Opening of article
"By the time I was 17," writes Brenda on the website Bipolar World, "I was a full-blown alcoholic and that's when the drugs came in. ...
Return to article
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- John McManamy
- I am an award-winning author and mental health journalist. I have been writing about mood disorders since being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1999, ranging from a website, an email newsletter, a book, articles for HealthCentral, and this blog. More recently, I have been producing videos. Writing about my illness has played a very strong role in my healing and recovery. Writing allows me to come to terms with my past, gives meaning to my present, and gives me the courage to face the future with hope.
Unfortunately, “individuals experiencing these disorders simultaneously ... have particular difficulty seeking and receiving diagnostic and treatment services, even though, separately, these disorders often are as treatable as other chronic illnesses.”
ReplyDelete----------------------------------------------
Charles
Substance Abuse Centers
Substance Abuse Center
Hi! I began my "head issues" journey with a diagnosis of chronic depression in the early 90s, with a prescription for a drug called Sarafem (which I understood to be a packaging of the same drug as Prozac--right or wrong?). I never experienced what one might call great results from any SSRI, and I have since drug-hopped more times than I can count. I am currently off all psych. drugs but experiencing a major depression. I am also an AA member since July 2009. I have not had any alcohol since then, but a major funk this spring led me to chugalug a liquid cold medicine (OTC) with diphenhydramine, desperately hoping for respite and nepenthe, or at least lethe. I stopped this after having a lot of trouble waking up after a particulaly big swig.
ReplyDeleteI have never been able to control my drinking, always more than I "wanted to", followed by remorse and self-loathing that set me on a vicious cycle. I can't say that I ever really consciously drank "to feel better", because I never felt better when I drank! I was always still basically unhappy.
What intrigues me is how many of the traits of the "borderline personality" I recognized. Also, the AA big book contains many descriptions of alcoholic thinking that match the list on many points. By the way, my current diagnosis is Axis 1 major depression. I experience a lot of anxiety but that has been dropped thid time around, maybe because I get very messed up on benzos?
I guess what I'm seeing right now is how complex and interrelated all this is. Maybe no single diagnostic tag can describe any human being's difficulties. (I feel a shock wave from shivering psychiatrists.) Nor can any one modality alleviate all my problems (this wave from many of my AA buddies). Thanks and keep up the good work!