thelucidteam

Certainly not out of line! I am very comfortable with my life experience surrounding mental health and I think healthy dialogue like this is how we can keep making progress in the community :)

Overall, medications saved my life. I would not have survived my 20s if I didn't have them. But I'm not going to lie, the process was not pleasant and I do believe that one day there will be a better way (we're trying to work on one of those better ways). But today, medication sometimes is what is necessary to keep you safe.

It's completely normal to be nervous about taking medications, it took me a really long time to cope with the fact that I need to take them. But not all stories are like mine, you may not need medication at all. I would start by getting help (doctor, therapist, social worker), and taking it one step at a time from there :)

Since I was a teenager I was having some really bad bouts of depression and hypomania (unknowingly because this was just seen as being me having a 'high strung' personality) but those were cyclical. I then started getting really bad panic attacks, and when I turned 20 I had a complete nervous breakdown that triggered a life-threatening heart arrhythmia that landed me in the ICU. After not being able to find a problem with my heart, they assumed I just had a bad case of panic disorder (without probing my mental health history at all). I left with a prescription for a high dose of zoloft and Xanax. As. some of you might know, Zoloft is a strong SSRI and SSRIs are extremely dangerous for people who are bipolar. This spring shot me into a severe manic episode and a period of psychosis that lasted about a year. From there I was forcibly hospitalized and they realized they had the wrong diagnosis.

s, I think that's a dangerous message to send to young people suffering from the disease.

oh! yeah I completely agree. That's not cool

I'm so sorry to hear that you feel guilty about that. Let me first say, the loved ones that support us like you are such an essential in the process of getting well, so thank you for being there for your friend. I don't resent the people who had me forcibly hospitalized. In my case, it was my father. I think the way I was treated at the hospital was certainly not okay in a lot of ways, but the process ultimately saved my life. So don't beat yourself up!

Happy to :) I'm a fan, but not because he's bipolar (even though I do get a little excited when I hear a celebrity has shared that life experience with me), but because I think he's extremely musically talented. As a bipolar artist, I really don't like it when people associate my creativity or the quality of my work with being bipolar. Kanye isn't talented because he's bipolar, he's talented because he's great at his craft.