Tag: suicidality

a writing ramble

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, depression, suicide, transgender

A fellow blogger wrote a blog today about “why write depression every day”. It got me thinking about why I blog every day. Most of my post have to do with depression or pain or some combo of the two. It’s very rare that I don’t write about my feelings of the day, unless I am on a specific topic.

I write every day because it makes me feel better. Blogging is the one tool that I use to express myself. Sometimes it is received favorably, other times, not so much. But I don’t care that much for the likes or comments anymore. I just write anyway. It takes me out of the dark hole that I am in and brings me closer to the light. Writing has helped me deal with the darkness more than therapy has in the last ten years. I like that I can write and express what I feel, no matter how dark, and I find that I am not the only one. Others have feelings like I do about being depressed and suicidal.

Last night, I was talking with some people on the SPSM chat on twitter. It was very interesting. I would love to have Jobes on twitter but I don’t think he will ever be for it. The talk was how to get more therapists in to social media. And that is a tough thing to do. Hell, I have a therapist that is against email so how am I going to get her to twitter? Probably not. There was no specific topic about suicide just about how to spread social media out to mental health professionals. It was an interesting discussion.

The one topic that I am hoping to get around to one of these days, is transgender and suicide. I think it is a hot topic that needs to be addressed by professionals and is just getting ignored. All my therapy always focused on my abuse history but if they saw me, they would have known that I am gay and that I was hurting because of it. Asking questions, in the right way, to a transgender person can be life saving. I wish someone had asked me rather than me coming to the realization 30 years later. I could have had treatment a lot sooner and I could have been happier. Now I am stuck in a body I hate and that I still want to kill. It just isn’t right. Even though my psychiatrist has known me since I was 17, she still thinks of me as a “her”. I almost died when she called me a “girl” at our last appointment. I don’t know if she is baiting me to correct her or she just is ignorant. I have been thinking of writing her an email about it but I don’t think that will solve the problem. I think I am always going to be a “female” in her eyes.

Pink Pill Part 2

by Midnight Demon, posted in depression

This is what I wrote prior to the blog, “really don’t care”

14-4-14 Pink Pill Part 2

Not doing good. Just realized, I’m becoming delusional over a blogger. I’m convinced this blogger is out to get me somehow though the actual odds of this happening are quite nill. I haven’t been taking the pink pill, mostly because I keep forgetting to or I just thought I can get away with taking it every other day. The pill is expensive for me. But I really need it to keep the delusions away. Luckily, the voices haven’t started up, but I think that is why I have been in a gloomy mood the past few days.

I also have not been taking my mood stabilizer. I haven’t had the inclination to refill my weekly pill box so just been taking what I feel like taking. I think I might end up in the hospital soon if I don’t start taking all my pills. Psychosis for me always means ending up in the hospital.

I don’t know how skipping the pills got started. My editor sent me the first read through late Friday night and I couldn’t sleep so worked on the edits. I wasn’t feeling good and didn’t take everything that night, except my hormone pill, which I have to take to avoid my menses. But I don’t know when the delusions started. I never really do, they just creep up on me. I guess I am hearing internal voices that are saying that this blogger is out to get me when I know there I is no likelihood of this actually happening. I have been under a tremendous amount of stress with getting my book published in a week. I thought I was handling everything okay. Until the conversation with this blogger became more frequent.

I’m also feeling suicidal. I feel this should end. I can’t sleep. I am in awful spasms from the pink pill. It likes to turn my muscles into a rubber ball. With my suicidality up, I am thinking of taking more meds than I should. I already took my required dose today but I want to take more so I can sleep. But I know I will be betraying my pdoc and I can’t risk that, not without calling her first. But it’s late and I hate calling her at this hour. I’m getting to be a wreck. I can’t handle stress like a “normal” person. I just want some sleep so I took some Neurontin. It works in a pinch. Also will help with the burning pain that I am feeling.

And the only reason I am a wreck is because I missed a few days of the pink pill. Weird that out of all my meds, this pill is the one I am most dependent on. Because when I am on it, no delusions, no paranoia, and no voices.

It amazes me that all I need is 10 mg of the pink pill and I am sane. It’s the only pill that works for me. I have been on others but none work like this drug. It is my savior. Savior from hospitalizations. Least I hope so…

About being a Suicide Attempt Survivor

by Midnight Demon, posted in depression, suicide, suicide attempt survivor

About being a Suicide Attempt Survivor

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about how it was shameful to me being called a suicide attempt survivor. Though it wasn’t hurtful, it was more embarrassing. I think it was because there is great shame in dealing with suicide as everyone has an opinion, good or bad, on the topic.

Those feelings have changed since I published my book and the American Association of Suicidology approved a new division on suicide attempt survivors. I feel like I don’t have to hang my head in shame anymore, that I can be free to express my suicidality and not be shunned. I always felt that if someone knew about my suicidality, they would not be receptive to me or be judgmental. That may still be the case with some people, but at least I feel welcomed with an organization that helped me deal with my suicidality and try to overcome it. It wasn’t easy. It was a long road. I still feel suicidal at times. Even though I had a huge accomplishment this week with the publication of my book, I still felt like offing myself. I just felt like my job was done but really it is only beginning. I need to spread the word about my experiences and that there is treatment available if you just look for it. The training of clinicians in suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention needs to happen and what better way than through the experience of an attempt survivor or a person with lived experience. I hope that one day, clinicians are not threatened by the word suicide and are eager to help those that are feeling like taking their life.

In my book, I talk about two frameworks that have helped me in my recovery. They are CAMS (Collaborating, Assessment, and Managing of Suicide) and the Aeschi Model. These frameworks take away the therapist as expert and put the client/patient in charge of their treatment. Through an empathic and non-judgmental ear, his story is told and the learning of what makes that person suicidal is learned. It is completely individualized as no two suicidal people are suicidal for the same reason. You cannot lump suicidal people together and hope that one treatment works. It must be individualized. Just like not all medication work for all people, dealing with suicide can be a trial and error situation. But it takes willingness on the part of the clinician to make this so. Clinicians cannot always count on the hospital being the cure all for suicidal thinking. It must be dealt with in an outpatient setting as more and more hospital beds are becoming scarce.

more about my book

by Midnight Demon, posted in depression

Today has been a wash. I didn’t go to sleep until in the wee hours of the morning so I decided to take something stronger than Ativan for sleep. The medication has me so hungover that I have been sleeping on and off today.

I got really excited today. It took only a few hours for Amazon to post my book on their site. I am excited because I am ranked 66,188 on their best seller’s list! I am sure that will change but right now I am happy. My Kindle is in the 200Ks but will drop. For some reason after I dropped the price, the ranking went up. But oh well. I sold another copy today.

I am a stats geek. I love numbers. But I won’t know what my sales are until the end of the month! I am so saddened by this. There is no point checking my sales report constantly because unless they use createspace to purchase my book, I have no idea who is buying my book. But a different seller is posting my book for more than the listed price as “new’. I don’t think I will get any royalties from them, but if they buy through Amazon, I am golden. So far that is the only other place selling my book.

I had therapy today and told her that I was suicidal. I wasn’t active in that I would do something, more like I wish I wasn’t alive. I know I should be jumping for joy with the release of my book but I just don’t feel it. My friends and family have been supportive with the book and all, but I just don’t think I am good enough. I have been fretting over the book’s format, which is why it was taking me so long to release my book. It has been the small things that have been creeping in my doubts. Then we talked about her getting my book and I told her it will be easier for me to send it to her or give it to her in person than her trying to order it. She is not computer savvy. Course I didn’t help matters by sending her two wrong links. I got a little dyslexic. The numbers for the link were right, just in the wrong order (www.createspace.com/4546715). I kept putting in 4546517, which doesn’t exist. I hope she picks the right text and orders my book. She is dying to have it. I told her she could have one of my proofs but she nixed that idea. I don’t know what I am going to do with two proofs. The only difference is that one will have a copyright page and be formatted correctly, somewhat.

Now that I am DONE with everything, I don’t know what to do with myself. I have been tweeting like crazy and keeping up with the AAS conference. They are live tweeting there panels. It is really interesting and you get to feel like you are there. But I am still wondering what I am going to do. I was planning on working on my second book but I am so done with trying to format things that I just can even fathom doing the work for that, now that I know what goes into it. I will wait for the summer to start working on my stories collection.

It really sucks that I have to wait 60 days to get paid from either Kindle or Amazon. And that is from April sales! But I guess it is good in a way. I just have to remember not to spend too much of my earnings for tax purposes. The first thing I am going to do with my check is go to the Capital Grille and get a filet mignon. That will be my reward. I also plan on going out with a few friends and celebrate. I wish they still had the wootstock Farking Wheaton. I loved that stout. But I am interested in getting an IPA to try. I am not a beer person at all but Wil Wheaton is and been learning about beer through him.

In case you missed my previous blog post about the AAS (American Association of Suicidology), they have formed a new division called Suicide Attempt Survivors (SAS) and People Lived Experiences. I am so happy to be a member and a contributor to their SAS blog. I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so excited. It was the last initiative from the former president of the AAS. She was instrumental in creating the blog and had me be a part of it. I will be having another blog post sometime this month. I can’t wait for it to come out. I will reblog it on my site when it is out.