Thursday, September 3, 2009

DEFINING YOURSELF BY MORE THAN YOUR MENTAL ILLNESS

About twenty years ago, in 1989, I was diagnosed with OCD, which was accompanied by severe panic attacks. According to my child psychologist, my future looked pretty bleak. A mental hospital was her first suggestion, citing my inability to ever function normally in society. My parents refused to accept this alternative and decided to take on the responsibility of handling a child on new anti-depressants (known as tricyclics) on their own. Needless to say, Dr. Jane Doe’s initial prognosis was, for the most part, inaccurate.

While it is true that I struggled through each day for several years, I was vigilant in my quest to conquer the impossible- even after later being diagnosed with a third, (bi-polar) fourth, (possible bpd) and fifth (dysthymic) disorder.

Now, at 29 years of age, I am a freelance writer, sports columnist, mental health advocate, and I’m working on completing a memoir. Instead of taking the “victim” stance, I’ve used my lifetime full of painful memories as fuel to feed the burning flames.

I’ll be the first to admit, mental illness is a tricky disease, as it often affects the rationality of the mind, but at some point we have to take some of the responsibility for our actions. Sometimes, those of us with mental illnesses find ourselves falling into the trap of the “stigma.” We do this by defining ourselves by our mental illness in a negative way, when we should be looking at how we can use it to our advantage. Enlightenment, I’ve found, is something that is almost innate in those of us with a mental illness because of the speed at which our mind if forced to travel. Enlightenment is certainly something that can be used as an advantage in a world filled with so much apathy.

Perhaps nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said it best when he uttered the phrase, “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” If you decide to live by these words, there isn’t anything you can’t do, albeit with help from the right people.

Choose to live-one day at a time.

3 comments:

  1. Hey girl! Great blog! When I do trainings, there are lots of people who get up to practice their presentations. They'll say "I'm bipolar" or "I'm schizophrenic". I stop them right away. If they learn nothing else from the training I want them to get this concept. If you go to the doctor and he tells you that you have toe nail fungus, does this MAKE you toe nail fungus? So, if the doctor says you have bipolar disorder does that MAKE you bipolar? NO! You are a PERSON with bipolar disorder just like you would be a PERSON with toe nail fungus!!! One of the days, I'm gonna get bold enough to have t-shirts made that say "I'm not toe nail fungus" and have people wonder what in the hell that means!!!

    So glad to have you on board!

    Lis

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  2. Great post! I do live by the "anything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger" philosophy, and that has helped me cope and deal with the same diagnoses as you have. Thanks for posting.
    Michele

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  3. Hey ladies! I'm glad you dug the post- Michele-This philosophy is especially important for people who have mental illnesses because of the obstacles we must face on a daily basis. Because these obstacles are so based on the irrational state of our minds,it's different than the everyday obstacles most poeple face. Keep hanging in there!

    Lis- LOL! Thats all I have to say. No, wait...DO IT! I'm very glad to be on board and before the day is over I'm going to cross promote this blog with my http://www.annabellasepiphanies.wordpress.com blog. We need more traffic to both this site and the Ning site. What you guys are doing is amazing. More people need to know about it and participate, or at the very least READ!

    Annabella

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