I recently wrote about truth and forgiveness, upon waking after a decent sleep I awoke inspired to write a few more bipolar thoughts. So after a bit of prayer, and thanksgiving I felt the need to expound upon other issues considered taboo, subjects of a certain nature, issues we skirt around that are easily ignored by some of the very people who are afflicted with this virus of the mind we call mental illness.
See often time’s conflict or malice, jealousy; hate can be just like mental illness… Grudges held, harbored with indifference, tormenting the mind, much like the virus we call mental illness.
Think of a computer being the mind, and often times our computers have a virus, which eats away at the data, causing the computer to run slowly maybe even shut down, in any case a virus sucks. No amount of defragmentation will remove the corrupt virus. Instead it needs a full diagnostic repair, a definitive diagnosis to best find the course of treatment.
However unlike our computers that we can easily replace the mind unfortunately cannot.
A virus whether it is of the physical, mental, or emotional kind, can often occur simultaneously. You know the kind where your sitting on a toilet diarrhea coming out one end, vomit out the other.
In my recent exchange on topics uncomfortable to discuss the subject of mental illness came up. I’ve had the opportunity since becoming a member of Quora/Wordpress community to be a spokesperson of sorts. You know the one, or in my case the go to Gal if a question you may want information on with regard to mental illness needs answering in a more discrete way, because like I stated above its a skirt around issue laden with stigma, shame and even remorse. I understand, its cool, you’re not ready to go to public or speak out yet about this virus of the mind. In fact I feel honored that others feel I am approachable with such sensitive issues of the mind.
I’ve exchanged some great and touching views, ideas, personal feelings on the topic of mental illness both in the question forums, and mostly via private messages.
I’ve strived to bring light to what I call “the forgotten subject” or plainly stated the ignored area of existence that each and every one of us encounter whether it be your personal illness, a spouse, relative or a friend or an undiagnosed one of your own.
Before I learned to fully embrace the diagnosis I received, I was among the majority of “those people” Who prefer to ignore, belittle, or just firmly state the phrase “it’s all in your head, snap out of it” and truly it is “all in our head, your head, my head’……..
Now hold on a minute, in no way am I saying you’re mentally ill necessarily.
No, I’m merely offering up dialogue to paint the picture in your mind of the message, my plight about a subject near and dear to me, one that has affected me personally due to both parents and their parents having some form of mental illness and my present diagnosis.
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I’m mentally ill but with the help of meds but mostly Jesus’I m doing quite well. Been hospitalized a few times but now when I feel the illness trying to take over I call out to God and He helps me a lot. Been mentally ill is not easy when people knows they have a tendency to feel as you are less. Little they know that the IQ usually is a lot higher then theirs. Items ok I’m not offended I’m a child of God and have that joy that surpasses all understanding. Good post ty.
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Lacking insight, the ability of being able to see you are not well, is a cause of people not seeking treatment.
In my case it took hitting close to rock bottom to see that I needed help. Nothing anybody else said would have made me go and seek help prior to that. I would have simply said the other person was the crazy ones for saying such a thing. They saw the dysfunctionality that I did not, or rather could not, see.
Rock bottom came whilst under 2 psychs and a psych student who had me wrongly medicated and I set a date to take my life. My GP prescribed the antipsychotic that changed my thinking and my world. I was later diagnosed, by a different psych, with BiPolar.
And with that diagnosis the medication dosage went up to a level of 400mg twice a day that has resolved the confusion and contradictory, disordered, delusional and suicidal thoughts.
I think my father was the same but he only ever self medicated with alcohol. But I see so much of the old me in him. His parents simply labelled him an out of control problem child and sought no help for their son.
A computer virus is a good analogy, presenting the diversity of severity of mental illness.
Gaining the understanding of others can be very difficult but so often needed. I want my brother and sister to understand my BiPolar, but they do not want to even discuss it. My sister uses it against me. I would hate to see any of my nieces and nephews affected by it and left untreated.
My sister also demonstrates the same odd thinking and behaviours as I used to. And, like me, her career has gone backwards rather than forwards. I think she lacks the insight to see how screwed up her life is. She has no friends and no partner.
But there is nothing I can do as she does not think anything is wrong.
Great post!
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