Category: Mental Illness
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NAMIWalks, Conferences, and Fatigue
This summer I’ve been recuperating from caring for my parents, going to the BlogHer16 women’s blogging conference, and training for NAMI In Our Own Voice. This upcoming weekend, I’m attending the Southern California Writers’ Conference, about which I’m understandably worried for I find conferences exhausting and am a bit anxious that I will be out of my…
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Folie à Deux
I Am My Mother Caveat: Please understand that delusional thought processes are SYMPTOMS of mental illness. I feel compassion, even as I feel pain and anger as someone negatively affected by parental delusional thoughts. I, too, have experienced delusional thoughts and bizarre impulses. I’m heir to familial mental illness. I get it. With great trepidation…
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Connecting With Others #Online
Guest Post: Connecting With Others Online – by Fliss Baker for NewLifeOutlook Connecting with other people is vital to surviving, living and enjoying life. It is imperative in managing our mental health; we are encouraged to talk, talk and talk some more about how we feel and how our illnesses affect us. However, the stigma of bipolar disorder…
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Bipolar, Rage & Violence
Sure, having a mental illness does not mean that you will be violent. Still, some of us with mental illness, myself included, do have or have had violent thoughts and impulses. For the most part, I have not acted on mine, at least not the worst of them. I have raised my voice, flipped the dinner table…
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Flight Back Home
Friday, July 15th Last Saturday, the day after we returned from Oregon, my mother was psychiatrically hospitalized for the third time since her stroke last November. Yesterday morning, I met with the treatment team at her psychiatric hospital. They do not think she needs long-term psychiatric placement. They believe her memory care community is the best…
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Siren Song
I have heard the siren song of alcohol and marijuana. Craved the quieting of my thoughts, the slowing down. Prescribed medications do help immensely, but I still understand and am wary of alcohol&#… Source: Siren Song
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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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A Litany of Slightest Madness
Source: A Litany of Slightest Madness, by Beleaguered Servant I have no idea what I just wrote… I’ve always seen what isn’t there, And so, I’m under doctor’s care; For through my window eyes I see Far, far beyond reality I see the workings of your heart, How love leaks out in midnight drips; And how…