Daily Archives: February 2, 2015

This is a long (drop) of a linkdump. I hope you find at least one thing fascinating.

Serious Stuff:

The three top side effects I refuse to live with are: weight gain, a tremor, and a loss of sex drive. But, for the first time in the decade that I’ve been on different meds with an array of side effects, I am letting the lack of a sex drive go. Why? Weird.
Side Effects & My Sex Drive

A diagnosed mental illness is rarely just a state of mind, but a very real inability to accurately perceive reality, keep emotional balance or maintain good cognitive function. Only recently have the true causes of illnesses like chronic depression or schizophrenia begun to emerge, and more than seeing the obvious psychological symptoms and emotional triggers, something on the neurological level – widespread across the synapses – is becoming clear.
‘Manic depression’ was changed to a more descriptive ‘bipolar disorder’, but when someone hears the new, two-worded title, they may still falsely suppose they know enough about what they’re hearing: “sometimes happy, sometimes sad”. The term ‘bipolar’ does nothing to describe the biological reason for prolonged manic or depressed periods.
The problem with current mental illness terminology

The Bipolar Diet
The first lines of defense against bipolar disorder are often medication and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but the impact of diet and exercise should not be discounted. Here is a list of foods shown to improve — and worsen — symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Patients in Israel report a fast reaction and improvement in their feeling within two or so hours of receiving treatment.
Ketamine

When her lab used optogenetic stimulation of dopamine neurons deep in the brains of mice, they began racing around their cages at a time of day when they normally would have been quiet. Her lab is now working on the other side of the bipolar equation, trying to see if light pulses to the brain’s daily rhythm control area can induce depression or relieve depression in mice that have been put under stress.
Pittsburgh research lab

“I’ve got to tell you, if you haven’t been told, I will tell you. I think bipolar is like the latest fad,” he told the woman. “Everybody and their brother is getting diagnosed with bipolar. And last time I checked, we all have good days and we all have bad. And I don’t consider that an illness. And I don’t consider it a disability.”
source

Indeed, manic depression, an emotional seesaw, oscillating between exhilarating highs and devastating lows, is cited as one of the reasons why there are so many mad men and insanity out there in the streets. But it would appear that neither the society nor the critical agencies of government are paying attention to this malaise.
Why are Nigerians committing suicide?

Years of taking lithium had ruined Hymes’s kidneys. She was on a transplant wait list as she served on the task force, spending much of her free time going to dialysis. She coped with humor. A stickler for wearing seat belts, Hymes would chide an unbuckled Rose, saying, “Are we donating? I’ll take your kidney.”
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Baird discovered that her father had kept a handwritten journal, which he titled Echoes from a Dungeon Cell , that tracked the disorder and its treatment.
Book: He Wanted the Moon

Classic mania of bipolar disorder is cyclical, within severe and disabling mood and behaviour episodes of acute depression and full-blown mania. It’s easily recognisable mainly because it thinks and behaves grandiose, psychotic, and elated with “superhuman energy and libido and reckless judgment.” My current episode is milder.
Hypomania (Trinidad & Tobago)

Bipolar disorder, manic depression, these are conditions where the brain simply can’t regulate the production of chemicals that keep it functioning. My particular flavor of depression most often manifests as anxiety, but the fact is that I slingshot between happiness and despondency so quickly I hardly know what’s happening.
Dismantling the Chaos

Whether the uber-successful – the CEOs, the founders, the innovators – are more or less prone to depression than the average person is a tricky and fascinating, not to mention controversial, question. We know that the average CEO is more likely to possess subtle psychopathic traits and be more prone to addiction.
Why the super successful get depressed

Celeb Stuff:

Matthew Perry told me during filming, ‘Comedians don’t have a franchise on misery and loneliness.’ But they do have a pretty good corner on the market.”
Documentary: Misery Loves Comedy

In the best way, this is a film about an individual that’s shown to be compelling beyond the songs, a story of loneliness and rebellion that’s perfectly in keeping with the lyrical content for which he is most associated. This is story of a troubled kid who struggled with depression and intoxicants, but also one who found solace experimenting with his guitar and his tape recording, making soudscapes or mixtapes (dubbed on one a “Montage of Heck”) that exposes both his raw talent and his stoner immaturity.
Documentary: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

Playing a housewife named Laney, Silverman tells the story of a woman who plummets into manic-depression with heavy alcohol and drug use, and multiple affairs.
Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back

It’s frustrating to know that there is an opportunity for the Kardashians to use their stardom to take on advocacy for mental health awareness, but don’t. Yes, people have a right to their mental health privacy but, when you allow a film crew into your house to document the ongoing of a family’s life, and leave out a member suffering from depression, it underscores how far we have not come to using the tool of reality television, coupled with the star power of such a family, to take this topic head on
Rob Kardashian & Depression

Pete says his children are ”the ultimate happy pill” and have helped him to manage his depression after years of self-medicating .
Pete Wentz worries kids will be bopolar

The summer before he disappeared, Richey – who self-harmed and had problems with anorexia, alcohol and depression, was treated at psychiatric units at Whitchurch Hospital in Cardiff and The Priory in Roehampton.
Richey Manic’s sister speaks

In the fortnight before his disappearance it was found that he had been withdrawing about £200 each day from his bank account, a total of £2,800.
What happened to Richey Manic?

If you’d told me a few days.  years ago that I’d be the star of a viral video watched by millions of people, I’d never have believed you. Maybe you’ve seen the video — I’m the guy who someone filmed on their phone singing along to Rihanna on the tube, while other commuters tried to keep a straight face.
I was going through depression, anxiety, manic episodes, self-harm, and voices and illusions in my head. But I kept it all to myself, and over time I became more withdrawn and erratic. Singing on the tube was a way to drown out my problems and escape. When you’re in the middle of a manic episode, you don’t think about what you look like or how you come across.
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I don’t like standing near the edge of a platform when an express train is passing through. I like to stand back and, if possible, get a pillar between me and the train. I don’t like to stand by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A second’s action would end everything. A few drops of desperation.
Winton Churchill’s black dog

There are days you are all sunshiny, life is a song, and then suddenly someone switches off the lights. Nothing is going right, no one is on your side. You want to be left alone, curl up in some dark hole, cry your eyes out, weep, whine and whimper, fall apart. Nasty, trigger-happy little fellow, depression.
How Actor Deepika Padukone’s recent declaration of depression has made the topic a talkable one. (India)

But Noble isn’t – just – a provocateur. The mental health issues are real: he suffers from manic depression, had a breakdown in 2004, and has made work in the mental health sector – as artist in residence, for example, at Homerton hospital in London. The depression and loneliness in his work feel chillingly real.
Kim Noble

He loves me.

He loves me even though I have a diagnosis of Bipolar disorder.

Even though I’m not great with the whole “mushy” thing, and generally show my affection through sarcasm and teasing.

Even when he found me on the bathroom floor covered in blood.

He loves me even though I mock his beard and continually enquire as to when he is going to enter Whisker Wars.

He loves me when I’m manic. And I call him up at some ungodly hour from the hospital. To inform him that I am going to bake a cake.

Even when I was psychotic and began to believe that he may actually be a criminal mastermind.

He loves me when I have to cancel the “date night” we rarely are able to have because I have had an allergic reaction to something.

He even waits outside the toilet with a glass of water.

He loves me even though I fall asleep during every damn movie we watch. Then he patiently restarts it the next night and asks me “what is the last thing you remember.” To which I reply; “I don’t know. I was asleep!”

He loves me even though I have scars, and stretch marks, and a post childbirth body. He says he loves me even more.

He loved me on the days I couldn’t get out of bed. The days I told him I couldn’t keep on living.

He saved my life. More than once. And he didn’t stop loving me.

He loves me even though I sing “The Thong Song” every time he mentions his Cisco qualifications.

He loves me even when I ask him inane questions. Like “If you had to sleep with either Susan Boyle or The Queen who would be the lucky lady?” And he will be all “neither.” And I will say “You have to choose. Or the world will DIE.” And this happens most days.

And also when I strap a garden gnome in his car, or tuck it into his side of the bed, or sit it on the toilet, and then upon discovery gleefully tell him that “he has been Gnomed!”

Even when I have been frogmarched by security guards.

Even when I forgot pretty much everything after ECT.

He loves me even though I veto his music choices on car journeys.

He lets me put on my playlist.

And doesn’t complain.

Much.

In the ten years we have been together I have spent a total of eight months in hospital, had at least 3 manic episodes, a handful of mixed episodes and countless depressions. He knows Bipolar disorder is episodic. That it may happen again. He still loves me.

He tells me every day he loves me. And every night before we go to sleep.

He loves me.

Me.

And I’m the luckiest girl in the world.

I love binge watching. In our home we choose not to have cablevision, so if Maurice and I decide to follow a series we have to watch it on Netflix. If we find we like a show we begin binge watching. For those of you who have not heard of binge watching, it is viewing […]

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