YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Popping in to say I'm still around and everything is going well ~ not suicidal ~ not symptomatic ~ studying for my first exams in my classes ~ volunteering still ~ and feeling generally positive, healthy, engaged, and happy. I attribute a part of this success to my ongoing recovery progress, of cour...

The latest in updates: I'm back on meds, for the long haul this time. Not more than a day or two after I posted last, I signed myself into the emergency room because the suicidal thoughts were getting constant, specific, and lethal (ie the thoughts I was having about how I would do it were things th...

Here are my current complicated feelings about medications. I don't think I will kill myself if I'm unmedicated. I think I will probably want to but I don't think I'll do it. I think my coping skills have surpassed that point. So, then we really are just talking about a quality-of-life versus quanti...

Came across this quote in a news article. Speaking of psychiatric drugs: "These drugs are so physically harmful that those diagnosed with serious mental illness by the mental health system have a lower life expectancy of 20-25 years." Fuck that. I feel better on medication but not 20 to 25...

Yesterday was a good day. Today I feel pretty suicidal. But life happens. I'm still begrudgingly taking my meds and hoping as my serum levels increase I feel better and better.

It turned out to not be an ambush at all; I was actually surprised at how much of a non-event it was. She basically told me it was safe to resume my full dose of lithium as long as I could "tolerate" it. I really appreciate too how much the clinicians I see value retaining my ability to ch...

Thank you. I'm doing OK. I'm actually doing pretty awful but I did reach out to the nurse practitioner I see this afternoon and I have an appointment literally first thing tomorrow morning. She said it will be an hour as opposed to half hour like usual which makes me feel nervous that she has some k...

My therapist is actually a pretty wonderful human being and I trust him a lot... I've seen him for about a year and a half, with a couple month break when I moved, and in that time he's seen me through a lot of really hard times, as well as some pretty good ones. And we had a good talk today... He s...

I think I'm developing a drinking problem and I think I'm starting to be a danger to myself when I drink.
I'm not taking my Lithium, but I don't think that's what this is about.
I'm pretty drunk right now, to be honest.
Trying to say this here so I can say it to my therapist tomorrow.
Wish me bravery.

Such a good thought about breathing, and also about water. I really relate to that experience of water as healing. I grew up and still live in a coastal town and going to the beach to put my feet in the water seems to cure so much.