Oh look. Oh look. Oh look.
*
Check Your Meds
... so started exploring something that might turn into a project- a
comic strip called "Check Your Meds". we shall see what we shall see,
but if you see something you like, a comment or two would be appreciated
and encouraging.
stay tuned
*
it's no secret that eating right can do
a lot for one's mental health,
and Mom was right - breakfast is
the most important meal of the day.
to inspire these good habits,
we present for your delectation
this recipe for Eggs
a la William Seward Burroughs II.
i haven't tried them yet,
but they read like the kind of thing
one could live on for long periods
if the need arose...
if life gives you Lemons
another flight of fictional fancy,
this time about a woman working
with her obsessive-compulsive disorder
to build a better life!
When she thought about it, which was rare, Jennifer knew temping sucked. The hours were bad and the pay was no incentive to excellence. The supervisors talked to her like she'd flunked Special Ed and the staff acted like demi-employment was contagious.
One day, ruminating on a sad tuna sal in the park, she had
a thought. It didn't matter what she did. She'd never thought it did in the grand existentialist scheme of things, but now she saw it was just as true of her day to day.
Once tasked by her supervisor du jour, it really didn't matter if she did it "right"... she just had to look busy. In the unlikely event that anyone ever noticed, she'd be long gone.
Suddenly, some of those sucking things about temp life seemed to her like creative opportunities. Her filing became very adventurous, informed by the I Ching and what she called 'practicing chance': never put two documents in the same folder; shred every tenth document and so on. Data entry was her opportunity to explore Chomsky, and as
a receptionist, she was often described as "fun" and "flirty".
No one knew much about Jennifer, like her obsessive compulsive relationship with computers. In fact, she was
a total dataholic and everywhere she temped, she took home terabytes of what would later be called "sensitive information"... but by then, Jen was long gone and living largely in the Caymans.
this time about a woman working
with her obsessive-compulsive disorder
to build a better life!
When she thought about it, which was rare, Jennifer knew temping sucked. The hours were bad and the pay was no incentive to excellence. The supervisors talked to her like she'd flunked Special Ed and the staff acted like demi-employment was contagious.
One day, ruminating on a sad tuna sal in the park, she had
a thought. It didn't matter what she did. She'd never thought it did in the grand existentialist scheme of things, but now she saw it was just as true of her day to day.
Once tasked by her supervisor du jour, it really didn't matter if she did it "right"... she just had to look busy. In the unlikely event that anyone ever noticed, she'd be long gone.
Suddenly, some of those sucking things about temp life seemed to her like creative opportunities. Her filing became very adventurous, informed by the I Ching and what she called 'practicing chance': never put two documents in the same folder; shred every tenth document and so on. Data entry was her opportunity to explore Chomsky, and as
a receptionist, she was often described as "fun" and "flirty".
No one knew much about Jennifer, like her obsessive compulsive relationship with computers. In fact, she was
a total dataholic and everywhere she temped, she took home terabytes of what would later be called "sensitive information"... but by then, Jen was long gone and living largely in the Caymans.
*
special for You
As the pills in the pestle ground down into powder, he thought about "uncle" Dimitri. He was actually a second cousin, but since coming to America with his father as young men, they'd remained close and after his folks died in the fire at the trailer park, Dimitri went to Nick and said "So keed, you want maybe come with me?".
They lived in the apartment over the restaurant. Old school even by Old Country standards, Dimitri's faith in hard work was stronger than most people's faith in God. He expected Nick to fend for himself, get good marks and help out
in the kitchen every night.
When it was time for college, though, his uncle's generosity put him through the finest pharmaceutical school in the country and helped Nick open his first store. "It's joose a loan, keed" Dimitri would say "later, you can pay me it
back, no rush...".
Ten years later, that store was a successful chain, but
the old Ouzo Inn was now serving Greek-Korean fusion and uncle Dimitri was residing in a priceless Minoan vase on the mantle in his condo.
Filling capsules with the powder, Nick counted 25 of them into a child-proof bottle, put it in a white paper bag and stapled it shut with a duplicate prescription. "There you are so, Mrs. Dubrinski" Nick whispered as he put it in the bin
by the cash register, "I make it special, for you".
*
i ain't half crazy
it seems the more i explore the history and the day to day
of mental health, the more likely i am to pitch a fit. in yet another fit of pique recently, i wrote a song - or some
lyrics for one, at least.
i was inspired, yet again, by the man i think of as one
of the finest lyricists to ever put pen to music, Ian Dury.
Mr. Dury was something of a Noel Coward for the Mandrax set. Among his many achievements was the fusion of his life after polio with an informed contempt for the international Year of the Disabled to produce a song called "Spasticus Autisticus".
this began with my attempt to collect words and phrases created to describe us all, and grew from there. musically, i hear it as a swinging chanson in a music hall style...
anyway, mes amis, with no further ado,
voila ma chanson folle!
voila ma chanson folle!
i ain't half crazy
i don't know when the cheese slid off my cracker,
or when it was i might have lost the plot
but now i'm what you call non compos mentis
you can't find marbles that you haven't got.
when i wake up every day, i'm cock-a-mamy
when i go to sleep each night, i'm off my head
and though you may have seen the lights on,
there is nobody home,
the wheel’s still spinning, but the hamster’s dead.
chorus:
i ain't half crazy, i'm the whole nine yards
there's six or seven missing from my deck of cards
i ain't half crazy, i'm all out of whack
i have gone around the bend,
and there's no turning back.
my sack is full of ferrets, my receiver's off the hook
i'm a trifle short of custard, that's a fact
i need a few screws tightened,
my think tank's got a leak
you see i'm out to lunch, my belfry's full of bats.
bridge:
i am batty, i am bonkers, i am all shook up
i am flippy, dippy and i'm witless too!
i am loopy, loony-toony, screwy, gonzo, i'm deranged
and so are you and you and you and you!
some days i'm really happy, some days i'm really not
and there are days when all i want to be is dead.
it's more than once i've had my head examined
and thanks for asking- yes, i'm on my meds
no matter what i'm into i'm still out of my head
and no matter where i go, i'm not all there
but it's hard to go the distance
when you're truly off your trolley
or win the jackpot when you're playing solitaire.
chorus:
i ain't half crazy, i'm the whole nine yards
there's six or seven missing from my deck of cards
i ain't half crazy, i am out of whack
i have gone around the bend,
and i won't be back.
lyrics copyright d.simpson 2011
the Bipolar Bear and I - part 2
i like bears, at least conceptually, and that's a good thing because there are more bears on my street than in most European countries. sometimes walking the dog at night, there are encounters. sometimes there are encounters
in the back yard, or the front porch.
bears are powerful, impressive creatures that could kill
me with one paw behind their back. i respect them
and their right to be here too, and as much as possible,
i stay out of their way.
in the back yard, or the front porch.
bears are powerful, impressive creatures that could kill
me with one paw behind their back. i respect them
and their right to be here too, and as much as possible,
i stay out of their way.
teddy bears were not invented in Canada, and there are reasons. anyone who has ever found themselves up close
to a real bear and lived to tell will never recall an overwhelming urge to cuddle.
but if you lived somewhere that bears were functionally extinct, the nostalgia is so predictable as to be inevitable.
to a real bear and lived to tell will never recall an overwhelming urge to cuddle.
but if you lived somewhere that bears were functionally extinct, the nostalgia is so predictable as to be inevitable.
the last thing i need to help through the ups and downs
of bipolar living is something cute. Bambi, pink ponies and all the rest use their helplessness like a weapon, launching pre-emptive strike on realities that need to be noticed,
talked about and changed.
no thing and no one changes for the better by substituting "Poor me, poor, poor pitiful me" for a broader and more informed, inclusive perspective.
the bipolar bear is frozen in an eternal present, where
the obvious - sometimes i'm up, sometimes i'm down - is presented over and over and over, like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
if nothing real gets revealed, nothing gets learned and nothing ever changes.
if this is how bipolar living represents to the uni-poled, nothing's going to change. best case, there might be
a little more pity going around.
fuck pity. if you want to get real about something,
let's get real. til then, get your damn bear out of my yard.
claro?
let's get real. til then, get your damn bear out of my yard.
claro?
*
Frank Zappa talks about kids
there's a quote i always think of when the name
"Zappa" comes up. i think it was on the album cover
for "Absolutely Free", but it might
have been the first album.
"if your children ever find out
how lame you are,
they will kill you
in your sleep."
i'd never heard the one below before yesterday,
which probably speaks volumes to his opinion
of inappropriately medicating the young.
*
Nicholas Tesla had issues
Nichola Tesla was a genius. a one-of-a-kind- brain. he also had issues...
he may have had "issues" but Nicola Tesla
also had some very interesting things to say!
click HERE to read some actual quotes!
*
Mental in America
it's hard times in America these days - no secret there. and just when people dared to dream there might be something better than life under George Bush, things didn't get better, they just got worse.
and then they got even worse than that. it turns out that in America, banks rob you. so there is no money to stop the rot that Reagan began, and here we all are...
and then they got even worse than that. it turns out that in America, banks rob you. so there is no money to stop the rot that Reagan began, and here we all are...
is it ironic that even though there are more people per capita in prison in the land of the free than anywhere else on the planet, the gang that pulled off the biggest bank heist in history in broad daylight still walk among us?
i don't know how much more gets spent on prisons in the USA, but i bet it's a lot more than mental health.
in a country where ketchup can be declared a vegetable, the only surprise is that some bright-eyed MBA hasn't suggested that some significant portion of the prison budget be classified as spending more money on health care...
seeing how that's where so many people with mental issues end up. sooner or later.
or maybe someone did.
and somebody else pointed out that this would make all that money much more vulnerable to budget cuts... whereas we know there's always more money for cops.
there's always more money for cops.
...but when i look at this map, i do wonder if the game's not rigged - ie - there are probably more people diagnosing in the USA, and there are certainly more drug sales associates encouraging doctors along the diagnostic trail...
the darker the state, the more people there are mentally ill.
is this why people keep the lights on all the time? or is it people go crazier faster if it never gets dark out?
the darker the state, the more people over 18 have had at least one serious depressive episode in the past year.
the darker the state, the more people over 18 have had serious psychological distress in the past year.
the darker the state, the more people between 18 and 25 have had serious psychological distress in the past year.
the darker the state, the more prisons there are there.
the darker the state, the more people there live below the poverty line.
the darker the state, the fewer young people* who need mental health care will get it.
notice what states keep turning up on all these? kind of a map of unpleasant possibility potential...
* under 18
*
Lithium 102
Trace amounts of lithium are present in the oceans
and in all organisms. The element serves no apparent
vital biological function, since animal and plants survive
in good health without it.
and in all organisms. The element serves no apparent
vital biological function, since animal and plants survive
in good health without it.
The first recorded use of lithium for the treatment
of mania, based in part on the urate/lithium connection,
was 1871. Use of lithium carbonate (the current pill form
of lithium) to prevent depression came in 1886.
of mania, based in part on the urate/lithium connection,
was 1871. Use of lithium carbonate (the current pill form
of lithium) to prevent depression came in 1886.
In 1948, an Australian psychiatrist named John Cade
began treating patients with mania using lithium (1948).
He had injected guinea pigs with lithium urate and found
that they became placid, and somewhat tranquilized.
Only later did he determine that the calming effect
was from lithium, not urate.
began treating patients with mania using lithium (1948).
He had injected guinea pigs with lithium urate and found
that they became placid, and somewhat tranquilized.
Only later did he determine that the calming effect
was from lithium, not urate.
Coca-Cola was originally created as a patent medicine and included miracle ingredients like cocaine (an estimated nine milligrams per glass) and caffeine. The soft drink 7 Up was also a patent medicine, originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" and contained lithium citrate until 1950.
 |
| Dispels hangovers. Takes the "ouch" out of grouch. |
Lithia water is mineral water containing lithium salts.
Lithia water can occur naturally in spring form. One example can be found in Ashland, Oregon's Lithia Park. The water is pumped to a fountain where hundreds of people come to drink it for its supposed positive psychological effects.
Lithia water can occur naturally in spring form. One example can be found in Ashland, Oregon's Lithia Park. The water is pumped to a fountain where hundreds of people come to drink it for its supposed positive psychological effects.
 |
| Do I look like I've been sedated? |
Lithia
Park is the largest and most central park of Ashland, Oregon. Its name
originates from lithium oxide (Li2O)
or "lithia," which is found in the stream water pumped
to the park.
or "lithia," which is found in the stream water pumped
to the park.
 |
| Used extensively in countenancing excess activity |
In 1907 a lithia water spring was discovered at Emigrant creek several miles to the east. Upon analysis, the water
was shown to have the second-highest concentration of (presumably beneficial) lithium in any natural spring.
The highest highest concentration was found
in the famous springs of Saratoga, New York.
 |
| Lithium? You're soaking in it! |
The lithium ion Li+ administered as any of several
lithium salts has proved to be useful as a mood-stabilizing drug due to
neurological effects of the ion in the human body.
 |
| Happy Day |
As a mood stabilizer, lithium is probably more effective in preventing mania than depression, and may reduce the risk of suicide in certain bipolar patients.
*
Canadians with mental illnesses denied U.S. entry
Data entered into national police database accessible to American authorities: WikiLeaks
More than a dozen Canadians have told the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto within the past year that they were blocked from entering the United States after their records of mental illness were shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
it's all here...
...but wait, there's more!
Have you faced discrimination because of mental illness?
see for yourself...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/09/have-you-faced-discrimination-because-of-mental-illness.html
*
A First-Rate Madness
If you're tired of only hearing about bipolar people in crime reports or on Entertainment Tonight, this book may be just the tonic you're looking for...
Psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi's new book "A First-Rate Madness" suggests that when the going gets tough, the last thing we need is a homoclite or "normal" leader... what we really need are leaders who are are a little off.
“The best crisis leaders are either mentally ill or mentally abnormal; the worst crisis leaders are mentally healthy.”
There's an interview with him in the Globe and Mail this week...
In what ways can mental health be a liability for a leader?
As some scientific research shows, normal (mentally healthy) subjects show less evidence of traits that are useful for crisis leadership: realism and empathy (persons with depressive symptoms have more of these traits than normal subjects), and creativity and resilience (persons with manic symptoms have more of these traits than normal subjects).
and a review by Janey Maslin in the good ol' New York Times, where she seems to take a dislike to the theory and the book, but whatever...
*
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