Mental Health Advocacy

[Droopy]

I have a mental illness called schizo-affective disorder. It's not a widely known illness, but it is estimated that about .5% of the population is afflicted with it. That works out to about 1.5 million people in our country. The symptoms of the illness are basically the mood swings associated with bipolar disorder with some schizophrenic symptoms. For the bipolar part of my illness I take lithium and that requires periodic blood work to ensure that I have the proper levels of the drug in my body. They also check for other possible problems while I'm in there including my blood glucose level and that requires some fasting. Today I had to go get the blood work done and afterward I stopped by this little mom and pop's diner in my home town for a feast. I got an omelet with hash browns, a plate sized pancake, and a bowl of oatmeal.

As I was sitting there stuffing my face a guy came in and sat at the table next to mine. We are both regulars so we have seen each other before, but have never talked. He asked me who I thought was going to win tonight and I said Obama. He looked at me strange and then I remembered- the college football championship. We're in Ohio. :D I've got them primaries on the brain. He took a look at the spread on my table and commented on it. I told him about the blood work and the fasting and he said he thought he'd be doing the same thing as me after that. Then he asked if it was anything serious and I told him no, it was just some routine stuff. He paused for a minute and I think he was expecting me to tell him what the blood work was for. So after a minute or two he asked me.

I paused for a few seconds wondering what I should tell him. None of his business? Lie? Tell the truth? I'm a pretty adventurous person so I told the guy about my illness. He hadn't heard of it, but he had heard of bipolar disorder. I told him about the medication and the symptoms. He was genuinely interested and we had a good little chat. When I tell people about my illness in person they sometimes react with fear when they realize that they are sitting next to a genuine crazy person. It was refreshing for someone to react with honest curiosity. The last time I was in the hospital was 4.5 years ago. I've been well throughout that time due to good doctors and medication compliance and I don't have any reason to believe that I'll ever experience another symptom in my lifetime. Many people don't seem to understand that mental illness is treatable and that it is possible for that treatment to turn even the sickest into stable, productive, peace-loving citizens such as myself.

Now I'm going to talk about Britney Spears. I hope you're still with me and aren't ditching now because I think I have a different perspective on this than what you are getting in the main stream media. The portion of this post that follows is a cross post from the mental health forum. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=276

Regarding Britney Spears.

I don't know what's wrong with her, but I'm hoping she gets the help she needs. I can see a couple of positive things coming out of her successful treatment besides her well being. The potential for some really great music is there as well as the mental health community gaining a high profile advocate if she chooses to go public with whatever diagnosis she gets.

Things are not looking so great right now, though. She only stayed on the psych ward for the mandatory 3 days. I think it takes longer than that to get someone stabilized. It seems to me that if she were serious about getting treatment, and with the resources that she has, that she would have stayed there longer. I was in the hospital for 7 days last time and while my recovery was dramatic in that period of time I still was not 100% when I left the hospital. I only left after 7 days because my insurance would not cover me for more time.

There is also the trauma of experiencing mental illness for an extended period of time, and she has obviously been unwell for quite some time. I still have problems with flashbacks and self loathing due to all of the crazy shit I did when I was experiencing my symptoms. It's getting better with me putting more distance between my insane period and now, but it's been 4.5 years. It may be something that I never get totally worked out, but I hope not. I think Britney is going to have a real tough time with that one, too, probably more so than me due to the publicity of her melt down.

Anyway, I wish Britney all the best and hope for her speedy recovery. Maybe the hospital was just too uncomfortable due to her notoriety and she is getting the help she needs privately. I certainly hope that is the case.