World Bipolar Day and the Color Red

Prozac Monologues -- the book -- is coming!  It really is.  Well, a chapter and a half still to go.

Here is a sneak peak that may answer the burning question,

Why are you wearing red on World Bipolar Day?  

It's called:

Three

Have you ever noticed -- flight of ideas, distraction, talking fast/pressure to keep talking -- these are symptoms of a serious mental disorder (we're talking the manic phase of bipolar here) and also kind of -- fun.

Silence Kills -- The Stigma of Mental Illness Redux

It's Mental Health Month again. Out comes the stigma word, the pleas for understanding, the heart-warming whatever.

I am so done with stigma. Frankly, I am insulted that NAMI et al still use the word. Is Black Lives Matter about stigma?  It's dangerous to be either in the US, and for the same reason. Prejudice, people. We are talking about prejudice.

The following was first posted in July 2013. Alas, we are still trying to get our heads out of our asses. The Affordable Care Act made some progress, a little, toward mental health parity. Insurers had to get creative to deny us coverage. But this congressional session, it's all up for grabs again, whether our illness will get covered at all. And the prejudice of doctors -- don't get me started.

So from July, 2013 --

                              *************************

I don't use the s-word. I hate this title. I use it only because people who need this post will use it when they google.

I don't use the s-word. But here it is.

First from Google:

Definition of STIGMA

Noun A mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person: <the stigma of mental disorder>.

April is the Cruelest Month

I opened my curtain this morning, saw a brilliant blue sky, and remembered, "April is the cruelest month..."  April is when suicide rates start to rise, to peak in June. Then, as is my habit, I said Morning Prayer, a spiritual discipline of prayers, psalms and bible readings. The assigned psalm for today is Psalm 20:

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble,

the Name of the God of Jacob defend you;

Send you help from his holy place

and strengthen you out of Zion;

Remember all your offerings

and accept your burnt sacrifice;

Grant you your heart's desire

and prosper all your plans.

We will shout for joy at your victory

and triumph in the Name of our God;

May the LORD grant all your requests.

If April is the cruelest month for you, my friend, I prayed this prayer for you.  Now, this sort of thing doesn't always help me. And no blame, God, no blame, if it doesn't help you.  But if it does help you today, there it is.  We will shout for joy, you and me and all of us who know what I am talking about, at your victory.

And while I have anybody else's attention, suicide prevention is not usually a dramatic, last minute intervention.  Suicide happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain. Let me repeat that.  Suicide happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain.  Every day, in any little way, you are a resource.  Or not.  Kindness.  That's the ticket.  Just pay attention to someone who may be struggling.  And do something, anything kind.

That's all.

Mental Illness in the Bible

Something different here -- a sermon from the batshit crazy preacher --

[When I Googled mental illness in the bible, I was, frankly, appalled by what came to the top of the page. So I hope this banal title will make a better message easier to find. If you share this post, you can do that service.]

Now to the sermon:

1 Kings 19:1-15
Psalms 42&43
Luke 8:26-39

I don't often preach about mental illness. I'm not sure I have ever heard more than a mention of it by any other preacher. But today the lectionary asks us to tell stories that are not told.

Because we are no strangers to mental illness,and neither is the Bible. There's Saul, his bipolar episodes and his suicide. There's Job and Jeremiah, hardcore depressives. There's neurotic Paul himself, though that diagnosis has gone out of fashion. And Ezekiel, well, you'll have to read him and decide for yourselves.

Not Just Up and Down -- A New Map for Bipolar

Last week a friend told me she had just been diagnosed with bipolar.  I remember eight years ago when she told me she was finally getting treatment for depression.  I didn't say it at the time, but for the next several days my brain was screaming it: Really?  In 2016 people are still being misdiagnosed, and mis-treated, mistreated with meds that make them worse.  I mean, 

F*cking Really?!!

Lives are at stake here, people.  Careers, families, credit, and yes, lives. That is what people lose when their doctors get this call wrong.

World Bipolar Day -- Happy Birthday, Vincent

Today is Vincent Van Gogh's birthday.  Some people give him a post-mortem diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and take the occasion to declare World Bipolar Day.  Healthcentral.com contributor John McManamy says for him, every day is bipolar day.

As for the world in World Bipolar Day, precisely which world are people talking about?  In my memoir, I note:

Maybe someday, aliens will kindly abduct me and return me to the planet of my birth.

In the meantime, I'm stuck on this one, not a planet of my own choosing, performing my own stunts, learning as I go along.  As I like to joke: We're peanut butter people stuck in a tofu world governed by Vulcans.

World Suicide Prevention Day - Keeping It Simple This Year

Two things I wish everybody knew:

No matter how you package it, shaming suicide does not prevent it, and

Understanding never pushed anybody over the edge.

photo of candles by Nevit Dilmen, used under the GNU license.