Fugitivus Discussion Forum

That's really fucked up. It's making me sad.

Yeah, I know. I was really distraught when I learned mental illnesses can't be 'cured' for good. You can manage your symptoms, but it's with you for life.

And the odd thing about symptoms is they can change over time. My mother was initially just a clean freak, controlling, and had heavy mood swings.

Then, I remember being about 9 or 10 years old and my mother had locked herself in her room, and when I got home from school told me to go to mine. I was puzzled but she had that no nonsense tone in her voice, so I did as I was told.

An hour later, I was cracking to piss so badly, I snuck out of my room and past her bedroom to the bathroom, and I could hear her on the phone talking, and it sounded to me like she was saying "You have to do something, it's either me or her. Me or her. She's home and it's me or her."

I didn't put two and two together for years, and I've still never had the guts to ask her what she meant because I don't want to know the answer.

That being said, strides are being made every day in the field of mental illness, and it is getting easier to identify the people who have them. I honestly have to say I wouldn't be shocked if everyone was somewhat afflicted, regardless of medical history.

That's pretty scary... I'm sorry.

Yeah, I agree with you. I feel like most people have something. Some people just fly under the radar because they fit in so well. I wouldn't be surprised if my brother was schizoaffective too, because he came to me one day and said in dead earnesty that he had visited Hell and decided to abandon Satanism because he learned that demons actually hate him and Hell's a real place. That sounds like a massive hallucination to me. But he gets by because he's mainstream and has a job and kids and everything.

Holy crap, those are terrible stories. I'm really sorry that ableist jerks keep popping out of the woodwork like that

Sadly, I have one too -

A friend of mine, who has bipolar disorder, and has been to the hospital for it a few times (voluntarily for the stays in the mental health ward) in the last 12 months started dating a guy. She filled him on this, he accepted it. Great, right? Except he keeps making jokes about people (at his work, not her) acting like they're "ready for the rubber room" or that he feels like he should "bust out the straitjacket" when he deals with them. My friend is usually really quiet and not very assertive, but she did tell him in explicit, excruciating detail just exactly what being confined to the modern equivalent of a padded room was. He was horrified, and to the best of my knowledge has STFU with his stupid "jokes" since then. When I found out, I was simultaneously pissed off at him, sorry she had to deal with that, and SO PROUD of her.

It's good to hear a story that has a happy ending, at least- the fact that he shut up with his jokes, I mean.

Ugh, all of those stories are so infuriating. How can people be so unaware and hurtful?

I don't know, but it scares the crap out of me. Especially since I'm about to start the whole "finding a doctor and getting on meds" thing*, and I'm horribly afraid the next post I make to this thread will be about dealing with medical professionals

*Because apparently trying to ignore a steadily and scarily worsening depression for a year in the hopes that "I'm over-reacting, it'll go away on its own!" doesn't actually work, and eventually leads to your brain trying to kill you. Who knew?

I did! I did!

Sigh.

Good luck with the doc thing.

Yeah, good luck. I don't know if it helps, but my more recent experiences with health professionals have been positive ones. I think it's a good deal different if you're getting help of your own volition rather than having help forced on you. People tend to treat you differently.

Hopefully, people who specialize in treating people with those kinds of issues will mean you will get better treatment.

But, not always:

I wrote a post on my blog today about some ableism I witnessed today in the operating room. Yick.