"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
“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
(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
"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
“It's my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them.” ~ Jennifer Niven Mental illness is not... > ...your… Continue reading Mental Illness Is Not…
"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragon's exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." ~ Neil Gaiman So, last week in my advice to those who may be new to this whole mental illness thing I suggested reading some of the many books and blogs out… Continue reading Mental Healthish Writings That I Like
(Image source: Getty Images) “I thought the doctor's diagnosis was the first step to mending her. I know now that a diagnosis is taken in like an orphaned dog. We brought it home, unsure how to care for it, to live with it. It raised its hackles, snarled, hid in the farthest corner of the… Continue reading My Advice To The Newly Diagnosed
"I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival." ~ Audre Lorde Self care, previously known as being nice to and doing nice things for yourself, is greatly stressed as being important in managing mental illness but it's actually pretty important for everybody. We… Continue reading Self Care: 15 Suggestions
(Getty Images) “Bad enough to be ill, but to feel compelled to deny the very thing that, in its worst and most active state, defines you is agony indeed.” ~ Sally Brampton Some time earlier this year, I can't remember exactly when, around the time that Germanwings pilot deliberately crashed his plane, I decided that I… Continue reading Start A Conversation Today
So, I know in my last post I said that I would be writing a lot about sex in the following weeks, and then didn't post anything for a month. Unfortunately in the last few weeks I've been sick, had a bereavement, been made redundant, worried about loved ones, and the world in general has… Continue reading Coping
Make-Up & Mirtazapine 