't help. Lifestyle changes that did nothing. And so on, and so forth. In fact, most of us experience months of treatment failure before we find treatment that works for our mental illness.
But after years of failure and trying everything you can think of and still being sick, how does one keep going? How do you keep going when mental illness treatment doesn't work?
I’ve just realized that a year has passed since I began writing Dissociative Living here at HealthyPlace. This is a pretty significant achievement for me. And that’s partly because I’m just plain proud of the content I’ve written. But this blog’s anniversary is also the anniversary of my coming out publicly as someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder. By choosing to write Dissociative Living I also chose to stop writing anonymously and from that point on, attach my real name and real picture to my thoughts and perspectives on DID. It was a pivotal decision and one that, had I asked, most people would have advised against. One year, three weeks, eighty-two posts, and a thousand comments later, I don’t regret it even a little bit.
I was twelve years old when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. That same year, I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, oppositional conduct disorder, and anxiety disorder. Point in case: I was a very sick and a terribly confused young woman. I spent many years in and out of hospitals; my body was laced with different combinations of medications. Three years later, at the age of fifteen, I became well.
Amanda_HP
Suicide prevention. People talk about it, but is preventing someone from committing suicide really possible? That's a big question.
Suicide statistics reveal over 44,000 Americans committed suicide in 2016 and for every completed suicide, there were 25 attempted suicides.1 Unfortunately, the numbers are growing.
Amanda_HP
There's a lot of awareness around depression these days. People talk more freely about it, there are antidepressant ads on television and radio, and, of course, there's the Internet where information on depression is bountiful. So how is it that a person could be suffering from depression but not recognize the symptoms of depression in themselves?
The life you want will become reality if you leave your abusive relationship with an educated, clear mind. If you leave the relationship as a victim, you will find yourself victimized in your "new" life, too. You must find your strength before you walk out the door because friend, you will need every bit of your power (and some borrowed from those who love you) if you want to create a life of joy and happiness.
You don't look sick! No, I don't. It shouldn't be an accusation, either. One of the worst parts of having an anxiety disorder, or any other invisible illness, is how hard it is to explain to someone when they don't have the first notion. It becomes almost a routine battle, feeling sick on the inside while knowing the world thinks you look fine.
My name is Alistair McHarg and my mental health humor blog, “Funny In The Head”, is a weekly feature here at HealthyPlace. The goal is to help us all discover and rediscover the fundamental absurdities and humor in the challenges we face and overcome. I believe seeing the humor in our trials is a key ingredient of recovery and health.
Jess Weiner: " Did Loving My Body Almost Kill Me?"
That is the headline splashed across an article in September's Glamour magazine and online site. Weiner, a well-known author and speaker, has stressed for years that women of all weights and sizes can live happy and fulfilling lives right now. She lived her words, and created a successful career and life while being a size 18. That alone sounds radical in today's society that worships thinness and works hard to make women feel unsuccessful and unworthy if we dare to take up more space than a will-o'-wisp.
Then Weiner went to her physician, and that is all it took to take her down the familiar weight loss path of dieting and excessive exercise.
First of all, thank you for sharing your story. You are a very caring person, and I commend you for, as Tammy Wynette sings, "Stand(ing) by your man." That aside, I wholeheartedly agree with you that those living with depression may seem selfish to someone on the outside. Still, in reality, they (me also being one of them) think our loved ones would be better off without us around because of our depression. We think we are doing our loved ones a favor by leaving. Depression causes our brains to work in different ways, causing us to think distortedly -- so no, we are not purposefully being selfish. Thank you for seeing that with your loved one and not allowing someone else to convince you otherwise.