Great News!

After years of struggling, jumping through hoops, waiting in lines, and dismal failures, my son Kyle got medication! My wife has been taking him through a series of assistance appointments for several years. You miss one appointment and you're back to square one. The process is so frustrating, and so intimidating, and so daunting, that he never was able to make it through. Finally today after having someone criticize Kyle for a paperwork mistake another aid worker made that would set them back several months, my wife broke down in tears. They finally saw the hell he'd been through in trying to get assistance. The person stepped up and went to bat for Kyle, and got him in for a psych eval and other med work that same day.

He just called me, and was excited. He felt really good about the appointment, and they prescribed him Lamictal and Seroquel! I never thought he'd be prescribed Lamictal through the public assistance process because of the cost. He knows how well it's working for me, and he's excited about the future.

I'm so happy for him, I'm almost in tears right now.

True Mania

It’s here, and I’m scared. For me, a true mania is as bad as it gets. Thoughts racing, irritability and anxiety levels through the roof, the littlest thing has me wanting to put my fist through the monitor. I’m not suicidal, but for me nothing brings on self-harm ideation like mania. I have to figure out how to relax and get back into a safe routine. Right now I want to crawl into a bottle of Seroquel and stay there until my mind slows down to a semi-normal level.

Comeback Lines

From Comeback Lines

People who take medication to treat a mental illness often face opinions and advice from friends (and strangers) whose ignorant ideas about medication come from stigma-reinforcing sources that lack an understanding of the science, evidence-based treatment, and/or real experience of mental illness.

Next time an uninformed person tells you to throw away your pills, consider a response like this one by Bradtastic, a person with bipolar disorder. It’s his original text, framed by the Dinosaur Comics visual format.