Get the Support You Need

Learn from thousands of users who have made their way through our courses. Need help getting started? Watch this short video.

today's top discussions:

logo

Mother's Day is coming in a few weeks!

AABBYGAIL RUTH

2024-05-15 10:52 PM

Depression Community

logo

Addiction

Lynn123

2024-05-15 9:17 PM

Managing Drinking Community

logo

Challenging Worry - Worry Time

Ashley -> Health Educator

2024-05-14 3:33 PM

Depression Community

logo

Fibre

Ashley -> Health Educator

2024-05-06 5:05 PM

Healthy Weight Community

This Month’s Leaders:

Most Supportive

Browse through 411.753 posts in 47.056 threads.

160,635 Members

Please welcome our newest members: RBARDAJE, CuppaJo, GCAJULAO, RPABIA, TEBON


15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi from windsybarbie

hi windy,
 
I am glad the appointment went well and the meds are compatible.  It seems as we age the bipo changes with us so what was true when we were 18 does not hold at 35  and you can guess by my friend here I had a wild ride this summer!
 
May I ask what is DID?  and you are right MDD is nothing like Bipolar disorder!  -one night i went to bed with the usual prayer to die and the next morning I was NASA's next rocket-fuel  so I dosed up on the caffine energy drinks and went to work!!!!
 
I spoke to my therapist several times and those with Bipo thrive in social gathering.  We feed on the energy and we interact well with other people.  **When in that normal/stable zone somewhere in the middle ** So do not think that because you have this diagnosis you should be a misfit of have a huge tatoo lable on your forehead.  It is great that you are able to stand up to your sister and see that you have your own space.  Many of us have our self-esteem erroded after so much pain and hurt for illness.
 
I really look forward to your posts.
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
hello there

hi royinmtl,
 
This is only info... this is not a critique or a judgement or ANYTHING negative... I live in Mtl.  and have had my share of the frustrations and problems in La Belle Province.  So I am only giving the gang a quick outline of the Qc Healthcare Line-up. 
I promise, really, i promise...
 
the way our Qc Medicare system is set up ... you have to see the Md; your regular doctor or one in a walk-in clinic. For the initial presciption and follow-up. This doctor will refer you to the proper specialist if they feel you need one!!!! and if you have not seen someone in the field before and if you currently are not a patient (last saw the person 3 years ago or less).  If you can pay!!! then you have the choice to see whatever specialist in psychiatry and psychology has a private office (and most work on a sliding scale).  In the Medicare system the Psychiatrists work out of the hospitals and outpatient clinics of the hopitals - there are 6 month waiting lines SO GET IN LINE NOW!!!!  The phychologists work in the same milieu and can be found in the local health clinics CLSC another line up ....  SO GET IN LINE NOW!!!  and ignore the receptionists... vacations r coming up... and we are full for now ... and and and.. I pay 23% of my salary on taxes I deserve to be put on the list!   now. please.
 
Now Jobs,  never a pretty picture in Qc, at least Montreal is still a tough cookie and refuses to be french!  look in at the CLE the local governement job seach office, the programmes they offer are really worth the time and the photocopies & faxes were cheep!  You probably already know this but go towards the companies that rely on the outside to survive. They have to communicte in English with offices in the rest of Canada and the US so they have to be English!!! regardless of the language laws.  Also, Look up the governement web sites... this summer I saw Canada Customs was desperate for people to freeze in a cabane at $50,000/yr asking "anything to declare" in two languages!
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
My father... was diegnosed with heart failure

sheba,
 
remember to tell your father that you love him
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
numb

Hi Karla,
 
Each culture has it's beginning and it's end of time stories.  If you want a really good explanation Joseph Campbell is the man to read.  So with these stories in the chest of books there will always be someone who digs them up and points out their interpertations to meet their own ends.  The scholar will try to sell their books.  THe cult leader will gain more followers. The media will sell more papers or ad space. There is always a "take". 
 
The heart of such stories, I THINK, is to help direct people towards a common cause.  Catholics it is towards heaven, the Vikings it was to be strong warriors in the dark ages, today's zen is to make us all calm efficient workers. In some ways these stories made those ancient leaders powerful! THey knew the future and were actively preparing their people for the hoorible future, which was a million times worse than this miserable today.  And life in the dark and middle ages on a farm was miserable due to a mini-ice age.
 
And as for today,  Karla,  the world continues.  The sun still lights the day and we all go on with our lives.   Have you had a chance to look over the tools here? Some might seem difficult but they are exercises and the more you do them, like a pleasant activity, the better the chances you have of beginning of starting to feel a bit.  
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi from windsybarbie

thank you windy for the info...
Lables sometimes help and give up a place to look for understanding and sometimes they just confuse...supposedly I  am borderline personality... but the psychiatrist figured this from a student's notes of me 15 yrs ago!  so I use the Bipo as my basis for my vocabulary and the personality  well I figure if you do not like me... that is ok I do not need the whole world as my friend (the summer b-b-que will be expensif).
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
How are you handling the winter blues?

hobbiesss,
I like to tinker.  So I have a varity of things going on... beads and wires, plastic scoobie-dou, and french knitting, books and books, and colourings, and puzzles and word games, and number games, and ... scribble pads,
 
oh yes and oil and water pastels and gouach and arcylic paints (and lots of paper grocery bags), and markers and pens and pencils and gluessss and stringsss and yarns and wools and ribbons and and and
 
quite a mess.
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
different states of energy

I was thinking ... so excuse my ramblings ... at how each of us describe our healing process and how we describle our symptomes.  I do not like to admit I have lost control of my illness and will go no further than admit to a bad day or a good day.  I will will describle how I feel as miserable or as crashing.  But I do not really admit to being -depressed. 
 
I know there are the clinical requirements to Depressed. But I mean the state where I stop functioning as I normally do. Where my body just slows down to a snails pace and I watch the world race by.  At these times inside I want to cry because I know I can mentally keep pace.  I know that if there was some energizer bunny to replace in my neck i would be buying the e2 or the lithium.  (lithium battery and meds for bipo). 
 Many moons ago I thought It was me. This was my fault. Lazy. Or maybe my punishment from the higher powers.  I was good, I banished the nasty thoughts - I was soooo careful so OCD.  I prayed and gave myself all sorts of rituals in my head.  And still all always came back.  I was told I had an illness; depression. It was the way I was taught to thing and deal with the stresses of life. 
Now, after several downs and stable moments I finally am beginning to understand how I am put together.  A little bit of this, Some of that ... Qualities, faults, ... and all of it is wildcat.
 
And looking back there were the times when I watched the world stop as I raced on.  So many people to discover so many places to go, so much to see and do.  My parents; I had to be better than them! I knew so much more.  What a joke it was to be imprisoned.   I read so much about so many people and their ideas they all just ran one into the other... it was often a blur and I would get confused.  I wonder what it looked like to the others on the outside? when I was a teen and a young adult?  My family doctor just saw a high energy young lady trying to figure out a lot of life on my own.  He was busy with sick and needy patients. 
It was hard to sit still and keep focused.  I thought about everything how the dynosaures died, and why descartes locked himself up to think up his philosophical notions with his basis in mathematics, and how those perpetual motion machines of davinci could be used,  and why cats live in small groups but are solitary creatures,  and and and that was then.  I loved to follow the wind currents and see where the clouds were pushed... and the patterns in the traffic, and  and and that was then.  A part of then was escape.  The need to move and be free.  The need to explore the physical world around me!  I guess it was why the two years i travelled by bike to the university were my best!  I managed to focus it better!  To tell the truth, The shower was a good moment to try to return to earth! and try to get to class!
 
As I settled into my life as a 22 yr old adult with all the insecurities and instabilities of new work and a stressed relationship and an appartment I had no more real highs;  Just good days.  No more flashes of creativity and insight.  No more moments of instants of genius where I am one with the archetypes of the unconcious.
 
I miss those.
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
How are you handling the winter blues?

working with colour sometimes taps the other side of the brain.
the beading lets me express my creativity and Display it.  I can wear the jewelry to work.
 
and the rest are fun!
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
hello there

roy in mtl,
 
one of the symptomes of Depression is that we focus on the negative. 
 
Montreal has English services and is very English friendly, that is why there are so many ad campaignas to try to get it less so ... and so many fruitless efforts to get new immigrants to become french.  L'office de la langue Francaise is ready to rip Montreal off the map , sometimes, and pitch it out into the atlantic.
 
The Royal Victoria and Jewish General and the Douglas Psychiatric Hospitals have excellent English care.  St-Luc often offers bilingual services. And many other places might surprise you like the Mtl Chinese Hospital that serves in several Chinese dialects and in English! 
 
Where will you be in 6 months? well if you are not better at least you will be one step closer to serious help!  If you are better then you are in for a check-up and a foot in the door !  to be sure the stresses and pains of life do not tackle you again. 
 
 Roy, There are no magic solutions.  i am sorry.  All the treatments for our illness require time and healing.  You need to see a general doctor at the clinic now.  You need to get started on the exercises that will start you looking at the pain that put you in this state.  You need to Heal.
15 years ago 0 456 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Diva news...

hi diva,
 
hey... cows are not ugly. they have sweet eyes and have nice fur for petting.  They have their place in my food web and make great compost .
 
I know there are days where we feel socially unacceptable.  If we were chimps, all the others would be pushing us out of out spot and charging us !  Last in line to eat and sleep.  No one to groom our fur. 
 
It is good that your husband has a pleasant activity planned!  it might get his depression healing a bit.  Could his games be an addition and a way from hiding from the symptomes of his depression?   The further he fall into the pit the more he hides...?  Women are taught as girls to communicate.  Boys are taught to problem solve.  Well you cannot "solve" depression so as your male became more and more depressed and confused he turned to the games familiar world to solve its puzzles and prove his masculinity to himself?
 
-I tend to think in these gender specific roles still.  It helps me to better understand differences-