emdr

There are quite a few people who’ve told me that they appreciate when I share about my experiences with bipolar disorder. Doing so has helped them better understand what it is to have a condition like this. I suppose it helps me too. Writing about it gives me that much more strength over something that really should have killed me years ago already. So here is another report from the wacky world of manic depression!

This morning I saw my counselor for the first time in several months. Getting as much substitute teaching in as I can has prevented me from adequately addressing my overall mental health as much as I really should have been doing. Controlling my bipolar disorder involves many things. Medication and counseling are two of those, and they work hand in hand. The meds restore a measure of control and the counseling helps me develop tools ...

EMDR, Part 2

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A little over a month ago I wrote about beginning Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR for short. It’s a therapy technique that, with the aid of a trained and experienced facilitator, I am employing to address the matter of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD and I promise that’s the last acronym) that I was diagnosed with two years ago.

We are now well into the treatment, and it has begun to bloom forth some enormously positive results. That, despite the unusual circumstances that have sent this procedure onto a wildly parallel tangent. This past week was the third session that we had to conduct via video conferencing as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. COVID-19 has affected pretty much every aspect of health care in our area. The building I work in – a mental health facility – has five entrances. Right now passage is only allowed

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This blog has been operational for sixteen(!) years now, and it’s covered a lot of territory. Everything from pop culture to weird news to chronicling my run for political office and anything in between. It’s shown readers the inside of a nuclear power plant, to the ancient sanctity of Orthodox Christianity.

But it hasn’t depicted everything about my life. Though there have been times that I’ve shared glimpses of personal frustration and tragedy, most of what happens on this side of the screen has been shrouded from my audience. It’s been a common lament of mine: how it seems that everyone I know gets to display their blessings and joy over Facebook while I’ve come up empty in those regards. And then I’m reminded that people only show the good things on social media, not the bad. So if that’s a crime, then I suppose I’m just as guilty.

However, ...