This is a link to great, in my opinion, commentary about Robin William’s suicide. It is written very sensitively with a great deal of respect for the actor as a human being. as well as the humanity of all of us. I would be very interested to hear other people’s take on this, especially within the confines of the blog post. Does this change your mind, at all? The author of the blog, Peter DeGiglio, makes a perfectly rational and sound argument. Did this change your mind?
Reblogged from The Bipolarized: I found this on my bloggie friend Brad’s blog, and when I read it, I could relate to every single thing the author pointed out. My personal favorites: “Can’t you just control your moods?” (No, I can’t. I have never been able too. Don’t you think I would if I could), and I am assuming this one to be apropos to a depressive episode: “Just suck it up and be a man.” or my version “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. There are worse things in life!” (Ummmm, no, there really aren’t. My depression trumps all other world problems, and I cannot just get up and pretend everything is hunky-dory because my brain chemistry says it is time to be depressed. What about faulty wiring do you not get? I am not like you). Oh, and my other favorite: “Are you taking your meds?” (NO, No, I am not……duh, I must be taking them if I am functioning. It is pretty obvious when a mentally interesting person goes off their meds. It is really obvious in some cases, and more subtle in others, but you can tell that the individual is not acting “right.” Of course I am taking my meds, I am gaining weight and my teeth are falling out. What more evidence do you want?). So, for all you Bipolars out there who have heard any one of these things, this is a great post!
7 Annoying Things People Tell Bipolars (And why they hurt).
so why do I not feel excited about it? I could have gone bicycling, taken a walk, something to be able to experience this beautiful fall day. But, I chose to stay inside, doing nothing of any importance, and trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am going to have to start the whole relationship/dating thing all over in my 40’s. I thought it was bad enough in my 20’s. Now, I have been diagnosed as Bipolar, with PTSD, and associated anxiety issues, and ADD. So, I will have to find a man that is not an alcoholic/drug addict, or trying to relive the 80’s, lives at home (although there are exceptions), does not want to have to do any research on Bipolar disorder, and will love me just the way I am. I am approaching 43; I am pretty set in the way I do some things, and you won’t get me to change (a mistake my ex made), So, I figure I have already ruled out about 98% of the eligible male population in my age range where I live. I think I’ll just be that weird cat lady that everyone talks about but never talks to.
I really want a different diagnosis. Because it does come up. I do not think it fair to not tell a person that I am serious about who is serious about me that I have Bipolar disorder. See them run screaming for the door, next please…. I think i am just depressed a little bit. Yuck, I hate feeling icky.
This is my summation of my research, and some personal opinions gleaned from a lifetime of mental illness:
Part Three:
Due to the length of this treatise, I am skipping the different types of psychotherapy and just saying that your therapist and your psychiatrist should communicate and be on the same page. As for the patient. Complying with treatment including psychotherapy is key to recovery or management, whichever you prefer. Also, if you are going through a tough life event, it is a good time to talk to your doctors about your medication needs and you therapy needs. You may need to add a medication or increase you already take, and you may need to see your therapist more frequently until you feel that you are safe, and can handle the situation.
In closing, Bipolar Disorder in all its various forms, manifestations and severity of symptoms is a rollercoaster ride. I tend to compare calm times to being on a long frequency sine wave where you rock gently through the ups and downs, and episodes both depressed and manic as being on the Richter scale. Then you are like an earthquake, and you never know what devastation you will leave in your wake. Hopefully, you never go higher than a 2.0 earthquake because then real damage can be done. Having Bipolar Disorder, in my opinion, requires a level of inner strength that is difficult to achieve because you will lose friends, you will lose husbands and wives, lovers and partners, jobs, and a sense of who you once were. You will question your self-worth, and your worth to other people. It is a devastating disease. It takes and takes, but will never give back. That you have to learn how to do on your own. It is a very needy disease that wears out everyone including the afflicted person. Even if you have the best doctors, and you have the disorder mostly managed, it is usually at a great cost to a lot of people including you. It can be a very lonely illness. But, this is not to say that it is a hopeless situation. You can manage it, you can find friends who will understand or will be willing to learn about it, you can find partners that are understanding that it’s not you that is acting out of sorts, it is the disorder. It is possible to rebuild your life with sympathetic people who will be there when you really need them, and they will understand that you are going through a rough patch, and need help. So, all is not lost as I once thought, and I would imagine other people have felt upon being diagnosed. If you choose to educate yourself about the whole thing, medication, therapy, mood swings, etc. you will know what you are fighting, and you can get the better of it.
I am thinking about the impossible to know with a reasonable level of certainty. What do two people have to do or not do to make a marriage work or die a flaming death much like mine? AC/DC’s song “Shot Down in Flames” comes to mind. While I admit that the world is probably a safer place for all involved if I live alone, I wonder what it was that I obviously did or did not do. I know what my problem with the whole grown-ups behaving badly thing is/was. No need to cover old ground, or extremely tainted water under a falling bridge.
I realize that having a diagnosis such as Bipolar tends to knock you a little sideways, and your perceptions of yourself in relation to the world changes a bit (maybe more than a bit). However, once you have recovered your senses, and you happen to be a highly functional mentally interesting person, shouldn’t things get easier not more tedious? Yes, I flew off the handle one too many times, but once again, I wasn’t the one who could not leave my computer sometimes for days on end. I tried to communicate, but how do you communicate with someone who does not know how to communicate with you? It’s like clapping with one hand (thanks to Anthrax for that analogy).
What are you supposed to do with someone who has no desire to really get to know who you are apart from your interestingness, and does not seem to have any desire to learn anything substantial about Bipolar? I, upon receiving said diagnosis, went out and read everything that seemed legitimate. How can you battle that which you do not understand fully? Answer: you cannot effectively deal with any illness unless you know what you are dealing with.
This was supposed to be forever, but I guess that’s a big fairy tale society tells little girls: your knight in shining armor will come and all will be sparkly and shiny and smiley and happily ever after. They lied. I think I met my knight in shining armor, and ditched him to get married to a man who turned out to be a far cry from the “face” he put on during the courtship. I am sure he feels the same about me, but I really do not know how to be anything but myself. He knew my moods weren’t completely handled, but he said, no problem, he could handle it. Apparently not.
So, now I am in my early 40’s looking at starting all over again. Dating in my 30’s was not a problem because of said knight in shining armor. I never had to worry about someone to go drink beer and listen to blues bands with. He was always there for me, in all ways. What the hell was I thinking? Now, I am left to pick up the wreckage that used to be a perfectly satisfying life. I did not have self-worth problems, I did not have problems with how I looked, I did not have a problem with how feminine I was or was not. I didn’t have a problem with a lot of things. As I imagine he didn’t either. But, I wasn’t shattering his masculinity every single day.
i think that I took him very much by surprise when I actually did file for divorce. I had mentioned it several times over the past couple of years, but he never thought I would actually take any action. He said everything I said was just talk and more talk, no action. Well, I guess you shouldn’t threaten me physically. I don’t cotton to that very well. I just wish I could pinpoint where it all went wrong. When I became unhappy with him and he with me. I play it over in my mind, and nothing seems to just pop out at me. I think I became upset with myself when I stopped getting mad about his Internet activities. There was no point. i was just wasting breath. I do not know, but I do not think I will try it again anytime soon. Talk about a learning experience. Never again will I allow myself to be treated like that. I am surprised I didn’t see it until the very end. After all, I grew up in an emotionally abusive family. I should have seen it for what it was and left much sooner. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel so scarred. Again.
Me, personally, I would lock myself in the bathroom with a bottle of chardonnay, and some lavender scented bubble bath.
Okay, all the funny stuff is over, and you are struck by your realization that someone you have loved does not and has not nor will they ever see you as a walking, breathing, and sensitive person that happens to also HAVE Bipolar disorder. They see you for your disease and they choose to define you as a walking pathology. How do you fight the preconceived idea that you are bipolar and that is all you are to them? You have become a non-entity, and realize you have been invisible for a long time. Is that why you fight about really stupid stuff? Negative attention is better than no attention; I think it was Skinner who came up with that idea (?) It really doesn’t matter who said it. It is part of the “woe is me” model of ongoing, chronic mental illness. I do not agree with this “woe is me” approach on many levels.
First, the afflicted individual is saying to him/herself, I am just an illness, I am not a person. And, therefore people can do anything they want to me because I am like a disease popsicle.
Second, as demonstrated by a person I thought was intelligent, everything that goes wrong can be tied directly to the fact that you ARE bipolar. Yet, anther example of the stupidity that goes into creating the stereotypes and stigma of having a mental issue. It’s people like this that continue to spread the epidemic that is the stigmatization of mental illness; why would anyone willingly tell someone their story if they knew it would be used to stab you in the back with it? Repeatedly. I over heard said person talking to an old neighbor and actually told her we were getting divorced because of MY BIPOLAR. Ummm. Hello, I am the one who filed for divorce! Doesn’t that mean to you, “Oh shit, I’d better figure out what is going wrong?”
We are not getting divorced because I have bipolar, it is because you are addicted to Internet Porn (which I have repeatedly told you I disliked), it is because you have become emotionally and verbally abusive towards me. You set me up every time. You make sure that I have no money, that I have limited access to your car (I let you use mine without question). All of the classic signs of abuse. You have no idea how much you have hurt me in the name of helping me out the life I had which was a perfectly good one, I had friends, I went out. You complain we never went anywhere. Well, maybe if you weren’t so fucking vain that you have to look like an Armani suit every time you go anywhere. You are losing sight of the reason’s I decided to divorce you. I have not sight of mine, or maybe you never knew the reasons why the marriage fell apart. HINT: it happened the night you threatened me with bodily harm. I don’t take that from anyone.
You have consistently treated me like a walking destructive force of nature, and yes, I can be. However, I haven’t been that way in many moons which if you were not busy with your porn. you would have noticed. You treat me like I am negative, defeatist, blah blah blah. You made me into that. Stupid @^#@! *&%^ you! I am out of here in less than a week. Do not fear I will take the Internet away with me, I will take my friends away with. You are pathetic.
How do you recover purpose as well as self-worth when someone had hurt you so badly, that you do not know who to trust, who’s mask is better than the next one. what is their real personality, basically paranoia? Is it allowable paranoia, is it valid paranoia, or is that one voice in you that says trust no one? Or are you filtering through your rather warped and damaged lens? Is it really your fault? Probably, since every thing is his mind eventually comes around to illness. He can’t even tell when I am manic or when I depressed. That’s the extent of observation It’s like a cave man grunting upon the finding of meat. That’s about the level of functioning he has. He is a cave man grunting upon finding meat, but never looks past that to see if there is more.
This is an idea I got from another blogger who wrote a post about what it means to her to be a high-functioning depressive. You can read it here: http://maycauseirritation.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/high-functioning-depressive/
So, I have set out to figure out what it means to me to be a high-functioning bipolar who does not have a job, is going through a divorce, is not in school or some other worthy activity, and basically reads all day once the blogging is finished and comments answered and blog posts read. So, how does one feel high-functioning when one is lacking all the trappings of someone who is? That seems to be the rub. Hmmm….this is going to take thought, and I think that I am done thinking for the day.
I have thought about this a bit more. A high-functioning bipolar doesn’t go off the deep end because her relationship ended very badly. I doubt that I will maintain a friendship with this particular ex-whatever the hell he thought he was-and whatever the hell I was led to believe he was. He falls into the category of “if I never see you again, it will be too soon.” Currently, only one person has held that honor for about 20 years. And, no you don’t get a cookie or a medal for belonging to this élite group. I think we were a married couple for all of one year before the happy little “diversion” became key to his existence and rendered me null and void. Anyone who can spend 8 hours looking at Internet porn is someone who has a huge problem especially if his wife is a perfectly attractive woman. That just pissed me off. So, I would guess a high-functioning bipolar has some respect for themselves.
I am also very involved with my Buddhist community. I am the women’s leader of a small district which is basically a group of other Buddhists that belong to the same sect, and they all have many years of knowledge that I do not have. Normally, this would absolutely whig someone who wasn’t functioning well out. When not functioning (ie: depressive episode/manic episode/mixed episode), there’s no way that a bipolar with anxiety issues could do this. You cannot deal with people very effectively when in one of those states.
I know that I can now “hide” my bipolar from an employer. I am good at that which is a good thing when it comes to the workplace. I have always been highly competitive with myself, and anything other than superior work product is unacceptable. I was the same way all the way through college. Someone could set a bar for me, and I would (and still do) set it higher. Now, granted, that may not be healthy, and can lead to heart attack, stroke or even death doesn’t bother me. I have always been a type A personality. I get anxious when everything is not going just the way I want it to. Or, the way it is supposed to. Even at the beginning of the manifestation of this illness, I was still producing at a very high level under some extreme stress (which is what I think may have finally brought on the manifestation of symptoms). It is vital to my existence that everything I produce be it a research paper for school or an analysis of misuse of the time-clock to produce unworked overtime, I want it as perfect as possible. Low-functioning people have a tendency towards mediocrity. They do just enough to get by.
Hmm……I am again at a loss. I do not participate in any of the activities that our society values with the exception of my involvement with my religious activities. I guess someone who is a high-functioning bipolar can face difficulties with-out succumbing to the “I am going to kill myself” feelings that seem to always lurk just below the surface. It would be easier on you, but I have seen firsthand the devastation that a suicide causes, so that’s not an option. I guess my vision of a high-functioning bipolar is someone who can deal with difficult situations either personal or work related, is someone who can maintain relationships with people in a give and take type of way rather than always taking or always giving (and not being recognized for it, man that just chaps my hide). Show some appreciation for what you have and what you get. That to me is very important. I will and have been known to stop giving anything of myself if I do not feel appreciated. If you are hungry, there’s the pantry.
I guess a bipolar that is high-functioning be it a person who works or stays home and keeps the house is someone with a strong sense of who they are, what they want out of life, won’t settle (especially if they have before and been taken advantage of~maybe that‘s my own personal problem), is comfortable alone or with people, has friends, can give and take equally, and isn’t stuck in the “woe is me” cycle. They live with it, they don’t “own” it in the more common sense of that expression because to do so would be to identify with the disease, but rather is some one who recognizes it as a part but not the whole of who they are. I am sure there are things I left out, and shall probably remember at a later time. I think I have come to the conclusion that a high-functioning (insert illness here) is someone who knows themselves, and can take care of that self while nurturing the part that needs help.
So, here we go again. Another fateful trip on the counseling merry-go-round. I really hope that the Psychologist is bright enough to cut through the husband’s bullshit. He keeps telling the doctor that I was at an all time low when he met me. He makes it sound like he gave me a life that was not unfulfilling and dull.
I liked my life. I was up at 4 or 5 am, and by 8 am, I was on my bike, heading somewhere for two or three hours. I rode with a close friend (and his brother or nephew, sometimes) every Sunday morning. We’re talking 40 mile treks through the urban jungle complete with smoke belching dragons (aka cars). In the summer, after I got back from riding I would rinse off and go hang out by the pool at the apartments. I’d talk to people, some of us became friends. I dated, I went out with friends. But, somehow the egocentrism he is accusing me of (you only care about your illness, ummmmmm, correct me if I am wrong, but shouldn’t I be somewhat concerned about it, you only care about your cat, well, maybe if you hadn’t made me kill the other two, I wouldn‘t have such a clingy cat;the others were her brother, and surrogate mom, and the last thing I care about is myself).
Maybe if he were more affectionate and supportive instead of being “constructively” critical the majority of the time, I wouldn’t feel the need to be so vigilant about my own well-being. I would know someone was there to help me if I fell. He is not about that. I have to pick myself up and he calls it being egotistical. Maybe if he would actually bother to learn something scientifically researched and published by M.D.’s, P.hD’s, people who have spent their lives researching and treating Bipolar people, and not just relying on some rather unfortunate experiences he had with one who also was Boderline (bad combo), and one who promised him that she had it under control What a fallacy! Bipolar is never “under control”; it is managed with proper medication, seeing a therapist as often as needed and making regular appointments with you psychiatrist.
I told him when I found out what the one woman had told him that I was offering him no guarantees. My bipolar was managed, but that I would never promise that it was under control. And, I was right. I went through episodes of depression, mania, depression and mania, and outright violent moods. I just wish he would educate himself because that would take so much pressure off of me to be “normal” all the time. I can’t cry because that is showing weakness. I cannot be angry, happy, sad, joyous, any emotion because it isn’t “real”. It is the illness. It really does seem to me that that is the way he sees me: as nothing more than a mentally ill person who always needs help, and can’t see herself any other way. I know what I see in the mirror when I am looking: I see a determined person, I see a person who has goals and dreams and the ambition to realize them, I do NOT see a weakling (as he would have me be).
So, I have to question, if I am so many negative things, why’d he even bother looking for me last night? I am pretty good at handling myself, not to mention that I tend to wear Harley hard toed riding boots. That alone could break something if necessary. If I am to be so denigrated in the therapy sessions, why would want to go find that? Are you trying to say I Love You? Why can you not just tell me if you love me or if you don’t? If you don’t, let me go. Let me live. If you do love me, stop disparaging me, and let me live.
But then again, I am the one who could be filtering all of this through a “defective” mind……but I do not think so.
“……Making love to his ego, Ziggy sucked up into his mind…” ~ David Bowie
“Brain Damage” ~ Pink Floyd
The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
got to keep the loonies on the path
The lunatic is in the hall
the lunatics are in the hall
the paper holds their folded faces to the floor
and every day the paper boy brings more
And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
and if there is no room upon the hill
and if your head explodes with dark forbodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon
The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
you raise the blade, you make the change
you rearrange me ‘ till I’m sane
you lock the door
and throw away the key
there’s someone in my head but it’s not me
And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
you shout and no one seems to hear
and if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon
_
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I have Bipolar I with Psychotic Features. I do not always perceive what is real or true, and what my own warped mind has fabricated. I get angry at things most “normal” people would brush off, I get combative when I feel I am being attacked, I experience extreme changes in mood, and the list could go on forever.
My husband is a chronic depressive (not diagnosed) who is constantly harping on me about my illness, and how everything revolves around me. He complains that no one cares about him myself included. I ask him what is bothering him, and he either tells me that nothing is wrong, or he will start talking, and in the end, it is inevitably me who is causing all his problems. I will admit to taking out past frustrations on him, and nobody deserves that. However, there are things he does in the present that have caused arguments as well. He is in nearly complete denial about his depression. He calls it “being out of it.” Call it what you like, he is depressed. I know it when I see it; I have spent most of life that way.
Currently, our marriage is barreling downhill at an astonishing pace. He sleeps on the sofa downstairs, and I sleep in the bed. This has been the arrangement for several months now. He will not talk to me, and when he does the conversation invariably turns to “No one thinks about me, they only think of you.” They are my family. Of course they have my interests at heart; and he has made more than a few mistakes in this marriage and with my family that have caused them to be somewhat against him. He feels entitled to all the attention I “get”.
When he does speak, it is almost a given that my having Bipolar disorder will become the focus of the conversation. I do not think about having Bipolar very often. I have had it for decades. My meds are like taking an aspirin for a headache. I just do not think about it that much. I do monitor my self with regards to mood, anxiety level, etc. so that my psychiatrist can adjust my medication accordingly. He is the one that always brings it up, usually in relation to two other Bipolar women he’s known. He just doesn’t see that I am not them, that Bipolar manifests differently in every person diagnosed. Some are very high functioning, and some are not. I tend to be relatively high functioning (most of the time), so I do not understand some of his criticisms of me. I think it’s transferrence or projection of his feelings onto me. I am the mirror of his own illness; it is easier for him to look at me and project his feelings onto me because I am a diagnosed Manic Depressive than to look at himself and realize that he is depressed and not functioning very well.
For myself, I try not to let his mood get in my way. It is so easy for a Bipolar or anyone, for that matter, to start to feed off the feelings of someone close to them. However, for the Bipolar individual, it is even more important to not allow someone else’s feelings about themselves become your problem. As far as I am concerned, I have to look out for my health first because if I go down the rabbit hole with him, there is nobody to take care of daily household business. That, and Bipolars have a very high suicide rate, both completed and attempted. So, when I get too stressed or feel myself sliding down the rabbit hole for tea with the Mad Hatter, I become concerned because I do have attempts in my past, and the thought will flicker briefly every day that being dead would be easier.
It is difficult enough for a relationship to flourish when one party has Mental Health issues, but when both parties have mental health problems, it becomes survival oriented, communication breaks down as the depressed person becomes more withdrawn and the Bipolar half starts to cycle rapidly through episodes. I have a tendency to think everything is my fault, so when he goes off on one of little journeys, I am often left wondering, “What did I do or didn’t do?” The question drives me nuts. He will claim it has nothing to do with me, but it generally is some oversight on my part. Basically, I am left holding the bag for everything that goes wrong. He won’t even admit to himself that maybe his own problems with depression may be having a negative effect on the relationship. Nope, it is always my manic depression. This type of relationship where both parties have a mental issue doesn’t go very far. It can’t because it always in survival mode; it takes a lot of work to make a relationship like this work. One has to have basic respect and compassion for the other, otherwise it will end as one or the other begins to feel that they need to protect their sanity.
A Bipolar Journey Through The Rabbit Hole 