Posts about mental health.
"There are risks to antidepressant treatment, but the risks of untreated depression are worse." ~ John Bailey So, the second time I was sick enough to start taking medication the first one they put me on was duloxetine - brand name Cymbalta. This was after I'd taken an overdose and then begun self harming. The… Continue reading Duloxetine
“Moving from phonetics to etymology, ‘vagina’ originates from a word meaning sheath for a sword. Ain’t got no vagina.” ~ Inga Muscio So, a late night conversation on Twitter last week led me to conduct some more polling. Completely non-scientific, non-generalisable polling of course. I like to think of it as finding out what a room… Continue reading I Asked A Bunch Of People How They Felt About Their Vulvas
“Sylvie wishes the anti-depressants had been around when she was in her early twenties, not only to rescue her from the dark tunnels that came when her brother first got sick, but also to keep her from fucking all those assholes.” ~ Francesca Lia Block So, as I mentioned last week Mirtazapine was the second medication… Continue reading So Mirtazapine
“The mentally ill frighten and embarrass us. And so we marginalise the people who most need our acceptance. What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candour, more unashamed conversation. ~ Glenn Close So, as I see that the ‘mentally ill loner’ trope has reared it’s ugly head again, and as pretty unsociable mentally ill… Continue reading Mental Illness Isn’t A Motive For Murder. It Just Isn’t.
“When she bleeds the smells I know change colour. There is iron in her soul on those days. She smells like a gun.” ~ Jeanette Winterson So, we've spent a lifetime watching sanitary towel and tampons adverts that show product demonstrations using some smooth, pale blue gel/liquid which doesn't resemble anything that actually exists outside of… Continue reading At Last An Advert Finally Acknowledges That We Bleed
(Image: Wikimedia) "If you're taking an antidepressant, it's working, and you're not experiencing side effects, go on taking it. But if it's not working, or not working well enough, or if you have side effects you don't like, talk to your doctor about an alternative approach." ~ Irving Kirsch So, I said that I was… Continue reading Paroxetine
(Image via Planned Parenthood: How To Use Menstrual Products Superpost) “I mean if there was any justice in the world you wouldn't even have to go to school during your period. You'd just stay home for five days and eat chocolate and cry.” ~ Andrea Portes So, you remember how a little while ago I told… Continue reading See How Other People Feel About Their Periods
“It wasn't merely fatigue. although it continued to worry me how tired I was all the time. I had a strange sense of missing something, of being in the wrong place - no matter where I was.” ~ Josh Lanyon Can I just start by saying that if you are exhausted all the time, if you… Continue reading You Probably Have A Vitamin D Deficiency
"It takes, on average, six attempts to find the antidepressant that works for you." ~ my social worker I haven't really mentioned mental health medication since I named this page after one and explained what it was and my experiences of it. And I'm not actually on that one any more. I do make a… Continue reading Some Thoughts On Medication
“PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.” ~ Susan Pease Banitt Facebook reminded me last week that it was four years to the day since my mental health coming out party. Or as I titled the event at the time my Taking Down My Christmas Tree Party. Because… Continue reading My Mental Health ‘Coming Out’ Party
Make-Up & Mirtazapine 