I’ve spent the time on leave from school, working hard on my project at work (summer is our busy season), spending time with my children and working on trying to declutter my house. I didn’t get all THAT far in the decluttering department, but I have made some important headway and that’s enough for me right now.
» Continue reading “It’s been quite a summer”
The last month or so, I have basically been underwater. In addition to work, school, pets, kids, enduring the absence of my husband, finishing out the church school year, choir, and trying out a new extracurricular activity (soccer), I also have weathered a few health issues, including chronic back pain due (apparently and surprisingly) to mild scoliosis, “benign labyrinthitis” which I can tell you does not feel at ALL benign, a really stubborn tooth that has me scheduled for my FOURTH root canal tomorrow, and, of course, my ever present friend, depression.
» Continue reading “Where I’ve been”
Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class – CNN.com.
This is the ultimate in being your own best advocate. When you can’t find answer, continue looking, even if you have to go it alone. I think it especially highlights the need for quality control measures in pathology and medicine. We are allowed to routinely get second opinions on major decisions, but what about when lab results yield little help?
» Continue reading “Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class – CNN.com”
Gay soldier: Don’t fire me – amFIX – CNN.com Blogs.
This isn’t a GLBT blog, per se, but in the last few weeks it’s where my head has been, as more states struggle with the idea of equality. This eloquent and poignant letter from an Army serviceman who was fired for honesty leaves me outraged, and it should leave you outraged too. Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
I have witnessed first hand the bootstrap conundrum. There is a prevailing attitude in our country that people who have problems need to learn to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, snap out of it, and “just do it.” A typical bipolar response to this attitude, however, is “how do you pick yourself up by your bootstraps when you don’t even have any boots?”
» Continue reading “Part 4: The Bootstrap Conundrum & Personal Accountability”
In ye olde days, doctors used to call it “compliance.” You were prescribed medication and if you took your meds, you were compliant. If, for whatever reason, you did not take your meds, you were labeled “non-compliant” with all the attendant bad juju that went with it. Non-compliant was fairly well synonymous with “difficult” or “untreatable.”
» Continue reading “Part 3: Treatment, Adherence, Crisis, and Stigma”
Someone recently related to me that they had received a diagnosis but weren’t sure they accepted it. I have seen this scenario played out in the bipolar community many times: “But I am not psychotic/manic/suicidal” etc. The “problem” with diagnosis, with any kind of labeling or categorization of a person’s personality or identity or deeply ingrained mental characteristics, is that it is an incomplete way to communicate information.
» Continue reading “Part 1: Diagnosis, Misdiagnosis, and Manifestations”
I have been thinking about mental wellness over the past few days, in response to the idea that a patient might not accept a diagnosis and the role diagnosis plays in mental wellness. I’ve also been thinking about the concept of “reframing” that my therapist has me working on, and the concept of mental illness. I wanted to try to reframe the idea of mental illness to approach it from the perspective of mental wellness instead.
» Continue reading “Four Part Series: Diagnosis, Denial, Treatment, and Personal Accountability”
