The title of this post is the search that I did for years, trying to find other people who had done what I was aspiring to do, people who had been previously diagnosed as bipolar for whatever reason, but had managed to get off of psychiatric meds successfully. Most of the stories out there are [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Bipolar “Off Meds” Success
Posted in Uncategorized on December 30, 2008 | 8 Comments »
How I got off of psychiatric medication
Posted in Uncategorized on December 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’ve written bits and pieces here about how I why I withdrew from individual psychiatric medications. However, I haven’t provided the details of how I actually did it, how I worked with my prescribing doctor through the process, or why I chose to withdraw the way I did for each drug. Please don’t consider this [...]
What is left to say?
Posted in Uncategorized on December 11, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Apologies for the long absence, so let me start by saying that I’m fine, Agnes is fine, kiddo is fine, and new potential baby is fine (I just cleared the 14 week first trimester hurdle…now if I could just stop throwing up). However, we have all been tired and sick (alas, such is cold season [...]
New Patterns from Old
Posted in Uncategorized on November 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Agnes and I have been thinking and talking more about what I wrote about in the last post, in terms of figuring out how to support each other as things shift and energy wanes during pregnancy , and how all of this shifting brings up old patterns we’d prefer to let lie. In practical matters, [...]
Ghosts.
Posted in Uncategorized on October 20, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Things are moving along here as one expects them to. I’m at seven weeks today. I feel pretty sick most of the time. I vacillate between feeling like I’m on the verge of puking (or actually puking) and crying, all of which they tell me is par for the course, and does [...]
I guess I should have seen this coming
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Pregnancy on October 3, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Ah. I can already see part of what is going to be hard about this whole pregnancy thing (it’s been a week since the positive test, and things are looking ok so far).
There’s that thing where you get, well, extra emotional. I’d really rather skip that.
It worked.
Posted in Uncategorized on September 26, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I got a positive pregnancy test this morning.
1 1/2 years of acupuncture. 4 tries. 10 frozen sperm vials. G-d I hope it sticks.
It is extremely early. My period would be due tomorrow.
Even if I lose it, this is progress. My eggs work. Maybe I really will carry our second child.
Laughter
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged tegretol, withdrawal on September 23, 2008 | 2 Comments »
[NB: I found this tidbit of writing from mid-tegretol withdrawal in Feb 2006. At that point, I'd gotten off of zyprexa and klonopin, and was still on Lamictal. It is hard to believe 2 1/2 years have passed since then]
Sometimes I find a piece of myself I didn’t even know I lost.
I’m down to 200mg of Tegretol. [...]
Bootstraps
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bipolar, depression, medication, recovery on September 18, 2008 | 5 Comments »
One of the major themes when apologists for the current system diagnosis and treatment get going is that people struggling with mental illness cannot be expected to just “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” that you can’t just “decide” to get better. Back when I believed in my diagnosis, I would take deep offense [...]
Keep Away
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged "high-risk", bipolar, birth, c-section, intervention, post-partum depression on September 5, 2008 | 6 Comments »
I recently spoke with a doctor who founded and runs a clinic specifically for women who are or want to be pregnant who have a mental illness diagnosis, everything from mild depression to schizophrenia with active psychosis. I approached her because I heard her ask a smart question of another doctor about the effects [...]
