As you may know, I take part in mental health podcasts quite frequently. Recently, I’ve discussed issues such as mental illness as a disability, what people with and without mental illness need to know about suicide and one of my pet peeves when people try to look for the “bright side” of mental illness. Three mental health podcasts I’ve done were released quite recently and I want to share them with you.
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Have you heard of the mental health webcomic Phobiana? Well, until recently, I hadn’t, but judging by its YouTube numbers, I’m in the minority. Phobiana is a mental health webcomic by Tiffany Lowery and Oakley Fae that is aimed squarely at the heart of the difficult issues surrounding mental health and mental illness; and because it’s a comic, it’s able to impart knowledge and a positive message in a way that is impactful and entertaining.
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Britney Spears’ conservatorship is bringing to light mental illness conservatorships for disabled people. Many people are screaming that Spears shouldn’t be under a conservatorship. This then leads people to start screaming that no one should be under that kind of control. This is a mistake. While the Spears case may be an example of abuse (maybe, I don’t know), that doesn’t mean that conservatorships, in general, are abusive and it doesn’t mean that conservatorships don’t offer huge value to people who are disabled by grave mental illness.
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I hate magical thinking. I most especially hate magical thinking around mental illness and mental health. And that’s because magical thinking actually harms people with mental illness, people like me. And many, people believe in magical thinking without realizing it. In fact, whole bestselling books have been written and devoured that posit magical thinking (the Secret, anyone?). So let’s dismantle magical thinking and stop it from harming people with mental illness.
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Have you ever wondered if you really have bipolar disorder and not major depression? Did you know there are signs that can point to bipolar disorder outside of what we normally consider to be the diagnostic symptoms of bipolar disorder? And did you also know that few doctors take these types of signs into account? If you feel like you have bipolar disorder but have been diagnosed with major depression, you’ll want to know about these signs because diagnosis directly affects treatment, and treatment directly affects you getting better.
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Today, the Burble is honored to welcome guest poster, Marvin Ross. Marvin is an author and well-known advocate for the seriously mentally ill.
I fight anti-scientific thinking and antipsychiatry. Thanks to the reaction by many against measures to help minimize the spread of Covid-19, I have begun to see the common thread underlying the opposition to masks, social isolation, proper psychiatric treatment, and vaccinations. That thread is anti-science thinking and the huge growth in the past number of years in what is called “alternative medicine.”
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Some people try to control us. Some people try to control us for altruistic reasons, and others for darker reasons. Either way, though, I think most of us would prefer not to be controlled by another person. But it can be hard to tell when someone subtly tries to control you. One thing I learned many years ago, though, is that if someone doesn’t listen to you when you say, “no,” they are trying to control you — whether they realize it or not.
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Bipolar Burble blog welcomes guest poster Bob Krulish. Bob has bipolar type 1 and today, is talking about living through mania and living with the mania monster.
I became symptomatic with bipolar disorder when I was about 16 years old, after my dad abruptly left in the middle of the night, never to return. My mom and I searched endlessly for him, driving the streets at night, shining a flashlight into dark corners of our tiny Florida town, looking for him like a lost puppy. I knew he wasn’t there; she knew he wasn’t there, but looking gave us a sense of control. That’s when my bipolar symptoms started to peek through. At first, the signs of mania were small and quiet, knocking around inside my mind like a tiny, restless mouse. There was cyclical thinking; there were obsessive tendencies, and, of course, there were delusions of grandeur.
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I have a lot of experience with bipolar depression, and I hate it when people tell me to “cry it out.” I find this one of the most useless pieces of advice you can give a person who’s upset, particularly one that’s already crying. It’s built on the idea that you can cry out a sorrow of some sort as if there’s a beginning, middle and end. Well, I can’t comment for people without bipolar disorder, but for people with bipolar depression, “crying it out” isn’t an option.
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