So many other people have written about today and probably better than I will. Despite that, I don’t think I could let today pass without sharing something.
This post may be triggering, so for that reason it is after the cut.
I was recently linked to this website by a friend. It’s a brief explanation of three common but misunderstood mental illnesses, funded by Mind and Rethink (two of my favourite charities within the UK).
It’s very much a simple overview, but I think it’s a good initiative. There really needs to be more discussion and awareness about these illnesses and I think this goes a long way to starting it.
I am by nature a fairly messy person. I grew up in a pretty small house, which inevitably was permanently cluttered – more so in recent years with four adults living in it rather than two adults, two kids. I like being surrounded by stuff, things, junk and items, minimalist designs always feel far too empty.
It’s only good up to a point though. One of the main outcomes of a bout of mood episodes is a very, very messy living space. Clothes on the floor, dishes on the surfaces, that level of mess. It becomes a rather vicious cycle; it’s (not so) surprisingly hard to feel good when your surroundings are so unpleasant, but the less good I feel the harder it is to sort it all out.
So, and apologies for the profanity, I have a feeling that http://unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/ might just be fairly useful. I could do with no nonsense daily reminders to simply make my bed, and at least re-organise one area. Even more important is the focus on short bursts, rather than marathons. It’s good to be reassured that it’s ok not to be able to do it all in one massive go.
On monday I move into my new house that I’m renting with two friends. I’d rather not be ‘the messy one’, or at least, not by too much! Hopefully this’ll help with keeping on top of things right from the start.
This diagram basically sums up studying for me, especially over the last term. It’s never good when trying to finish some coursework just feeds into an already dangerously low mood. If you stop, there’s all the guilt of giving up, but the more you try to work, the worse you feel for not being able to write anything of any worth.
My course has the handy situation of requesting a piece of coursework practically every single week- and this is only first year! Next year that’s only going to get a lot worse. It’s hard not to burn up with jealousy at the philosophy student with an essay every so often sometimes.
The only stage I can see the break the cycle, personally, is between missing work and stressing out. No one ever likes that I do this, but after a certain point, I just prioritise my health, and I refuse to feel guilty for making this decision.
Thankfully, after doing that last term, things have been arranged that my exams are in August. This means I have a lot of self teaching to do, but I’m finding actually I hugely prefer being able to work on what I want, when I want, just me, some paper, a textbook, a laptop for journal articles and some music.
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I told a couple more people about identifying outside of the gender binary recently. Both conversations were pretty awesome.
The first was with a guy whose attitude is if that’s how you identify, that’s cool. If you prefer a gender neutral name, then that’s what I’ll do. So much love ❤
The second was with a person who identifies basically the same way I do: a mix of both. That was pretty unexpected, but it was damn good to talk to someone who totally gets it. That there’s such a difference between ‘butch female’ or ‘femme-y trans-guy’ or ‘effeminate male’ or whatever and feeling androgynous, even if you can’t explain why that is.
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I am really not sure how I am meant to fix my own sleeping pattern. It’d be very much appreciated if any doctor had any idea what the hell to do, or allow me to see a specialist in sleep so we can work out why I wake up the later it gets and feel tired in the morning.
All I know is that going to bed earlier does not mean sleeping earlier and staying up all night and day results in 40 hours awake and a massive sleep where I wake up late afternoon/early evening.
2004 – unwell
2005 – mildly better, but not great
2006 – about as ok as I get
2007 – getting ill again
2008 – as ill as I’ve ever been
2009 – slowly recovering
2010 – again, basically ok
2011 – getting ill again
2012 – constant cycling, at least one incapacitating low, more than one high already.
This has been a vague idea floating around in my mind for a while now, but I only just wrote it down tonight. Upon doing so, I think the only words might just be ‘ah. shit.’.
It’s imperative I find the right medication cocktail, and soon. The only problem is that I’m at home now for the next three weeks, and may or may not be back in Cardiff after that. Then there’ll be another stretch at home, and then back in Cardiff. Coordinating appointments around that is not easy, especially not when side effects become just unbearable whilst at home (i.e. right now, with the nausea that lithium causes).
One might argue I should never have gone to a uni so far from home. I could have studied psychology almost anywhere. Should I have to give up on the course and location I actually want just because of illness though? Would that even do me any good, knowing I wasn’t where I really wanted to be?
It’s a little easier this time around. It’s amazing the sheer difference simply knowing ‘this is the bipolar, it does this’ makes. For that reason, I will never disagree with the idea of diagnosis (though, it’s hardly unflawed). I know a little better what helps, that it passes, that other people have the same thing, and simply why today getting out of bed is just not going to happen.
At the same time, this time around, it’s a better knowledge of how it can/will likely pan out. Months of cycling, getting increasingly worse. Potentially making studying impossible. If I’m up, I can make myself feel I will get through it. Obviously, when down, it’s quite the opposite.
I can only hope I am very wrong, and prepare to not to be.
It seems that taking the end of term off of university to recover from this episode means taking an awful lot longer than I really need at all. This is really rather disheartening.
I’m already 3 years behind my peers. I took an extra year to get through college, and then due to needing surgery for my spine, another 2 years (thanks to MH issues, waiting lists and post-op restrictions).
I am beginning to feel I will be in education for well over 30 years of my life. I just hope I can afford it. Even more than that, I hope I can cope with it. I really want to work as a clinical psychologist, ideally with young people. To do that though, I have to do well at this degree, and then a doctorate. So far, not so good.
So.. right now I feel like
I can’t cope with studying
I’m damn near unemployable
I can’t sustain meaningful relationships
I generally can’t cope as an adult.
I know I have the brains for studying. It’s just the lack of stability – which is really not helped by the student lifestyle. One nasty bout of temporary illness and it can have an effect for weeks afterwards, or just add a few more missed lectures. Or take the one week you might have been able to really put effort into work rather than just ‘getting it done’. One late night out. One night of noise in halls. One bad night with low self esteem leaving it hard to work to a deadline.
One of the most annoying things is the complete lack of option to study part time on this course. I love it here. I love Cardiff. I love the course. I want the placement year. So.. I have to study full time or not at all.
And now I’m taking one out of two breaks I can take, because of one episode, which happened because it is never useful when coughing fits, exhaustion, blocked nose and headaches co-incide with running out of meds. When you have no repeat prescription. And your GP is backlogged with appointments – and you’d have to trek to a pharmacy afterwards as well. When going to the CMHT means maybe waiting hours just for meds. This is ridiculous.. but right now, studying is not something I can do.
As for relationships, I don’t even know what I feel. All I know is I have no interest in feeling like I am being seen as the crazy one who’s opinions don’t need listening to. It’s hard to feel any relationship can work. Maybe one day.
It’s been a difficult few days recently. It seems that on lithium, I am more mood reactive after a break than I ever was on any other medication before now.
Being given only a weeks worth is not useful when they run out just as you come down with a nasty illness. I’ve been back on the lithium for two weeks now, and still feel very low. That said, when I’m this low, having a months worth is not a good idea.
I’m thinking of just retreating back home for a while, until this improves. I’d be much safer.. however, I don’t know what it’d mean for my studies. It also means going 300 miles away from my CMHT (though I do at least have a damn good GP service at home).
I just hate having to worry my parents like this. I always feel like the difficult child, the one that causes all the stress and worry.
I sort of hate being on lithium.
I hate that I have to be on it, firstly. People often assume that as I’ve been on psychiatric medication for the past three years, I must be a supporter of it’s use unconditionally. It’s not a total untruth either, I definitely do feel that these medications have a role to play. At the same time however, knowing how long I will likely have to take it for is something I really do not like. There’s simply a sense of I do not want to have to take this in order to be able to live ‘normally’.
Additionally, I hate the physical effects. The nausea. The constant thirst. The hand tremor. The long term poisoning of my liver and kidneys.
The only redeeming factor is that I am more stable whilst on it.
This time I’d like to focus on the blog of a girl I know in real life. She’s a student at Cardiff University, studying politics, recently engaged (so awesome!), Christian and very articulate.
She also has chronic fatigue syndrome. Despite this, she’s an active member of her church, and the university’s Students with Disabilties society.
This post may potentially be triggering, so please don’t follow the jump if you feel at all vulnerable. Continue reading
lautopolis 