medicine

Chris Knight's avatar

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 ...

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 Released on November 19th, 1975.

Coach W.A. Wall, our health teacher during my sophomore year of high school, told us about this movie one morning in class.  The subject at hand was mental health.  He said that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a movie we would do well to watch sometime.  Coach Wall said that it would make us laugh, it would make us cry, and that it would downright disturb us at times.

About ten years later I got my first DVD player for Christmas.  As I was starting to build up a personal movie library I spotted this film’s DVD.  Remembering what Coach Wall had said about it, I decided it was worth taking a chance on and so I bought the disc.

Wall was right.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was all of those things and more.  And it very quickly became one ...

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Being Bipolar is a series that began nearly fourteen years ago in the winter of 2011.  It is an occasional look at what it is like to live with bipolar disorder, or manic depression as many still call it.  This blogger posts a new article whenever he feels the time is ideal to write about an aspect of bipolar disorder, so that others might have deeper understanding of this disease and appreciate what it is to have to exist with it on a routine basis.  In doing this I do my best to be as honest and forthcoming as is possible.  I am not a medical professional.  However I spent several years as a peer support specialist – a person with mental illness who undergoes extensive training so as to help others with like and similar conditions – for a major state department of mental health.  I believe that this ...

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Being Bipolar is a series that began in the winter of 2011.  It is an occasional look at what it is to live with bipolar disorder… which some still refer to as manic depression.  A new chapter is posted whenever this blogger feels that the time is ripe for a further examination.  In doing this I try to be as honest and forthcoming as possible, within reason.  I am not a medical professional. I am however a former peer support specialist in the field of mental health, and though I have recently left that post I am still dedicating myself toward advocating for others who experience mental illness.  If you are experiencing a severe crisis and are having thoughts about self harm or harm toward others, please do not hesitate to call 911 or reach out to your most available health care professional.  You may also find help and ...

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Sigh…

I shouldn’t have to make this post.  But as it seems how EVERYTHING today is supposed to be qualified, quantified, factionalized and most especially sexualized…

Contrary to what some have claimed, I do not now nor have I ever harbored any kind of hatred toward those who have chosen the homosexual lifestyle.  Or who are bisexual.  Or transsexual.  Or whatever.

As a Christian, I am called to not hate anybody.  I am in fact commanded to hate my own sin and my own fallen carnal nature, before I dare levy hatred toward another.  It is part and parcel to the “dying unto self” that those who follow Christ are told that they must do on a daily basis.

That does not mean however that I can or must acquiesce to any activity that is self-destructive.

And that, is what LGBT behavior is.

I’ve seen the damage and disease ...

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Being Bipolar is a series that began in the
winter of 2011.  It’s an occasional attempt to explore aspects of the
life of a person with manic-depression, or bipolar disorder if you will.  It’s never meant to be a regular feature of The Knight Shift.
 It comes along whenever “the time is nigh” for another installment is called for.  In this series I do my best to be
as honest and forthcoming about this condition as possible, within
reason.  As with anything else of this kind of subject matter, it
should be noted that I am not a medical professional.  So don’t take
anything written here as solid medical advice in the way of drugs etc.
 If you need immediate assistance, please go to the emergency rom of the
nearest hospital, or call 911 on your phone.  You may also find a great
deal of assistance from a local support ...

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One February morning in 1997, I was at a gas station in Burlington, North Carolina.  At the counter someone was complaining about new cigarette laws requiring that people under a certain age must show their photo ID.  He said it was a stupid law.

“Wait, let me explain something,” said the bearded man behind the counter.  “What you are protesting against is not a law.  You are instead protesting a regulation.  A law is something that has gone through the legislative process and is voted into being by people that you vote for and who are accountable to you.  You don’t get to vote for people who make regulations.  They can do whatever they want to do.  They don’t answer to you at all.”

It remains one of the most eye-opening exchanges I’ve ever witnessed.  It changed my perception of things.  Ever since that morning, I have cast a wary ...

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Today’s blog post sort of suggested itself, in the wake of events during the past three days.  Maybe what I’m about to say will help others who are finding themselves in the grip of depression, or some other mental health situation.

You see, this week my path has crossed those of two people who I care about: one in my personal life and another who I know from my work as a professional peer support specialist.  Each of them is having an emotional crisis.  Much like the ones I have had at various times over the course of the last twenty-some years.

In each case, I have suggested that inpatient care at a behavioral health facility should be considered.  Checking one’s self into a specialized hospital for a few days or a week or so.  Letting trained doctors and staff work with a patient toward reigning in their depressive or ...

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It was only a matter of time, I suppose.  And based on what those who were in close proximity to me have said, it seems like it’s the omicron (anagram for “moronic”) variant.  Which is the most wildly contagious as well as apparently being the least malign of the strains found so far.  Two friends and I were at a movie theater on Christmas Day, watching Spider-Man: No Way Home and one of them believes she picked it up during a trip to the restroom.  She tested positive two days later and our other friend got a positive result the next day.  My symptoms began a few hours later.  It hasn’t been as severe as theirs, but still… this has been a pretty cruddy way to end 2021 on.  Or a fitting one.  Or something.

It’s almost miraculous that it took this long to contract it, given my work as ...

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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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