Mental Illness 101

[naamah_darling]

A friend encouraged me to post this in a longer format to my journal so that everyone can see it. To that end, if you find value in it, consider linking to it. You have my permission to link!This is all stuff that I wish people had said to me just before and after I'd been diagnosed as bipolar: very basic advice for dealing with the time right

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[poptartodoom]

Someday, I want to write a book, full of stuff like this, and journal entries on what it feels like to be bipolar, from other bipolar people, so I can give it to clients and say "You're not alone. Srsly. So very not alone."

I am FULL of analogies (and other stuff, according to some clients) and my favorite two are as follows:

The Factory analogy:

Your brain is like a factory, producing the chemicals that run your mood. Bipolar disorder is a really crappy foreman that's the boss' cousin or something, who has NO IDEA what he is doing. Sometimes he falls asleep in his office and the chemicals don't get made because all the employees slack off, too; he then freaks out when he wakes up and urges everybody to WORK WORK WORK! and way too many chemicals get made, and thus it continues, over and over and over, days turning into weeks and weeks into months.

Medication is the new foreman the boss hires when he realizes his cousin is a moron, and it helps to keep the factory churning those chemicals out correctly. Sure, there will be days where it doesn't produce the right amounts, but it'll help bring it back into check. It also won't work immediately, because the factory employees aren't used to this new foreman and how it operates, and they fall into old patterns that medication has to regulate.

My other favorite analogy is the puzzle analogy, which I break out when people are stressing over how their life is falling apart/not going together how they want it.

Everybody in life has a puzzle to do. It's a big puzzle, one of the puzzles with more pieces than should ever exist, but it's a nice puzzle. It comes in a box with a good picture on the cover. Everybody can put the puzzle together at their own pace, and sometimes, something happens and some of the pieces get knocked on the floor, or we lose a piece or the dog eats one and we have an empty spot. Everyone we encounter has their own puzzle, and sometimes they are just walking around with the box under their arm, all the pieces still inside; it might even be sealed. They might give you a hard time for taking so long on your puzzle, but they're the ones carrying the stupid thing around. It's an intimidating puzzle, but it'll feel SO good once you get all the pieces together! Everybody has their own tricks, but everybody still has to put together all the pieces to be done. Some people start with the edges, or with the sky pieces, or a corner that's all the same shade of purple. It doesn't matter where you start; just that you DO start.

Mental illness makes it hard to keep the pieces together sometimes, because you've got to deal with all the crap in your head, as well as all the external parts of life. Sometimes it comes along and knocks your puzzle on the floor, and you have to start all over again. That's okay. You have time to pick the puzzle up and fish the pieces out from under the couch, and keep working. Finding a starting point, like doing the edge pieces, is like getting your basic foundation put together; housing, food, income. The other stuff comes in its own time, once you have the basics down and know where the other things can fit.

I really, really like how you put all of this in laymen's terms. Sometimes I get caught up in medical terms and I have to pause and think about how to phrase what I'm trying to say, in a way my clients can understand.

Quick list of favorites: I personally have used, and really appreciate, 1-800-SUICIDE. It's nationwide, which helps. There is a WARM line in many towns; Cincinnati's WARM line is 513-931-WARM. In Cincinnati, there is also 513-281-CARE, which is another hotline. Calling the local United Way can help with finding resources in your area. www.needymeds.com helps with finding patient assistance programs. Also, if anybody needs help with resources, they're more than welcome to hit me up. I can find just about anything, anywhere, because I have been a case manager too damn long.

[poptartodoom]

...Long reply was long. Sorry. ^_^;;;

Also, do you mind if I print this out and show it to clients? Just the body, not the contact info.