All of a sudden the winds of change come roaring in from the north and leaves you suffering from a mental illness. This may very well be the most difficult stage in your life but there are things that you can do to speed up the process and get you back into the ballgame called normality.
1. Hate to break it to you but your doctor, nurses, therapists and counselors are human beings who do make mistakes. If you do not agree with what your mental health professional is saying then question it immediately. Last time I was in the hospital a nurse came by to take my blood. I asked what the test was for and she gave me an odd look then checked the form. The test she said is to test my lithium level and I responded nicely I had stopped taking lithium a couple of weeks earlier. She checked and sure enough I was no longer on Lithium so no poking needles for me.
2. Write everything that you want accomplished in a doctor’s appointment beforehand. The problem with some mental illness is difficulties with focus. The doctor says something that sends you in the wrong direction and before you know it all of your questions that you wanted answered never happened. Write your questions and concerns down and just hand the paper right to the professional at the start of the meeting.
3. Keep a daily journal where you include all emotions and behaviors through out the day. This serves two purposes (A) It provides the doctor with the information that will help them serve you better (B) It may show you and the professional the patterns that you seem to be following and the faster they are identified the easier they are to correct. This is a very helpful tool when figuring out meds, med dosages and self injury trends. When I started Seroquel everyday I would have problems in the earlier afternoon. The doctor took the action of adding an additional dose and the difficult period disappeared. A trend I have experienced is when you tell the doctor of a bad period they are slow to react but when they see it written down on paper the doctor quickly responds. Go figure.
4. Tell your doctor, therapist or whoever everything. Something that may seem small and insignificant to you may be a indicator of a major problem. Your mental health professional relies on you for the information to help solve the issue and if you do not tell them everything your basically shooting yourself in the foot
5. Medication. There is a very good reason why your doctor has you on medication and I know the side effects suck but it is important to stay on them and make sure you take the meds every single day. When you decide not to take your med one day and then starting again the day after your putting your brain almost into a shock like environment which causes more problems. For the majority of mental meds to be effective they need to hit a certain level and stay there. If the side effects are just to much to handle then call your doctor immediately but do not stop the meds on your own or you may be introduced to a new level of hell.
6. The stronger your support system is the better off you are. The best part of the internet age is that it is easy to find support. Find a forum that you like, join an online group, invite your friends and family to join the fight just do what you have to do to get as much support as possible. Unfortunately all of your “friends” may be on board at the beginning but a lot of them will disappear with time. Online forums and groups are full of people with the same condition, emotions and behaviors who can identify with your battles and are quick to offer a pep talk, advice or an ear to listen.
7. It is up to you. The best care in the world will mean absolutely nothing if your not willing to fight for yourself. Sitting around waiting for the sickness to disappear may work with the flu but it does not work with mental illness. If you do nothing then nothing will happen except for your condition getting a lot worse. Fight for your life and fight for your recovery.
8. Routine. It is important to establish a routine and follow through with it. With depression it is easy to let little things slide such as eating, hygiene and leaving the house. Every day I make sure I eat, shower and leave the house at least once and to be honest more then once I had to force myself to do so but I recognize how easy it is to fall into a trend that will just cause more difficulty.
9. Recognize when your in trouble and act. There may be times when your brain just decides to jump out of your head and go south. This is the time when you tell your doctor that it is time for a more intensive form of treatment. The saying I use that involves this area is “When I can not convince myself I am not a danger to myself or anyone else it is time to check myself in”. The life you are saving may very well be your own.
10. Hope. Never give up on hope that things will get better. If you believe that you will never get better then that is exactly what will happen. Remember it does not matter how you fight just that you are fighting. Never give up on yourself.
Well there is my top ten to helping yourself on the way to recovery. Believe in yourself and the possibility of a better tomorrow then you are already on the path to wellness but whatever you do don’t give up.
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http://www.borderlinepersonalitydisorder.com/
on this site there is a radio broadcast about BPD. Not sure how I feel about BPD being described as the leprosy of mental illness. Talk about making me feel more ashamed.
Jackal
http://www.jackal.motime.com
Not very impressed either. The doctor is basically just reading straight out of the DSM and adding to the stigma. The borderline trait part was amusing as her description qualifies 99% of the world population.
I’m curious about one key issue.I have ten steps that I developed to save myself a few years back. I was dying and had in fact, been dead once from bipoar. Lithium OD. But the disease itself was eating me alive. I was degenerating into a subhuman, getting much worse with each passing year.
I agree with your attitude toward this as far as fighting the stigma although I never had an issue with that. Being a large, Marine war vet made the stigma part a non issue for me. No one in their right mind would mess with me. (I’m very happy not to be that way any more BTW.) And I fully believe in fighting the disease, rather than kicking back and hoping for the best but what does one do when no medicines work?
I was given close to 200 different meds in endles amounts and combinations across 6 years but nothing worked.
I am not picking a fight. I’m just being honest.
I also worked in a psych hospital many years ago. I was the guy who handled the violent folks. I was sick even as I held this job but these people were far worse. I fought nightly and the fights were often severe. These people would get HEAVILY medicated but it never lasted. Many were resistant to the meds. That was me, too.
So what does one do when it becomes clear that meds are having no effect?
I mean, I actually learned ways to get out of the cycle entirely and life has been fantastic for about three years now but what do you think as a professional? You must have seen the same thing with folks who didn’t get better no matter what pill or injection was given to them.
I have been med free for those entire three years but I take steps to fill the gap. I didn’t just quit and call it a day. That would have been very bad. But when I was sick and eating pills like Pez candy I was so massively upset with doctors and the whole system.
Take care,
Ken
Sometimes i belive everyone is a little bi polor but you cant just say bipolor cause theres so many different kinds of it im bi polor 2 and i suffer mostly from downs not the mania so much i do have times of manic behavior but for the most part i stay angry or depressed Bipolor is one disease tho that is very hard to controll even with meds cause like myself the meds stop working not long after im on em I build tolerences to any meds rapidly but i know what you mean about losing your train of thought totally some days im just fine others i couldnt find my coffee cup if it was sitting on the desk in front of me. So i write alot to LOL.
In defense of the radio show, Dr. Perry Hoffman is really a strong advocate for persons with mental illness.
Her message is one of hope, not despair.
Hey Ken I am kind of curious if the “Do you need those meds” – http://www.untreatableonline.com/2008/02/do-you-really-need-those-meds.html
answered your question?
Hi Untreatable!
Yeah, I see where you’re coming from with that other post. I think we actually view this situation in very similar lights.
The only things I’d add are the following: I fully believe meds are necessary in a crisis situation; I believe based on the science backing it and my own experiences that nutrition plays an immense role in many CNS disorders; I believe if meds can be avoided at all, then they should be; and I feel we, as a society, are going to face some pretty hairy disasters as large groups of people reap the results of decades of psychotropic meds use.
That all sort of came across a bit preachy to my eyes so just know I am a regular guy at heart. The main thing I did to get my symptoms under control was to address my nutrition. And food alone was not ever going to do it.
I had reasons backed by sound sources why I even chose that as my first step but it worked. Not immediately but noticeably.
I stabilized enough to be able to think my way through the rest of my problems and decide what other steps needed to be added.
Everything I came up with, had nothing to do with anything any doctor ever told me. And I’m not ranting against the docs either. I let them have a whack at it for six years and I only got worse. I faithfully and in total desperation, did and took everything they ever prescribed me. I got brief respites but really just kept devolving.
Started digging and doing it my way and I got better. Pretty simple science there.
I must also add, I didn’t invent anything. I just found others to help me whose viewpoints and methods seemed to make sense. Took a leap of faith, fell flat more than once, and whittled it down to what seemed to be a truly effective plan. I was my own guinea pig. This process took me about three years and I stayed on meds in the beginning. I also had professional help in getting off my enormous list of meds, gradually.
From what I read elsewhere, there are even more ways to fight these illnesses than what I came up with and I imagine there are some really good ones that I never tried or never heard of. That would seem to be a fair assumption.
Bottom line; we do expect too much from drugs and in the case of bipolar and depression, I don’t feel they are even the right way to go. Not long term. Short term to keep from going mad – yes. But not long term.
Take care,
Ken
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