http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com ...coming out of the mental illness closet Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:21:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en RSS.png http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com ...coming out of the mental illness closet After eight years of being on antidepressants, it is decidedly tricky business coming off them alone. I'm not quite collapsed in a heap on the floor, but feel that may be where I am headed unless I go to see a counsellor or psychologist soon. I do not think it ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2010/03/alone-and-despairing/ [caption id="attachment_232" align="alignnone" width="300" caption=""Anger" by donvito62, from www.deviantart.com"][/caption] It has been a little while since I last posted, but I am now fully off antidepressants so I thought it apt to write about it. It has been about a fortnight since I took my last pill and I feel as ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2010/02/emotion-with-a-vengeance/ Had a bizarre sort of waking/dreaming experience last night. I think I must have been sleeping for perhaps an hour or so and maybe my cats made some noise that triggered my half-waking, but I lay in bed, on my back hardly breathing as I heard the sound of many ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2010/02/like-a-waking-dream/ [caption id="attachment_220" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="'Hope For' from PaperFlowers on DeviantArt.com"][/caption] As per my previous post, What if I Wasn't Depressed?, I am now into my third week of cutting out the anti-depressants (Efexor XR). Whereas originally I was taking 5 x 75mg capsules, I am now down to three capsules per ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2010/01/coming-off-anti-depressants/ I got a puppy in November - a pug cross shih tzu - and have been struggling to toilet train her and stop from biting/chewing everthing. I have felt a little out of my league as I have never really had a dog before, only cats. The reason for this post ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2009/12/when-puppies-attack/ I am going to take myself off anti-depressants. Currently I am on a dose of Efexor XR, 375mg which is higher than the given therapeutic range, but less than I have been on in the past by 75mg. I have been taking this medication daily for approximately six years. So, ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2009/12/what-if-i-wasnt-depressed/ It's Christmas day and I am home alone. I've had a bit to smoke and I'm feeling rather flat. I have just moved into my grandmother's house (she is in a nursing home, no longer able to recognise family, remember things or look after herself). The house is huge, compared to ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2009/12/merry-christmas-i-guess/ [caption id="attachment_193" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Image courtesy of 'Readings in Humanistic Psychiatry'"][/caption] Whilst 'schizophrenia' and 'bipolar' are words that are relatively well-known to those with any clue about mental illness, however, the term 'schizoaffective disorder' is not as well known. Increasingly, as I understand it, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are being thought ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2009/11/what-is-schizoaffective-disorder/ The Life You Were Born to Live, by Dan Millman is a numerological book with a difference. The approach is somewhat similar to traditional numerology in that in order to obtain a life path number, one adds together the numbers in a birth date (eg. 5+2+1+9+7+4 = 2+8 = ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2009/11/the-life-you-were-born-to-live/ [caption id="attachment_176" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="Image courtesy of Solar Clarity"][/caption] I had been smoking again and pottering about the house when I thought to myself, "That's right, I have to return that scanner to my friend". A second later I heard my phone beep with an sms. It was my friend asking ... http://www.thanksforthepsychoses.com/2009/11/the-extended-mind/