Mental Health Support

Thank you again Karen Tyrrell for visiting this blog. Karen's answers to my questions got me thinking. That's the great thing about sharing your own experience with other Bipolar Landers: you always learn something useful.

So how would I answer my own questions? I have given below the most honest truthful answers I can.

Whenever the subject of mental health medication comes up, either on the Internet of in face-to-face discussions, it seems to me there are basically two camps: those for and those against. I don't think that's good enough.

Those against medication fall into three groups:

When we think 'Bi-Polar Disorder sufferers' we usually think of ourselves, those of us who Live in Bi-Polar Land (whether it is in the Mountains of BPD I or the High Plateaux of BPD II). We must never forget that our family (and close friends) suffer our illness too.

I am very proud to feature a new guest writer this month, Kitty Holman who writes extensively on nursing issues and nurse training.

Kitty's article contains so much wisdom that I wish it were passed on throughout the nursing profession as compulsory reading in replacement of the many outdated 'tablets of stone' currently addressing the treatment of so-called mental patients. Thank you Kitty.

Karen Tyrrell is an author, who has recovered from Bi-Polar Disorder after developing her own Wellness Plan. She now understands and avoids her triggers, and works hard to maintain her health.

I am very proud to publish on my blog this article on a brief history of psychiatry throughout the ages written by Shannon Wills. It gives an interesting account of how attitudes and treatments for mental illness have evolved - not always in the straight line of progress but rather at the mercy of the societal culture prevalent at the time. The way a society treats the mentally ill speaks volumes about that society.

I am now totally off my evening medication and, to my surprise, I feel a little lost as well as immensely relieved. I have lost the evening ritual that has punctuated my life for the past two-and-a-half years.

I did not expect to feel this AT ALL and yet, when I put the leftover boxes of medication away, I felt a little sad - as if I were saying goodbye to a good friend.

I suppose that my evening tablet (Mirtazapine) has been a good friend. It has:

I don't like depending on pills - nobody does. Having said that, ever since I was prescribed the cocktail of drugs I am currently on, I have been resolutely diligent in following my prescription, that is until two days ago.

The evening medication I take has always been 'heavy' for me. From the beginning, side effects have included:

Ah...  that troublesome word :'mood'.... What is it exactly?....

I think I spoke too soon. There I was wondering whether I would soon need to decrease my medication and the old depression decided to kick in BIG time, just to remind me of what I would be like without the tablets.

Over the last two days, I have started to feel locked behind bars again, a prisoner of my bi-polar disorder.

I know only too well that my illness is two things: