What do we want to call ourselves? I could currently go by patient, client, consumer, user and the psychiatrized. I am neither an ex-user or a psychiatric-survivor just yet--though I hope to become both of those. Some might argue I'm surviving, but as long as I'm a "consumer" I don't feel I can call myself... Continue Reading →
The Trip to California
I've been in CA for a couple days. I'm doing amazingly well. My "depression" has lifted and I'm energetic and hopeful in spite of having a gargantuan task ahead of me. Fifteen years of my dad's crap. And he's a pack rat, and doesn't want to part with anything. I actually went around the house... Continue Reading →
Article-Bipolar Research Points to Drug-Free Treatment
This article in the Guardian suggests some scientists are reconsidering the drug paradigm for bipolar disorder. I don't think it goes far enough but it's a start. What is very interesting in this brief article is the mention of women with bipolar disorder being effected premenstrually. This fact is rarely mentioned. In my case every... Continue Reading →
My Trip
I leave this early evening for California. I'm okay. My dark mood has lifted. I don't think I have to worry about a constant ugly depression just yet. I awoke at 2:30 am as I'm worried about my trip. I will be up 24 hours before I am able to go to bed in CA.... Continue Reading →
Winter’s Return–literally and metaphorically
Accompanying my dark emotional "winter" has been the weather in our area. We live in the mountains. Spring had begun to burst through. Flowers were blossoming and the vibrantly green buds on trees were bursting open to a sea of green everywhere in the forest. The beautiful lightness of springtime was upon us. My spirits... Continue Reading →
More Complications
I'm not doing well. It could be said I'm having a complicated depression or a complicated grieving process. Ruth at Off LabelArchives of General Psychiatry that argues that grieving and loss should not be labeled depression unless they are "complicated". She summarizes and comments: discusses the study from the 'Complicated' episodes, whether triggered by bereavement... Continue Reading →
A time for everything
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to... Continue Reading →
Highlight: Indispensable Book — Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs
By far the most informative, well-documented critique on psychiatric drugs that I've come across is Grace Jackson's " Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent." It is appropriate for both professionals and lay-people, it is succinct and concise and loaded with information. In 2004, an on-line medical newsletter posted an article with a captivating... Continue Reading →
Grief
I am grieving. I feel like shit. Last night I told my husband I wanted to give up. I don't know what that actually means. How does one give up while still living, except by suicide, which is not what I was talking about. But my grief is making me feel awful and what with... Continue Reading →
Listening to Psychosis (or other forms of mental anguish)
Knowing what I know now about outcomes for schizophrenics, or people experiencing delusions, who are listened to, who are not told their delusions are crazy or wrong--that many of these people who are taken seriously recover, I often wonder what would have happened had someone listened to my (drug-induced) delusions. If it had not been... Continue Reading →
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