Why should we always consider mental illness an illness?

[Kanadiana]

can i just say sorry to people i wasnt really thinking straight when i started this post. i have been taking my meds but iam not sureif there working all to well, cause for the first time in awhile not only do i feel down but the unwanted thoughts are back

You posted this while I was writing my long post in here so I didn't see it until now

I know I've read and heard that part of the "high" of bi-polar does bring with it the gift of creative flow. Awesome to have that and express it all when and how a person wants to. Finding a balance between too little and too much seems to be the problem with bipolar from what I understand. It must be so frustrating trying to find a balance and testing out no meds, yes meds, how much, etc.

I was on Zoloft once for a year and while it helped with anxiety etc, it absolutely flattened me emotionally. I was emotionally unresponsive, but also aware of that fact. Kinda brain dead and unmotivated, uninspired, but aware that I wanted my brain to be able to think again and I wanted to feel emotions again. People thought I was just "cold" I wasn't. I had energy to sit like a lump and nothing fazed me. I'm normally warm and responsive and my daughter especially noticed I wasn't while on that med. Zoloft was just too much of a good thing I guess. It helped the anxiety but stole my spontaneity and ability to feel at all. yukky. It was great to get off it, and the anxiety was no longer a problem by then either, and has never been to that degree since.

Absolutely no apology necessary as far as I'm concerned!!! Sounds like maybe your doc might want to adjust either the dosage or the medication you're on? I hoipe you get this sorted out soon, Steven

 

[Kanadiana]

Re: why should we always consider mental illiness an illeness

so why should i be made to feel wrong for wanting to imbrace it and stay completly of meds. why do people use words such as mad, is madness not just a different perception of reallity. and is reallity not just what we percieve

I figure that when being part of society and functioning in it for our own and societies survival as a whole, that it's not about how we or anyone else feels about or views things, it's about our ACTIONS through behaviors and how effective or detrimental they are for a persons AND others safe and wellbeing functioning and survival.

I think that the term "madness" is describing when perception of reality does not match with how things really are. Being realistic sees how things really are, and we allk have to work on our unrealistiuc at times perceptions as we go, to varying degrees. We all have the ability to "imagine" and that fogs reality sometimes.

Extreme simplistic example of failure to reality test, to make a point here "I'm a human being. I can fly" If I really and truly believe that then I'm totally unrealistic (delusional or something) and am in big trouble and if I jump off a building to fly, I'm going to hit the ground and maybe take an innocent person with me if I land on them and that will hurt many lives, including my own. I won't see how unrealistic I'm being, but others do CLEARLY and someone else can only do my reality testing for me and intervene to save me and others from myself and probably even inflict that help on me to help get me real again to protect me and others. I'll thank them greatly after I realize how unrealistic I was and am back to being more realistic in my thinking and actions. Until I see clearly I'm going to fight them tooth and nail and try to fly and I'll not see how in error I am. Feed back is good when you can evaluate it realistically

 

[1210donna]

My father had times he believed he was Jesus or Elvis and could cure cancer. These were his manic times. He's also drive the car off the road, hanging out the driver's door with a foot on the accelerator and drive through the park. He jumped a fence once and peed all over someone's cars. When in mixed states he was murderously violent and a wild animal. When in depressive one's he was self pitying and sorry for his existance.

He's also the man who would take the fish from the fish pond and toss them in the swimming pool to swim with them, who tied me and my brother to the clothes line to spin us, who would suddenly sing, dance and roll into wild characterizations.

I remember him fondly and part of what helped was understanding bipolar. I'm diagnosed with autism but was often in giggling fits and getting to great heights, racing into traffic, utterly fearless and manic. In my teens I'd have episodes of extreme euphoria and believed I could fly by throwing my body off an apartment block to kill it and free my spirit. Fortunately friends would pin me down as the maniac I was at those times. In depressive episodes I've been certain I deserved to die and in serious danger of myself. I'm also a proud artist and extremely productive. I have tics, have struggled with OCD and anxiety disorders and as well as with autism and bipolar and gut and immune disorders. All taught me things, all contributed to the spiritual person I am striving for balance. I do see mood, anxiety and compulsive disorders as illnesses in the sense of 'imbalances' and I am alive because of their management. I can BOTH be grateful for management and still celebrate things which have 'side effects' that have enriched my life - order, creativity, focus, humour, surrealism, spirituality. What's important is that as a working professional, I hold my head up high and assert my equality. Having any condition should never be accepted as a basis for not recognising equality.

 

[HA]

I do see mood, anxiety and compulsive disorders as illnesses in the sense of 'imbalances' and I am alive because of their management. I can BOTH be grateful for management and still celebrate things which have 'side effects' that have enriched my life - order, creativity, focus, humour, surrealism, spirituality. What's important is that as a working professional, I hold my head up high and assert my equality. Having any condition should never be accepted as a basis for not recognising equality.

Donna Williams
www.donnawilliams.net

Well said! I like this quote.