I’ve touched on the issue of people with bipolar disorder having shorter life expectancy before, but upon doing some research I feel the need to go into it a little deeper. First of all, is it true? The bad news is the answer is “yes.” According to the National Institute of Mental Health, people diagnosed […]
Ruby Wax and Mental Illness
Below is a video of Ruby Wax that I stumbled upon last week. It’s from TED.com As many of you know, I love using humor to help people learn and understand what it’s like to live with mental illness. Using humor also helps me keep me from taking myself too seriously. I’ve never heard of […]
Ten Days Lockdown: A New Beginning
Day seven of being in lockdown arrived and I was fully relaxed and ready to go home. Most of the friends I made had been released. Darryl was an exception. Darryl was from a family of Hollywood icons, but had been the black sheep of the family for most of his life due to his […]
Ten Days In Lockdown Part IV
It was my third day in lockdown in the psych ward and I was scheduled to leave. After breakfast, one of the doctors took me to a private room to talk. He told me that I was not ready to leave, and as he pushed a form and a pen towards me and said that […]
Ten Days In Lockdown Part III
After a long nap on the second night of being in lockdown in the psych ward, I needed to get up and move around. I became like the rest of the zombies there and wandered the hallways wearing my hospital gown and a blank face. I did meet a tall drag queen who was reading […]
Ten Days In Lockdown Part II
In yesterday’s article I shared a day in which I was suicidal and the process before being admitted in lockdown in the psychiatric ward. When I was admitted to the psych ward I was given the room closest to the exit doors, directly across from the nurse’s station. I presumed that was because I would […]
Ten Days in Lockdown
I had six months of sobriety and was frustrated. I was struggling. I was a disaster mentally, physically and spiritually. Old time alcoholics told me that what I was going through was normal. My life was a shambles and since I was sober, I was looking at the disaster I created through clear eyes for […]
Biology of Bipolar Disorder
While many of us know in our hearts, and minds, that bipolar disorder is the result of a chemical imbalance or some other dysfunction in the brain, each day I meet far too many naysayers online who insist it is a character defect. They use anecdotal information as proof that we are being spoon-fed disinformation […]
When I Grow Up
I’m at that place again where I ask “What do I want to do when I grow up?” I’ve been asking that question my entire life. There were day, weeks, months and even years where I knew the answer to that question, while other times I didn’t have a clue. I’m kind of at that […]
My Life Story
I recently joined a Write Your Life Story group that a friend of mine suggested. The way the group works is we write on our own time, and then each week we share out loud what we have written to the group, which is approximately 25 – 30 people. So far I have shared a […]