What's it all about, Alfie?

So why have I started this blog?  There are loads of mental health blogs out there, why should I start yet another one?  I guess I want to share what it's like to have multiple conditions to manage, which occasionally feed each other, and occasionally oppose each other (mostly the former).  I'm not interested in trying to tell people how to manage their own health, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a psychologist, and I'm not a mental health professional.  I AM an occupational therapy student, but more importantly, I'm someone for whom daily living can sometimes be a mission, despite doing all the right things.  I think it is important for people to understand this about mental health - even when you do everything by the book, things can still go wrong, sometimes just a little pear-shaped, sometimes to the extent that the wheels fall right off.  For people out there with mental health issues, this is important to know because it stops us beating ourselves up any time things happen to our minds that we don't welcome.  For people out there who know and/or care about someone with mental health issues, this is important to know because the person you are family, friends, or colleagues with is almost always trying NOT to be sick, and things happen despite their efforts.

So, what exactly am I dealing with?  My first diagnosis was social phobia, in conjunction with clinical depression.  I was diagnosed with these two at 19.  My second diagnosis was chemical dependence (aka addiction), which I was diagnosed with at 21.  My third diagnosis was bipolar I disorder, which nullified my initial diagnosis of depression.  This diagnosis came a few weeks before I turned 24.  A new diagnosis every couple of years, I know, it sounds like I was sitting reading the DSM-IV and thinking to myself, "I'm bored with this, give me a new set of signs and symptoms", but I promise you, it definitely didn't have anything to do with boredom!  I'll do separate posts about my diagnoses, in order to share some basic information about them, as well as to share my experiences with them.  At this stage though, I think it's important to put that basic information out there.

It's also important at this point, right at the beginning, for me to state that I do not believe that psychiatric disorders are a sham.  I do not believe that they are the invention of a field of medicine that wants to be in the limelight and receive perpetual funding, and I do not believe they are the invention of "Big Pharma".  If you're going to comment that I am some kind of dupe, or that I've been brainwashed, please do not bother, this is not a platform for that, and I am not interested in those kinds of comments, as I have seen too many people die because they listened to those sorts of opinions.  Ultimately, I guess I am here because I live with a host of strange phenomena, and I want to share this life honestly and openly.  If people connect with that, awesome.  If people can help, awesome.  If people receive help, awesome.  A little word on perseverance...

He moana pukepuke e ekengia e te waka!

(The canoe can navigate a choppy sea.)