Tag: suicidality

Random 743

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, chronic physical pain, depression

Had therapy today. About 40 mins in, I didn’t want to talk anymore. I get bored easily in therapy. Sometimes I can talk through, no problem. But other times, it’s like pulling teeth trying to come up with conversation. Luckily, my therapist asked some questions so the last ten minutes flew. We talked about my blogs that I sent her. She said she doesn’t know how I write on serious topics so well. I had sent her my Zero suicide and my Twitter rant. The Twitter rant was just a bunch of my tweets strung together to make a paragraph. I just rambled on Twitter one morning because I felt like I had to get things off my chest.

The zero suicide blog was again, something to get off my chest. I didn’t think it was that great but my therapist thought so. She said my writing is getting better. I guess writing every day does that to you.

I got another migraine today, this one not as bad as yesterday. I didn’t go out today because my bowels were unpredictable. And I would have to shower. I don’t feel like showering. I will have to sometime tonight or tomorrow morning as I have PT. My ankle is still smarting so I haven’t done any exercises. I tried doing the rolling ankle and it hurt too much. I wish I knew what I did to cause this damn flare up. But I was just sitting, watching the football game, when the pain started. Drives me up a damn wall. If I don’t have a pain syndrome, I must be losing my mind.

So there has been some problems with my royalties from other countries. I don’t understand what the problem is as there was GBP deposited into my account a few months ago, but yet the Canadian dollar cannot be processed. This was from August and I am just receiving notification of it now. I called my bank and found out that only USD can be deposited into my account. But that is what IS being deposited. And don’t they have the currency exchanged?? I changed banks so I am hoping that solves the problem. If not, I am not sure what I am going to do. My writing partner is baffled because she has had deposits from Australia in her bank with no problem. I hope that I don’t have to open an international checking account just for my royalties. It will suck because I never know how many books are going to sell in a month. Because of this mishap, I no longer can use my other checking account like I have. I will have to transfer money from my current account to the other. Which is a pain because it takes 5 business days to complete the transfer. This is the problem of being an author, an international one at that!

Ankle is starting to throb again. I just realized that I have to request my pain medication soon. I am glad I don’t have to have an office visit again until next month. That gives me some time to try and lose a few pounds. I have been trying but it’s been hard with this depression lingering over me and craving sweets, which have been abundant with the holidays. I just finished the last of the sugar cookies my niece made before she went back to college. College. My little baby is in college. I don’t know where the last 19 years have gone. She was a preemie and now is an adult. A smart adult. Going to college.

Zero Suicide

by Midnight Demon, posted in psychache, suicidality, suicide, suicide attempt

Zero Suicide

For most of the day, I have been reading on Twitter, “Zero Suicide”. While I believe in decreasing the suicide rate, I don’t ever think there will be zero suicide in any population, in any country of the world. In the words of the father of suicidology, Edwin Shneidman, he stated before his death, “well how many suicides do you want, and I say I don’t want any, but I want there to be the freedom to do it. So there is a morality. I study suicide but I am not pro-suicide. I am for suicide prevention”. That to me, sums up the notion there can never be zero suicide. To think that one day there can be, is just foolish. Now to prevent suicide, that is another ball game. I believe that there should be every effort to prevent a suicide from happening. But to do that, you will have to do quite a few things. Suicide must be talked about like cancer is talked about. Cancer was once considered taboo. People thought if you talked about it, you could get it. So it is with suicide, that talking about it will lead to someone taking their life. This is a myth. The next is that if you are suicidal, you will be forever. As Shneidman has explained, suicide is a time limited event. It doesn’t last forever. You might, like me, have lingering thoughts of suicide or once your mental pain has decreased, you no longer think about taking your life.

It just angers me when people talk about “zero suicides”. I get the sentiments but I just think it is foolish without serious interventions and preventions out there. Increasing hotlines or having your family doc talk openly about it. All that is needed is usually an open ear. Increasing services rather than taking them away. Decrease wait times for call back services or for psychiatric crisis teams. If there were more people who actually had help that was available to them rather than waiting months for an appointment, there definitely will be less suicides, possibly. This has to be more than words on a sheet of paper. I once heard of a case in the UK that a woman was waiting desperately for a callback from their crisis team, for days. She was begging them for hospitalization. They denied it or there wasn’t a bed available so she ended up killing herself. Her daughter was left to deal with the aftermath. I know things like this happen in the US as well. My friend’s daughter was once in the ER for days before there was a bed available at a psych hospital/unit.

I just think that if more mental health professionals dealt with suicidal people rather than pawn them off to hospitals, there might be less suicides. I am not saying that is the answer to every case, but if outpatient services are afraid of suicide, how is the client supposed to trust them?

Sleepy and tired

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders, suicidality

Sleepy and tired

I didn’t do much yesterday other than go to my father’s to fill his medication box. I don’t know why he can’t do it but it is better that I do it so that I know he is taking his meds.

I have been so exhausted the last few days. After coming home and having dinner last night, I just passed out. I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Today I plan on just sleeping until the Pats game starts. I think my sister is having people over but I am not sure. I thought I would write a blog now as I might not have a chance later.

The other night my mood was bad. I was fighting the demons and sleep, not a good combo. I wanted to read “Definition of Suicide” by Shneidman but all I did was thumb through the parts that I had highlighted and then tweeted them on Twitter. I then posted the ten commonalities of suicide, which was difficult. The last two, commonalities 9 and 10 were a tight fit because it almost exceeded the 140 character limit. I would post this book on my “useful book” page but it’s really got some words that maybe hard to follow on. I have read Shneidman’s works before so I am used to his vocabulary. Other’s might not understand his thinking.

I had tweeted that my suicidality was peaking and got a response from a fellow tweeter. He said that things will be better in the morning. I knew that was true but that didn’t help me now, in that moment. I felt awful and suicide was consistently on my mind. I wasn’t in imminent danger but I just could not stop thinking about ending my life and how bad my life was. The worst part of this, was that I could not express myself on Twitter like I can on my blog, but I couldn’t write on my blog either. I felt like words were strangling me, trying to come out but didn’t have an outlet. I felt trapped and isolated, like a bug on an agar plate. I had felt intense despair, hopelessness, anguish, and worthlessness all at once. It was terrible. And I couldn’t sleep because thoughts were keeping me up. I eventually took some Ativan and that calmed me down enough to sleep. But it was a terrible night.

I haven’t had breakfast yet and plan to soon as my mother leaves the house. I might make coffee today. Maybe that will wake me up enough so I don’t go back to sleep. I don’t understand why I am so tired. I slept good, even had a couple of weird dreams. I just took my morning meds and if it causes me to be more tired than I am, then I know the extra baclofen is the reason. The doc increased it when I saw him last.

Yesterday I did my exercises. I didn’t have too much pain so I think I am doing them right. I hope this continues. I see the PT again on Wed. It is going to be tight because I see her in the morning and then I have my therapist in the afternoon. I literally have an hour to get home or I am going to miss my next appt. I hope I make it home in time. I should as long as the trains and buses are running on time.

I can’t wait for the Pats game tonight. They are playing the Colts and I hate the Colts, especially their QB, Luck. I also hope the Packers win against the Seahawks.

Twitter Rant 01.10.2015

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, depression, mental illness, mood disorders, suicidality, suicide, suicide attempt

People seem to think that my writing of suicide is what leads me to think about suicide. It’s quite the opposite. It helps me to think of ways to control my suicidality and work against the dark feelings by expressing myself in a clinical way. By me thinking of this as clinical, it helps me compartmentalize the feelings so they aren’t so powerful that I do impulsive things. But then I am fighting the stigma that talking about suicide, leads to suicide and that is hurtful. By my writing about coping with suicide I not only free myself of the thoughts, but I may also help someone in the process. That is my goal when I share my papers about Edwin Shneidman and David Jobes. Their work about psychache and CAMS (collaborating, assessment, and management of suicidality) really help me focus on not killing myself. If we talk about suicide like we do cancer survival, maybe we might decrease the suicide rate. if suicide wasn’t a taboo topic anymore, there might be some healing and actually lead to more discussion and openness.