When I was diagnosed as mentally ill, I read on the Internet and felt from Dr's that spiritualism is an illusion as well as a lot of other feelings I had been having was only a symptom of my illness. At the time I had no one to tell me any thing different, I questioned my faith and every thing I have believed as truth my whole life.
I started to question myself. Since I was 'mentally ill' I must be the one who's crazy and maybee some of the things around me aren't real. Once I questioned one thing, that lead to another thing and another. That in itself was making me crazy! I doubted my perseption of the whole world. I focused on this and let other people take advantage of my fear and vonerable state.
People with bipolar disorder are unique people and don't fit into the regular mold, similar to someone in school with ADD who learns differently than others. Today's society caiter's to the majority excluding others that can't conform. This society is not set up so that we can live naturally, for ex: our sleeping patterns are different from what comes natural to us, the way we were designed. I could go on.
We who have bipolar disorder are gifted! I'm going to list some of the gifts I have so you can look for them in yourself. I see things in a unique perspective than other people which helps me solve problems and am able to help others to see things in a different way. This can even be an asset in a job. Being artistic comes naturally to me. For me it's painting. Most people would have to do more schooling for things that come naturally to me. I feel I have the gift of feeling and hearing God and the spiritual realm around me. You may relate to some of these examples of my gifts and have some more benefits you can think of and share. I used to read website after site and it brought me down.
Finally I realised, partly with the help of The Icarus Project's site, the link is on my home page, when I stopped struggling within this society to be like every one else and learnt how to exercise my gifts, it often gives me the upper hand, a unique edge.
I will briefly go into something I've learned about people's fear of seeking professional help. This is something I will further go into another time. The majority of fears are that Doctors will give medication that will interfere with a spiritual connection, artistic talent, one's personality and the medication will mess up you brain even more. This doesn't have to be the case. There are so many advances and if you get a referral from your Pd Dr to a good Phyc Dr that you feel comfortable with and voice your concerns and be in charge of the medications you take.
I would also like to mention that not every one with bipolar disorder has to take prescription drugs. There is cognitive therapy and natural ways like vitamins which can help depending on the degree of your illness. I still would suggest seeing your Dr. in any case and go on prescription medication if you are self medicating yourself through street drugs, alcohol, sex etc.
In Canada most one on one and group counseling is covered by the government if your Dr refers you. If you don't have insurance and can't afford any prescription drugs that are for your mental health, your Dr should have a form you can fill out and the government will pay for it. If you have any problems or need help with information on how to get quality free care ask me.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Stuck in the mud?
If you've been in a situation of being sick and are stuck for a while, it becomes harder and harder to get back to your old self. Most of the time the longer you wait the harder and scarier it is to change from your routine no matter how hard you want to. Often people around you will either antagonise you to move on or makes you feel that this is where you'll to stay for the rest of your life'. None of that helps or is true!!!!
Bipolar disorder has depression, being manic is a false scene of energy. When I was at my worst I had no energy to even get off the couch or understand what I was watching on the TV. I was on an extreme scale of depression at that time, coming off of a major long term manic episode. I slowly progressed and learned simple and healthy techniques to create energy so I could start my recovery.
The first step in creating a small bit of energy. Create desires and write them down. They don't necessaryly have to be something achievable. For ex, live in a castle, get a job, have a family, fly like in the guy in 'Heroes'. This will give you enough energy to create goals, short term achievable ones and long term possibly achievable ones. Every goal you concur the more energy you'll have to achieve the next one.
Often people get stuck in one place in life because of your illness. You know or may not know that you really can go further that where you are, be like any one else and may exceed them depending on how you look at things. It is a hard hole to climb out of but you can. Write me to let me know what some of your advice.
For me It's especially hard knowing who I was before and what I may be capable of. Feeling as though I lost so many years struggling to become stable. I ignored being bipolar for so long that I just crashed. The movie 'Milk' helped me see that it's never to late to start again and at that moment I allowed myself to think of a future.
I thought of things I could and wanted to do. All those ideas ended up frustrating and depressing me. Then one day I had clarity to organise those ideas in an order of a time line. I wrote them all down and realised what I should be working on first. I had a handful of other projects I put in the category of 'desires'. Hmm it became so much more simple to me. If I only did one or two out of six desires in the future, that would be a great accomplishment!
Most people struggle to some degree with these feelings whether they have a mental illness or not. Share some of your experiences, advice or questions.
Bipolar disorder has depression, being manic is a false scene of energy. When I was at my worst I had no energy to even get off the couch or understand what I was watching on the TV. I was on an extreme scale of depression at that time, coming off of a major long term manic episode. I slowly progressed and learned simple and healthy techniques to create energy so I could start my recovery.
The first step in creating a small bit of energy. Create desires and write them down. They don't necessaryly have to be something achievable. For ex, live in a castle, get a job, have a family, fly like in the guy in 'Heroes'. This will give you enough energy to create goals, short term achievable ones and long term possibly achievable ones. Every goal you concur the more energy you'll have to achieve the next one.
Often people get stuck in one place in life because of your illness. You know or may not know that you really can go further that where you are, be like any one else and may exceed them depending on how you look at things. It is a hard hole to climb out of but you can. Write me to let me know what some of your advice.
For me It's especially hard knowing who I was before and what I may be capable of. Feeling as though I lost so many years struggling to become stable. I ignored being bipolar for so long that I just crashed. The movie 'Milk' helped me see that it's never to late to start again and at that moment I allowed myself to think of a future.
I thought of things I could and wanted to do. All those ideas ended up frustrating and depressing me. Then one day I had clarity to organise those ideas in an order of a time line. I wrote them all down and realised what I should be working on first. I had a handful of other projects I put in the category of 'desires'. Hmm it became so much more simple to me. If I only did one or two out of six desires in the future, that would be a great accomplishment!
Most people struggle to some degree with these feelings whether they have a mental illness or not. Share some of your experiences, advice or questions.
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