Tag: mental illness

Reflections on the Year

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, psychache, suicide, suicide attempt

Reflections on the year

This time last year I was deeply in physical pain and psychological pain and in the throws of a yet another nasty depression. I was asked to do a writing project for a friend and I didn’t think I would make it. I was sure by this time, on this date, I would be dead. And if I happened to be alive on Dec 17th, I would surely die by my own hand. I promised myself that if things were still the same, that this heaviness that I felt in my chest were not gone, that the pain in my ankle/leg/foot were not decreased, I was going to end things, permanently.

This year, things are still not a hundred percent better but things are less. My depressions are bearable when they hit. I have Wil Wheaton to thank for giving me the tidbit that my brain is not working right and that things will pass and be better tomorrow. My suicidality, though still a deep part of my soul, has decreased to the point where it is just thoughts I ruminate over and then give up. I figured out with the help of some books that this is always going to be a struggle for me, that my depression and pain are always going to be there. But like a former therapist said to me, you don’t always have to act on what you are feeling. These days, I am a little bit more hopeful about the future, though I don’t always see it. I still get hopeless every once in a while but it doesn’t last forever like it once did. I find that writing my blog has been a life saver for me. Mr. Hyde hasn’t come around in almost two months now and for that I am grateful. I have people in my life that have helped me see that I can succeed, even though I am disabled. It took a long time for me to accept my disability. Took longer to grieve it. But eventually, when I realized that part of the depression and suicidality was the grief I was not mourning, I took it apart piece by piece and wrote about it. There was nothing I could do about the pain except wait for the pain meds to work and for that I grateful that I have it. Also emailing my psychiatrist about the depth I was in helped as well. I don’t know if I am still going to have the same doc in 2014 and that scares me. I know that getting pain medication is going to be harder to get with new doctors and even harder as government rules will dictate the rules for prescribing rather than relying on clinical judgments. I don’t know what I will do then. But that is not my worry for today.

I don’t know what brought about the change. Maybe it was having a daily contact with someone miles away from me, urging me to continue my writing and work on a book. Maybe it was a little of owning the depression and taking charge of it, that it doesn’t have to rule my life like it would love to. I just know that I feel differently than I did a year ago. And though the impulses to kill myself are still a threat, I have a therapist that is behind me like a fungus that won’t go away. I really doubt without her countless sessions I would still be here. She really has been the one person that I can always rely on to be there when my mood is dark and gray. We might have our arguments about treatment but I know that she believes in me that things aren’t always going to be so bleak. I guess I have more people in my life now that believe that I can do things where last year I didn’t think I was going to survive my own lethality. I have been tested a few times this year to end my life. I have made several plans before today to end my life this year. My therapist can account for that. Though I have only had one psychotic break this year that required hospitalization. My hospitalizations have been fewer in recent years than they were in the past. I think that is more because I don’t think they help as they once did and that is a shame. You don’t get the care I once relied on.

Lastly, I have to thank country music for without listening to the same songs over and over for hours of despair, I doubt I would be able to make it though the horrible nights when I couldn’t sleep, either because of pain or despair or both. It is the one genre that I can relate to every song and let my brain do the escaping when I was writhing in agony. From songs like “water tower” by Jason Aldean to “Crash my party” by Luke Bryan, to Taylor’s endless songs and lastly to the other artists that I have followed but are not so popular, Casey James and Cassadee Pope. Without music, the heart just doesn’t heal from pain.

having a bad day

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, cauda equina syndrome, chronic physical pain, depression, suicide

Having a bad day

I woke up in pain, again. This is the third or fourth morning where my foot has woken me up from a sound sleep. I took some pills to get some relief but unfortunately, I was not going back to sleep. Every noise in the house kept me up. Then my mother’s phone rang. Then the damn smoke detectors went off for some reason I still haven’t figured out yet. Because this noise is far louder than the phone, it scared me and forced me out of bed. When I knew the house wasn’t truly on fire or my mother had left the gas burner on again, I had something to eat and then played on my laptop. I have been playing the same annoying game. I don’t know why I can’t quit it. No one will know but I want to complete the damn missions and it gives me something to do.

I am in a depressed state, a deeply depressed state. I really want to end my life. I find no use for living anymore. I hate being in pain all the time. And then we have Tuesday coming up. A day that I planned a year ago to end my life by if things weren’t better. Things are some what better than they were a year ago. I am not as suicidal or depressed (except for my current state) as I was a year ago. I find that I don’t write depressing messages on Facebook anymore. I will, however, tweet them. I have a book that is done and is ready to be published. I just need an editor to look over anything that I have missed. I am actually looking forward to things, though right now, I can’t say what I am looking forward to. Things just look dreary and dark. I am not looking forward to Christmas or my birthday, both are next week. But Tuesday I am planning on having a day with Crown Royal and drink my sorrows away. I have a ¼ of a bottle left. I doubt I will get very drunk.

I am tired of feeling this way. Maybe I should be dead. My sister said to me the other day that there is no “mental illness on my mother’s side of the family”. It took all that I had in me not to laugh in her face. HELLO, I wanted to scream at her. What about me?? What about your cousins that suffer from anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia? Aren’t they on your mother’s side??? Talk about complete blindness and denial.

I really want to commit suicide. I have dreamed about it for so long. Why can’t I go ahead with it? Why am I such a coward? I do nothing day in and day out. I have nothing but this blog to keep me going. I feel like I have to write every day or I will lose my mind. I stopped writing in my journal. I don’t seem to have very much to say after I blog. It’s all the same isn’t it except what I journal doesn’t get posted on the internet.

I know that I have another book to write. I don’t know exactly what that will be yet as it is supposed to be co-authored. But I don’t care. One book will be enough for me. I can’t write anything else. Once you write about your memoirs, you can’t write another. Unless at least thirty years go by or something and I know I am not going to be around for the next thirty years. I will be lucky if I make it past this week. I am so tired of fighting myself every day. I am more tired of dealing with pain every day. Today was bad. Still is as the day isn’t over yet. I know part of it is because of the snow storm that hit. I haven’t gone outside nor do I want to. I just realized I have to deal with my father yet again for another stinking doctor’s appointment, all because the asshole lies all the time and won’t give a straight answer. So if his doctor tells him something he is not going to a) remember it or B) deny it and just say that he is “fine”. I don’t know how I got to be the one to go to these appointments. All the more reason I should kill myself. Just so I don’t have to deal with an ornery bastard.

I still have to hear back from my therapist about my sessions or lack thereof this week. I really don’t want sessions this week. I rather deal with this on my own. I do anyways.

With thy mighty pen, I slay thee

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, mood disorders, suicide

With thy mighty pen I slay thee

This is what I feel like right now, that someone has slayed me and I don’t know why. Just no reason. No explanation. I am just gone from a website.

I just finished looking at my introduction to my book. It says all that it needs to say and more. I hope my book becomes more noticeable than that website, though I doubt it. It further ingrates in me that I am insignificant in this world. That I don’t matter. My feelings don’t matter and obviously, my words don’t matter.

But what does matter is my book. It will be great, I hope. And maybe it will be listed on the other website but I don’t think I want it to be. I am too hurt right now to think of going that far. It will be listed on other, better websites.

If I had any gall, I wouldn’t wait till March to put this book out there. I think this book is good even with the editing that I have done but the ending is weak. It needs some thing good. I am working on it. I hope that my depression goes away for a day so I can write something hopeful and meaningful. I have miles to go before I sleep, isn’t that how the saying goes?

a loss you can’t recover from

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, chronic physical pain, mood disorders

I got a lot done today, thanks to my mother waking me up before nine this morning. I finished my editing and worked on my introduction. I also helped her put up the Christmas tree. My sister is going to help her put the lights on later because I suck at that.

I am getting a little worried about how my intro is going. I started writing about my illnesses and then starting talking about my CES injury and where I was at with that. Then I felt like it was TMI for the intro. It also was filling me up with grief so I had to take a break. I then emailed my support group and asked if that was ok to put. I just don’t know how much of the CES I want to put out there. I know I should probably put it in one of the chapters that does deal with CES. Maybe I will write it out and then cut and paste it there as sort of where I am today section.

I got pretty overwhelmed with emotion and PTSD symptoms. I just couldn’t handle the anxiety of what I was writing. And I couldn’t believe what my life has been reduced to. It is a loss that I can’t recover from and I don’t know if I ever will recover from. That what sucks with CES. You might recover but it takes months or years even. As far as my ankle goes, I don’t think there will ever be a recovery. I don’t know if it will get worse, only time will tell. Until then I just try not to use it as much as possible because it gets angry when I use it. I know it shouldn’t do this. You should be able to use your ankle the way you are supposed to at anytime. But for some reason with my left ankle, the more I use it, the more pain I get from it. Like today, I went up and down the stairs I don’t know how many times. I went to my sister’s apartment on the first floor for coffee, then went back up to my room. After I finished my coffee I went downstairs to rinse the cup off. Then went back up to my room. I did this repeatedly most of the day today. My sister needed some help cooking some chicken wings so I had to go back to her apartment (she lives on the first floor while I live on the second). I must have made at least a half dozen trips. And I know come eight o’clock tonight or soon after I am going to be hit with pain. I sort of prepared this time. I took some pain meds a little while ago to prevent pain from happening. Sometimes this works and I hope this time it does. I don’t want pain that I had last night. I had zaps going through my toes that were wicked painful.

I still am tempted to call my therapist tomorrow to chat. I just have been going through a lot of pain that is driving me whacky the past few days. I don’t feel like doing anything, other than cutting my ankle off. But I don’t have any big power tools to get the job done. I told my sister I want a chainsaw for Christmas, but I don’t think she took me seriously. I often wonder if I could really do such a thing. I know it will make a mess. All I keep picturing is the scene from Scarface when the guy dismembers the other guy with a chainsaw in the bathroom of the motel room. Not a pretty picture.