Coping with Manic Depression

I am a 42 year old woman living with Manic Depression. My diagnoses is Bipolar II Disorder. I have been mentally unwell from my childhood, although at that time my parents did not believe in psychiatry, so I was considered a “problem child”. My illness has spiraled out of control to the point where in 2000 I started to be hospitalized for long periods of time. When my mother had cancer a few years before, I stopped my life to go and take care of her, as my father could not do it alone. It took my parents until the third time I was in the bin to come and visit me and that was the only time. Over the past eight years, I have spent more than two years (if you combine the stays) in a hospital. What I have concluded from this is that people who are mentally ill do not get the same love, respect and concern than those suffering from other (physical) illnesses. We who are mentally ill do not have visitors with flowers and cards. Our stays in the hospital are not supported by those who would not bat an eye at visiting the physically sick. In 2002 the World Health Organization stated that 20% of the global population was Clinically Depressed. That’s a pandemic. What is worse, is that if you have given a trusted person a Medical Power of Attorney, it does NOT include mental health issues. This means that if you are in an institution, you can make medical choices for yourself, even if you are not competent to do this. How do I know? Because I chose to have Electro-Convulsive-”Therapy” in a hospital. Not a decision I would have made in a “normal” state of mind. I went through over 22 of these, which depleted my memory of the years 2001-2003. I do not recall 9/11, even though I sat and watched on TV, according to my B.F. The last hospital I was placed in (December 2006-February 2007) was not good. They had me on many drugs (which I will take happily, as I believe they help), but in particular, they had me on 600 mg of Thorazine. My B.F. waved the P. of A. at them and they fell about laughing. I ended up getting hold of a scalpel and slashing my wrist. I was released three days later. Yup. Not that I’ll name the hospital…..but Belmont is not just a race-track. People with mental health problems are looked down on, made fun of and feared. Historically, our treatment has been suspect, at best. Many of us carry on in pain and suffering that would, if it were physical, have most people hooked up to an I.V. Most cannot afford the treatment that they desperately need. The stigma is enormous, and often stops some one from seeking help. In 2005, the World Health Organization made a Mental Health Treaty for those suffering in Europe, which stated among other things, that those suffering should be given the utmost support in being considered. The war is here, and we do nothing to fight it.

Why can’t I just shave once and be done with it?

This individual is mad because she is just too hairy! She can’t seem to get rid of all her hair.  She is frustrated because laser treatment doesn’t remove ALL of the hair, and that it grows back so fast! Please help this individual with her frustrations. 

Who came up with the idea that women need to be hairless? I’d like to go back in time and kill that person.  I am really angry that I just can’t shave once and be done with it. And the frigging eyebrow plucking- it won’t stop.  Waxing is torture. Lasers work eventually, but only with 80 percent of the hair. Great- I wasted all my frigging money on painful laser treatments so I can still shave 20 percent of my hair. And I don’t get to choose where it comes back.  It’s like getting Lasik and having to wear reading glasses. (Or going blind because you went to a cheap place for it.)Or going to church to get saved and finding out you have to keep coming back.  I just want it to be done with already. The maintenance is driving me nuts!