Mental Health Update

My friend has a good intuition about people, and he felt something wasn’t right–aside from her expensive looking clothes being a tad bit dirty. He approached the young woman and began to talk with her. She told him, “I’m a manic depressive.” So either she or someone else had given her the identity of “manic depressive”, and she’s accepted this label. So he said, “You’re not a manic depressive. How can you be that? You might have this thing called manic depression. People have habits, but habits can be thrown away.”

I once received a strange hurried email from a girlfriend who said she was going away for a long long time, wanting to leave her doting husband and 2 beautiful girls. This was a person who suffered manic depression despite her blessings in life, despite her high degree of intelligence, beauty and spirituality. It sounded like a suicide note to me. But thanks to collective help and healing from friends, she was persuaded to stay.

Just to add more fun to the mix, the speed with which a bad mood arrives and leaves, is leading me to wonder if I am suffering manic depression, or (given the number of highs I have been having too) if I have a bi-polar disorder.

If you leave her alone, she can focus on that. All you have to do is give her some space, make sure she doesn’t do drugs, and get a mental assessment from her to make sure she’s not suffering from any manic depression or spending too much time wrapped in thought to where it focuses on negativity.

Reading “The Gift of Depression” demonstrated why doctors give away patients books and why you should never loan a book you haven’t read. I have decided to review both books and send it with the books back to him. I would have never bought either book normally especially “The Gift of Depression”. I subscribe to a newsletter at mcmanweb.com that did a review on “Why I am Still Depressed” and made the suggestion that you give your doctor a copy. It is a good book that describes manic depression from the latest perspective cutting edge thinking. It really pissed me off because my doctors and I had already tried everything in it. My psychologist remarked that she had noticed the distinctions made in the book in some of her patients since reading it. The problem with the book is that everyone in the end gets better - in reality many never get better - many get worse many commit suicide.

Issues with his religious family who were against the arts he studied, mostly because his parents felt he wasn’t contributing to society and more importantly to the church, led to him moving to Texas. There his music really took off. Combined with his artwork he opened for local shows and eventually performed on MTV. Unfortunately he suffered tragically from manic depression and became dellusional.

In my darkest hours with manic depression I have thought of ending what I perceived to be a pointless life. But always in the light of recovery I see the folly of my thoughts (of which I am grateful). Every life serves a purpose. Even those that choose to perpetuate destruction with theirs. It is out of the rubble of chaos that champions arise to combat the dark side of our natures.

This is a thoroughly depressing film, and I mean it in a good way, though weird that it might sound. Tackling the serious issue on manic depression, It's Only Talk manages to ring home the theme and resonate it within you. On the other hand, I didn't like the movie for its effect it had on me, as I certainly did not like the negativity feeling that permeated.

I usually have a few short conversations with Dennis, but for some reason today was different. Somehow we ended up sharing our life stories. He shared that his daughter was in a car-accident and paralyzed from the waist down. I shared that my mom had committed suicide when I was just 19. I told him how I found out about family I never knew existed. He told me of his ex-wife and daughter’s struggle with manic depression. He shared that he had his skull fractured when he was mugged on Grant street, but he healed. I shared how my dad got cancer, and is in remission. We both laughed through-out this conversation, saying, you know, you’ve just gotta keep a positive outlook on life…otherwise you’re just going to get bogged down in sadness. Sometimes all you need in life is that (dare i use counseling 101’s term) validation. That feeling that someone else has endured something close to what’s hit you, and they’ve live through it. They’ve succeed. But they understand you better than anyone even though you just met them on a walk. I spent over 45 minutes in the park that morning. I was late. But I had a smile on my face all day.

Obviously, the author of this comment is the true “redneck.” He has no idea what manic depression is; nor does he care to learn about it. He does not know the money I will be receiving from Social Security is based on the amount deducted from the paychecks I earned working for sixteen years.

His main problem, I suspect, is schizoaffective disorder. This is a controversial diagnosis that not everyone agrees on it. Think of it as a combination of bi-polar disorder (manic depression) along with some schizophrenia thrown in for good measure. I think the Calculator has Manic-type Schizoaffective Disorder.

The basic point of disagreement we have is whether depression or manic depression are illnesses. Maybe I’m overlooking something but I didn’t notice where you said they were not that you were able to support that Biblically or otherwise to my satisfaction. It’s basically your opinion which you can have but which I can also disagree with.

The mania was never really mania…I was never that happy. But what they called mania was my futile attempt to suppress the depression. I had lived with depression (reminder: sadness from the bad and lack of good, nothing to do with serotonin reuptake) my entire life…I had just always accepted it as the norm and never fought back. 1995 was my year to fight back against the depression, against anyone and anything who crossed me. So I fought. At times I fough hard. I didn’t want to be depressed anymore so I convinced myself that I wasn’t. The power of the mind is an amazing thing but it was only the beginning of my long career in mind control, so to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t very good at it. Sometimes I went too far, convinced myself that I was too happy. Most of the time though, I just wasn’t strong enough…it would last for a while and then something bad would happen and I would realize that it was all a facade and go back to the depression. This happened over and over, which yes, may have appeared to be manic depression, but in reality it was just an empty life with an unsuccessful dream.

Aside from that, I have recently moved out of my home, which I have lived in for all of my seventeen years, about 30 miles away, to a small town called Lamoine. Did I mention my parents just got divorced? Yeah, that's why we are moving. It wasn't really all traumatic, unless I am unknowingly repressing some sort of manic depression - in fact, I had wondered why they _hadn't_ yet divorced, for a number of years. I almost welcome it, in a sense. I am glad that they are both happier now.

Let’s start off with the basics, shall we? Manic depression is not having two or more different people/personalities living in your head. That’s dissociate Identity Disorder. Similarly, it is not hearing voices that tell you to do things. That’s schizophrenia. I could go on listing the various things that it is not, but now that we’ve sorted the two most common misconceptions and shown what it isn’t, let’s show what it is.

Sometimes the hardest thing one can do is nothing. I know this really well, and I am usually not very good at it. My baby sister has struggled for years with a love affair with drugs. You see, she is Bi-polar (used to be called manic depression). She has only been medicated for a couple months in a row before she falls back into the drug world and begins to self medicate.

It is an illness that is officially called bipolar disorder but Ian prefers ‘manic depression’ because it is more descriptive. For 80 per cent of the time, people are depressed or not functioning and for the other 20 per cent of the time they are manic or ‘high’. “They’re extravagant, on top of the world, full of energy,” Ian says, “but often full of mad and crazy schemes to spend money, to invest, to rearrange the relationships in their lives…"‘

The victory was a welcome return for Obree, who had endured a long period of manic depression and an attempt to end his life on December 17, 2001, where he was found unconscious, hanging from the rafters of a barn near his home in rural Scotland. He has spent the last few years recovering at home, in the company of his wife and two children.

At University, sharing a flat with this great guy with a manic depression problem. He'd get amazingly excited over things like RISC co-processors (I once saw him bore a girl at a disco enthusing over 486 micro co-processors) and Finnish heavy metal bands - but on the flipside, you'd go into the kitchen the Sunday morning after the night before and find his blood on the bread knife, since he'd been cutting himself. He got off the alcohol, got on the lithium and AFAIK is living a great life in Chicago. Lucky swine.

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mood disorder that affects one in every 70 people. The cycle of mood shifts that distinguish the disease -- from manic highs to depressive lows -- differs with every sufferer. Without treatment, the condition worsens over time.

His illness is an obstacle. It is not an insurmountable obstacle. One of my friends just married a woman who suffers from manic depression. He was married to another woman who also suffered from manic depression for many years before that. The question for you is: do YOU want to surmount this obstacle? Life will always bring you difficulties and obstacles so that you can grow and learn and mature and evolve. I don't think it is fortuitous that he came into your life. Why did he come into your life, you think? Why him? Why did you fall in love with HIM and not someone else? I am sure you will find answers if you ask these questions. As we discussed the other day, a relationship is an interesting space where, first and foremost, we learn to know about... ourselves!

People suffering from manic depression experience moments of productivity and happiness at times and utter depression at others.� Drugs such as EFFEXOR XR or Lithium are available for those suffering from this illness.� Although certain drugs provide much needed help, many refuse to take them.� The addictive highs as well as the seductive lows will vanish.� Many are not willing to give these periods up.� Others believe that drugs affecting...