Blogs
Lying in bed, covers pulled up. Look at the clock and know you are late. You need to go. You need to move. You need to get up. You know this. And yet your body feels heavy, stuck. You yell at yourself in your head. Get up! But you don't. Get moving! But you don't. It's as if Depression has paralyzed you. You know what you need to do. You know what the consequences will be if you don't. And yet you still feel like you can't move.
Sometimes an emotional crisis can't be avoided. When an emotional crisis happens, it is important to know how to calm down. There are many ways to self-soothe, but for now I'll focus on three: petting an animal, burning incense, and drinking herbal tea.
For me, hypomania is the state before a manic episode. I experience happiness, creativity, energy and an absence of inhibitions. It’s pure bliss. And the part of your brain that worries about consequences turns a blind eye to your hypomanic adventures. But the downsides of hypomania and mania are just as awful as those of a drug addict who hits rock bottom- job loss, failed marriages, arrests and sometimes even death.
Jails, institutions and death. These are the ends of addiction. And as far as the death part is concerned, it doesn’t always mean physical death. Have you ever watched the TV series, The Walking Dead? Well, that’s what addiction can do to a person, metaphorically speaking. The addict is devoid of any real kind of life source and is simply feeding off of others to maintain his existence.
There are a lot of reasons that I chose to get into the field of addiction treatment, and my beliefs in the danger of AA's addiction recovery program (and others modeled on it) was the main reason. Why do organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous retain such a glorious public perception, all the while having success rates of approximately 5 per cent after one year? Even AA's own Comments on A.A.'S Triennial Surveys, which is difficult to find, and even more difficult to decipher, does in fact state these dismal results.1
Let me preface this post by telling you that when you live with a mental illness you know why it's so hard. It can feel impossible. But have you ever sat down and really thought about it? Thinking about things, writing them down, can allow us to make sense of something that is often complicated and hard to understand.
Okay, I've been itching to ask the question: Why do we call it a ADHD medication "holiday"? Are we in England? "Oh, yes, capital, capital! Let's not take our Ritalin today and have a jolly good time!" For me, Wednesday of last week was anything but jolly good and it certainly didn't feel like a holiday. I suppose, though, if we Americanized it to "medication vacation" it would be just as unhappy-making. Without ADHD drugs, I feel as if I've traveled to England only to watch BBC America!
This week, February 24-March 2, is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week in the U.S. In this video, I share the ideas behind NEDA Week, as well as how the stigma of eating disorders relates to the Stand Up for Mental Health Campaign on HealthyPlace.com.
A while back I wrote on a campaign that was working to change the face of mental illness. It presented real, live people with mental illness that challenged the assumptions that people might have about mental illness. Namely that we’re all unemployed, unsuccessful, useless crazy people.
Now, I did have some problems with the campaign but I applauded their attempt to get people to realize that mental illness is about real people and that each person with a mental illness is an individual with all the possibilities of any other individual in our society.
And I found myself putting my own face on mental illness, bipolar disorder, just the other day. I did it by using the phrase, “. . . people with bipolar, just like me.”
Addiction is typically seen as being a bad thing but is it possible to take the negative aspects of addiction and transform them into something positive? This video explores this idea. Watch
My point being, I'm right there with you. I hate the rollercoaster. I just want to live life without being in a state of constant fight or flight mode, only for his character to change and de-escalate and I fall for the person I fell for all over again.
Exhausting is a horrible word. The understatement of all understatements, if you will.
I wish there were better support groups for this kind of mental health condition.