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WendyDarling wrote:To have such a serious diagnosis and survive without meds for 15 years is very fortunate.
It takes courage to ask for help when your mental health deteriorates, many people suffer unnecessarily due to their denial that they even have such a stigmatized affliction.
So it's more difficult for you to identify severe depression than the rising hypomania? I know it is in my case of Bipolar 1.
Depression seems more insidious in its slow accumulating affects so that many folks just live their lives mildly to moderately depressed without any insight into their conditions, then the upswing of mania appears as obvious in its suddenly happy effects and flurry of energetic activity against the somber depressive background of normal life.
WendyDarling wrote:It takes courage to ask for help when your mental health deteriorates, many people suffer unnecessarily due to their denial that they even have such a stigmatized affliction.
WW_III_ANGRY wrote:I'll keep you posted.
WW_III_ANGRY wrote:Yes, it's not easy to want to get help for the onset of mania, after all, it feels great. The release of endorphines, the creativity, the motivation, the intellectual juices flowing to write. Why would anyone want to get rid of that feeling? Someone who knows how dangerous it is, of course.
WW_III_ANGRY wrote:WendyDarling wrote:To have such a serious diagnosis and survive without meds for 15 years is very fortunate.
It takes courage to ask for help when your mental health deteriorates, many people suffer unnecessarily due to their denial that they even have such a stigmatized affliction.
So it's more difficult for you to identify severe depression than the rising hypomania? I know it is in my case of Bipolar 1.
Depression seems more insidious in its slow accumulating affects so that many folks just live their lives mildly to moderately depressed without any insight into their conditions, then the upswing of mania appears as obvious in its suddenly happy effects and flurry of energetic activity against the somber depressive background of normal life.
I have been very fortunate and I wouldn't say I seek health out of courage, but out of fear.
It is certainly very difficult to identify depression, I don't think I experienced severe depression until one day, I experienced the threat of divorce. I was pretty much immediately suicidal. Not sure how much of that was normal to be suicidal or not considering it would mean the loss of my family and everything I hold dear, and how much of that was because of depression prior to that, which I'm unaware of. I don't know if I was depressed before that. I can't tell. Its something I'm trying to figure out and that is frustrating. Anyway, the next day I found hope for our marriage and family and then started getting mood swings and experienced hypomania. With that, I knew what I experienced the day previously was worse than normal and that day was not normal either, so it was obvious, it hit me then that I had symptoms. Now, I'm a little more manic. I wrote a nice piece that you read earlier that has gotten quite a bit of likes and compliments on Dan Rather's facebook page, and all those comments contributed to another mild hypomanic episode. It's like, I can't feel any rewards with it going overboard. Then, my wife went out with 2 friends tonight, as planned, and it got worse. I don't know why. Yes, I'm a little concerned of course, but I didn't mood swing to depression, I just got more manic. So now I'm seeking out more rewards, because it feels good. Its like a drug. A lunatic high. All I need is something mildly good to happen, and it feels like I'm on drugs. It's ridiculous. Seriously.
A Shieldmaiden wrote:Take your meds for as long as it takes. Your lifetime if necessary.
People take meds for various conditions, there is no shame in that.
Read your book to remind yourself of what you went through. It was rough, to say the least.
You are an exceptionally strong man.
Pandora wrote:Define "high stress".
WendyDarling wrote:Depression is so tricky, like I already wrote that many afflicted people live in mild to moderate depressive states as their normal. You did swing from "normal" (whatever that means to you) to completely suicidally depressed. I'm curious, did you notice your temper getting shorter over the last few months? Irritability is a good indicator of unchecked and excessive depression. I always start snapping at everyone...everyone and everything becomes annoying, way more than usual and I feel like a biotch on a rampage.
fuse wrote:Seriously, WWIII, it's huge to have the self-awareness to anticipate mental/behavioral patterns and be able to seek help. May your better sense prevail and your reaching out to others ground you. I wish you the best.
Talking things out and reflecting on life with a few close friends has been an invaluable form of counseling for me. It's like with certain people I remember who I am, or who I want to be, even when nothing else makes sense.
A Shieldmaiden wrote:
Take your meds for as long as it takes. Your lifetime if necessary.
People take meds for various conditions, there is no shame in that.
Read your book to remind yourself of what you went through. It was rough, to say the least.
You are an exceptionally strong man.
Angry wrote:
Flattery will only worsen my mania
demoralized wrote:My two cents:
Medication exists, and the idea is that the medication serves a purpose. I would like to think, that if I were in your shoes, if the medication served the purpose, that I would take the medication. If the medication does not serve the purpose, then I would not take the medication.
A genuinely honest evaluation of "Does the medication help?" or "Does the medication serve its intent?" is the goal. Some medications take time, while others are supposed to have more immediate effects.
The question of "How much time do I give the pill?"... .a tough one.
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