Tag: schizoaffective disorder

time and patience

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, mood disorders

Last night I was in excruciating pain. It was terrible. I emailed my psychiatrist that I was done. If my PCP wants me to jump hula hoops he has another thing coming. I am not buying into it anymore. I no longer care what is causing my pain. I know what helps my pain and that should be all that matters. He isn’t questioning my blood pressure medication. Why the hell is he giving me a hard time about my pain medication. I am sick of it. After last night, I swore to myself this was it. It’s the weekend so I can’t do a thing about it. My foot still hurts so I won’t be going out like I had wanted to. It probably would hurt me anyways.

I know I posted a lot yesterday and last night. I got the writing bug back so please forgive me. I have to express myself the best way I know how, by writing.

The President of the AAS posted an article about how the mental health care in the UK is going down the tubes. It’s been going down the tubes in the US for some time now. I know, I have been apart of the system. The hospitalizations don’t care about stabilizing you they just care if you aren’t going to hurt yourself when you leave. And then it is up to incompetent clinicians who don’t know how to deal with suicide and suicide ideation. Most don’t want to change their practice to the new system. Some won’t even attend a seminar about it. I think it has to be mandatory, statewide or they cannot renew their license. That is what I think. If they were to get into a program of CAMS or use the SSF I think there would be a lot less suicides out there for people that want help and this way here they won’t be turned down. But I don’t think there are enough clinicians to do the job. Graduate programs only have a minimum of five or six slots per year. That is a very small number for new clinicians. I also think there should be incentives to work with the population that most needs it. It’s all about triage. But can triage really work in the mental health system? Who is to say that the quiet kid in the corner who is hurting is not the worse off than the one screaming at the top of his lungs because voices are telling him they are going to kill him. I don’t have all the answers. But for those that want help should have priority over those that don’t want help. But unfortunately, those that don’t want help are truly the ones that need it the most. Those are the ones that will end up killing themselves. There is no easy balance. Everyone’s needs are different. And if you shy away from that person, you leave a bad impression about being cared for in that person’s mind.

In my case, if I stopped going to a therapist every time they left me, I would not be here. Sure, when that therapist left it gave me a bad taste in my mouth. But I knew I needed help and so I sought it out. Not every therapist is right for every person. Sometimes you have to go through several to find the one you can talk to the most and won’t be so judgmental, or feel like they are. It took me 11 therapists to find the one that I have been with for more than a decade now. It just takes time and patience to find that right one.

Sucky day part 2

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

Almost decided not to blog today. Having a rough day. For the first time in almost 21 years I feel like my psychiatrist does get that I am ill. I told her today, I wanted to go up on my mood stabilizer because I have been wicked up and down and all around. Last night to top off my wicked sucky day, I got hit with a mixed state that had agitation and restlessness mixed with the need to write. I told her that I was going nuts and she said I can’t do that. She won’t increase my meds just have me take the trilafon and Ativan when I need to. I am so frustrated with her. I think the extra mood stabilizer is what I need right now to tamper things down. I am only escalating. And usually this time of year, I am in a deep depression that has me walking in mud. Well no mud today. I walked all over town today, well more than I usually do and now I am paying for it but I don’t care. I had to get the agitation/frustration out of my system somehow. I know that things are going to get worse if I don’t get a handle on them now. If I end up in the hospital, I am going to tell her “told you so”. I did forget to tell her about my menses. She became really concerned when I told her I was having trouble with my vision. She wants me to see an ophthalmologist. I will make the appointment after the New Year. She doesn’t know if it is the medication or not. My luck the doc will just call it atypical migraine and be done with me.

When I came home, I took my meds. Then I had to pick up my niece. I am beyond tired and hope that I sleep tonight. I know I am probably not going anywhere tomorrow because I will be too sore. If this throbbing that I am feeling now is any indication. I know it’s going to get worse after eight. I am not looking forward to it. I can’t even stand long enough to change out of my jeans and into my PJs. This so sucks. I know I brought it on myself but it felt good walking again. It doesn’t feel good right now, but I didn’t have pain when I was walking around town. Picking up my niece did make things worse but that is my fault. I forgot my sister told me so if she didn’t text me, I would be in big trouble right now. I also did the walking without my AFO so not sure that was a good idea or not. I had to have steady snow shoes on because there still is a lot of ice and snow on the ground.

I don’t think I will have a mixed state tonight because I am so tired. The walk wore me out and going the extra few blocks to pick up my niece from her after school care program really did me in. But I have the weekend to chill. I really just hope that I don’t wake up one of these nights before Monday. I just don’t want to deal with my birthday. I used to love it and the Christmas days. I would see my family three days in a row, well my father’s side anyways. It was always fun. Now I don’t. And I think my godmother forgot my birthday again this year as I didn’t get a card from her like I usually do. Since my uncle died, I haven’t been getting a card every year. I really miss his handwriting. It was the neatest script. I also really miss him, too.

I really want to take myself out somewhere for my birthday. Just go to a good restaurant. I might take my niece as her birthday is the fourth of Jan. When I was working, I used to take my “kids” out for their birthday as they hated getting a book from me. I figured a book never gets out of style like clothes do or games/toys.

I still am upset about my psychiatrist. I think I am going to increase the med anyways. I am the one that has to live like this not her. And if I want to do something, I am going to do it. Last night I thought definitively there were rats in my room (it was just the radiator kicking on). That is how spaced out I was. Luckily I was able to talk to a fellow blogger friend that understands. She really helped me get through the night so my meds could kick in and work. I am glad I have friends like that.

In other news, I got a weird question on my Facebook page. They wanted to know what topic my book is. Obviously, this person has not been following my blog.

Sucky Sucky Day

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, chronic physical pain, depression

Sucky Sucky Day

My day started with waking up at four in the morning to pain in my right foot, which made my left jealous, so it decided to hurt too. I couldn’t take two pain pills because I had to be up in a few hours for the dreaded appt with dad. So I just took one and finally fell asleep for about an hour before my mother woke me up at 7. I have had shitty sleep the past four fricken weeks. I don’t remember the last time I slept for more than 6 hours straight. My average has been five hours a night. Doesn’t matter what time I get to bed, it is always about five hours. When I did get up before my alarm went off, my feet were still hurting me. Luckily I knew my right would tamper off once I started moving about. My left was up in the air as to whether it would comply with walking or not.

Went to my dad’s appointment and my dad, the juvenile that he is, proceeded to show me every cut on his face that he made with his razor. Are you kidding me? He is eighty-one years old. I told him he needed a new razor and he told me that the new razor is what caused it. UGH. Surprisingly, we didn’t have to wait too long for the doctors. Everything looks fine and we get to come back in three months for another follow up visit. Great. Too bad I still got to deal with my father next week too.

I got home about a half hour before my therapy appointment. And thank goodness I was home. I got the runs and I guess sharted myself without, of course, realizing it. That blew my temper. I also am now in another fucking mense cycle so that added to my joy. If I had a gun, I know I would have used it by now. My therapist would have been waiting for me to text her back and then worry when I wouldn’t answer the phone.

But the day is not done yet…on the way home, I got a wicked sense of paranoia/foreboding. Luckily by the time I got to the station it went away. I talked about it with my therapist and she said to add it to the list of things to talk about with my therapist. Fine. A couple hours later, I am back on Facebook and my vision blurs out. I cannot focus my stupid eyes on anything, even with my glasses on. The back of my neck hurts and then WHAM, I am hit with an ice pick in my eye, classic for migraine city. I am like you got to be fucking kidding me. I am laying down, trying to rest after dosing myself with my migraine medicine and aspirin, when my sister calls me to let me know she is home with my mother’s groceries. So up and down the stairs I go, a half a dozen trips. My ankle LOVES ME NOW! NOT!! My ankle is killing me. My head exploded and then I felt sick to my stomach. I thought I was going to puke. Laying down made things worse so I had to sit up in bed with the lights out. Luckily the damn sun was doing down so my room got really dark. I keep it that way anyways because I am so sensitive to light that any brightness will trigger a migraine attack. My head finally cleared up when I decided to blog, otherwise there probably would not be a blog today. I wouldn’t be able to see what I was writing as my vision was so impaired. I really hate when my migraines cut my vision like that. It is really scary.

The best part of the day though was when my thumb started doing its twitching thing. I kept thinking it was my imagination (like I hoped it would be), until I placed it on the laptop and then my hand started twitching. Fuck. Now I really have to say something to my doctor about it. HA, but which doctor should I choose: psychiatrist (could be side effects), neurologist, or Primary? I don’t see my neuro till April and it doesn’t happen all the time. But it is getting more frequent in nature. I am not sure what it is. It could be nothing but a spasm or maybe carpel tunnel? As if I don’t have enough to worry about…

actors and depression

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, depression, mood disorders, psychache

I previously blogged earlier today but wanted to post this before going to bed. I have learned many things about depression and although I know some of you are suffering from this horrendous disease, knowing that what FEELS like forever is not, in fact, FOREVER.

I have been a fan of Wil Wheaton since I was a teen. He was, you can say, my crush. My school had gigantic photos of him in our school cafeteria in middle school and I was able to take them home and literally poster my wall with these posters. I became a member of his fan club, WilPower. He spoke his true heart about his life in letters he sent out to the group that were his thoughts, not those of his publicist or agent. I have been following him on twitter the since I became a member of twitter and he sends some of the funniest things, nerd things, that make my day. But what he doesn’t talk about often, is the black clouds that sometimes follow him around. He talked about them today because he got over his bad day yesterday and the day before that in his blog that he writes. I have included it here to inspire you to know that what I say is true. Depression is a black dog that can haunt your life, but it ebbs and flows like the tide. Some days are really, really, bad. Other days it might not be so noticeable. He talks about that and I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. He is way nerdier than I am as some of his stuff is over my head but he does have talent. I love him and always will, though not in any other way than in a respectful and admiration kind of way. He is not the gender I prefer. But that is not what is important. If I could, I would send him tweet every day saying that I love and care for him and hope that he is having a good day but there is only so much you can do with 140 character limit. And if I get too overzealous and send him tweets he might block me and I am too afraid of that. His biggest thing is that he just wants to be treated as a guy. His motto is “don’t be a dick”. I can respect that.