I’m fine, but I’m bipolar. I’m on seven medications, and I take medication three times a day. This constantly puts me in touch with the illness I have. I’m never quite allowed to be free of that for a day. It’s like being a diabetic.
Carrie Fisher
I’m fine, but I’m bipolar. I’m on seven medications, and I take medication three times a day. This constantly puts me in touch with the illness I have. I’m never quite allowed to be free of that for a day. It’s like being a diabetic.
Carrie Fisher
And my ex husband could never understand why I can’t forget that I have several mental illnesses. I am reminded every morning and every night when I pop those little pills that keep everyone sane. He never could understand why as he put it “I always put my illness first”. When you are popping 5 or 6 pills before you even have coffee, it’s hard not to.
Good quote 🙂
It is a good quote and dead on. I never thought of it the way she says it. There are times that it seems that all I am is my disease, but that’s for a good reason. I work hard to help end the stigma of mental illness. For the most part I’m okay – My friends and family are very supportive, but I know so many who do not have that support. They are the ones I work so hard for.
I feel no stigma at all regarding my various illnesses. The only one that initially throws people is when I casually mention “Oh yeah, I have Bipolar disorder”. I am very lucky in that I have a support network albeit a small one, but there are many who suffer (needlessly, imo) alone because they are afraid of what would happen if they outed themselves. And rightly so. The stigma surrounding the more severe psychiatric diagnoses is definitely more pronounced than someone with situational depression or depression due to stress. Bipolar, Schizophrenia, the Schizoid family of illnesses all seem to really freak people out. And, I really don’t have a solid answer for that which kind of bugs me. 3% of the entire world has Bipolar disorder (I don’t know the other numbers). That’s a lot of people. 3 out of every 100 people. You would think the world would be a little more understanding, but for some reason, we scare the world. I have never met anyone who was seriously ill who was violent without cause.
I completely understand when you say sometimes all you feel like is your disease. I get the same way. I guess because I have had some form of Affective disorder since what seems like time immemorial. I don’t have a real big problem telling people I am mentally ill. If you don’t like it, then go away. If you think you can handle it, and are willing to be educated and do some basic reading, then great, hang out. I have been mentally ill since I was a child so I sort of have an attitude about it 🙂
But the pills quote got me a bit because I have had that thought of Oh my god did I take my meds today? That’s when I realize that I am truly mentally ill, and that my life sort of revolves around it in this wacky little orbit that is not round, nor oval, but kind of wobbly.
I hope my blog reaches at least a few people, and I talk about it with people trying to get a little sense into them because not everyone has the same attitude that I do about being mental. Those are the ones that really need for a meaningful dialogue to start about mental health education. I sincerely hope that Robin Williams’ suicide does not get swept under the rug. If someone so seemingly happy could be hiding, how many others are there? His death would be a perfect place to start talking with intent about mental health.
yes, she has put it very succinctly and matter of factly. i ended up in the hospital for a condition i had while taking lithium. now that i am off lithium, this condition should have resolved, but it has not. nothing like not only being in touch with your illness through meds, but also through past effects of past meds haunting you still today.
I’m sorry to hear that, kat. It must be very frustrating. I’ve never had Lithium, and from many stories I hear, I think that’s a good thing.
lithium was excellent for me, and i am disappointed my current pdoc changed me to depokate. i am not being stabilized nearly as well. i have already had a 3 week mixed severe episode that we are just smoothing out with tweaking some of the other meds. and now i find out the lithium kidney issue i had that should have stopped, didn’t and i had to have dialysis last nite. so, since that issue is not going away like it should, there is really no point in not being on the lithium and well controlled again. ugh.
OMG It’s sad we have to take meds even though they wreak havoc on our bodies. I hope they find a solution to your kidney problems.
I read that and thought, “Amen, sister!” I can get lost in the fact that I have bipolar disorder, and often don’t think much of popping those pills…only when I am well. When I am sick, the pills become the obsession — what can be tweaked or changed, so I can start feeling better? And usually something DOES get tweaked or changed that makes me feel better. Or enough time passes and I spin out of the cycle, but usually it is med related.
I can be really bad about taking my morning meds, because, somewhere in my mind, I’ve decided they’re not that important. Well, they do contain almost half my day’s lithium, so I’d say they’re pretty important. But still, some days I just can’t bring myself to open the mediset to AM and take them — I can’t quite explain it.