Category: Medication
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I Got Out of the House This Week!
My major achievement this week was to get out of the house TWICE for ME – not just driving my son to and from school or caring for my parents. Monday: OC Writers Write-In Monday I attended an OC Writers write-in where I wrote 3282 words freely. The words need editing. They need shape. They possibly need to be…
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Meaning and Mental Illness
I wrote this post for Lisa Bortolotti’s project Imperfect Cognitions: Blog on delusional beliefs, distorted memories, confabulatory explanations, and implicit biases. The blog was founded by Lisa Bortolotti in May 2013, after receiving the happy news that she had been awarded an AHRC Fellowship for a project entitled “The Epistemic Innocence of Imperfect Cognitions“. The…
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Dear Kitt
Kitt, you fuel your rage by seeing a psychoanalysist one to three times a week, exploring over and over how you had been abused as a child. You deepen your depression by studying psychodynamic theory in graduate school. Doing so defeats you and undermines your mental health. Yes, therapy will enable you to work through issues you have with…
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Thank you, Mary Ann
Thank you, Mary Ann Andrews, the creator the PillRite four week pill management system, for responding to my post about forgetting to take my medication by giving me a PillRite. Like many of us, Mary Ann Andrews struggles with a chronic illness requiring twice daily medication. Three weeks using the system, it has served me well. I can see my pills…
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Thank You
Thank you everyone who supported me Saturday for NAMIWalks. I raised over $1,500. The team I walked with, the Stigma Smashers, raised over $9,000. Unfortunately, I started to feel weak and dizzy. Being fair-skinned and freckled, I am naturally sensitive to the sun and heat. My medication exacerbates my heat sensitivity. Saturday hit a high of 99°F in Irvine. I had…
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Broken Brain
Brain broken Frustrating Do not remember Must constantly relearn Brain not functioning properly Not functioning as it once did Must constantly relearn Damn, I hate bipolar disorder
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Medication Mishaps
This week I’ve been completely exhausted. Twice I forgot to take my mood stabilizer at night. The first time, I didn’t realize it until late the next afternoon – too late to take my missed dose. The next time I realized it the following morning and immediately took the previous night’s dose. I became hypomanic due…
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Taking a Step Forward
Today I took a step forward. I went to my psychiatrist. He adjusted my medications, putting me back on a low dose of escitalopram. Monday, we see a psychologist with our son to get some coaching on negotiating our battles and setting some reasonable boundaries. Called NAMI Orange County’s Warm Line and briefly talked to a mentor. Looked into going to…
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My Answers to Marya Hornbacher’s Questions
I love lazily copying and pasting content I’ve written elsewhere and repurposing it as a blog post. Once again, I post my answers to Marya Hornbacher‘s follow-up survey questions about whether I see mental illness as a physical disease: Do you consider mental illness a chronic physical disease? Please explain your response. It depends on the diagnosis.…