mental illness

Chris Knight's avatar

A few days ago I shared some cursory thoughts about Lindsay Clancy and her murder trial.  What immediately shocked me was the sheer number of medications that she was on.  As a former mental health professional, as someone with a mental health condition myself who has experienced issues with meds, I was absolutely floored by all the drugs that Clancy was taking.  What I was thinking most was about the very significant probability of drug interactions that would have possibly clouded her senses, including her moral judgement.

Intrigued, I looked into the case further.  One friend alluded that he couldn’t believe I had been unaware of this trial going on.  What can I say?  I’ve been very busy lately: everything from starting a new job to getting a new car, to the past few days when I’ve been working on a horror story (that will absolutely outrage some people ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Illustrating how out of touch I am with much of current events, this morning I finally educated myself about the Lindsay Clancy murder trial.  Clancy is being prosecuted for the 2023 murders of her three young children.  The defense is arguing that Clancy was suffering from psychiatric issues, including postpartum depression.  If convicted she would get life in prison without parole and if she’s found not guilty she’s looking at being incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital for a long, long time.

I guess I should have been keeping up with with this all along, given my background in mental health as both patient and professional.

 

So I just finished reading about Clancy’s medical history.  And two words come to mind…

Sweet Jesus.

This woman was on WAY too many medications.  With that wild variety of drugs in her system, it’s no wonder that things were going to go bad. ...

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This week toy maker Mattel has introduced the world to “Autistic Barbie”.  The latest in a line of the classic doll’s attempts to aim for more inclusion and representation which have already produced Barbie with Type 1 diabetes and Barbie with Down syndrome.

According to the link above going to the Fox News story about it, Autistic Barbie “includes articulated elbows and wrists to allow for movements such as hand flapping and other gestures used for sensory regulation or expression.”  Barbie’s eyes are “positioned with a slightly averted gaze, reflecting how some people on the autism spectrum may avoid eye contact.”  Autistic Barbie includes a fidget spinner (that really spins), noise cancelling headphones, and a pink tablet displaying symbol-based apps to help with communication.

Okay, I have no problem with Barbie depicting autism.  It’s a condition that millions of people, including not a few children, have to live with. ...

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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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Was looking over my blog this afternoon, and I came to something I hadn’t given much thought to in awhile: the Being Bipolar series. That’s the project I began in the fall of 2010 (wow, FIFTEEN years ago!) chronicling what it is to have bipolar disorder.  Or as many, including increasingly myself, refer to it as manic depression.

It’s been a year and a half since the most recent Being Bipolar article.  There’s never been any intended regular schedule for them.  I’ve composed them as they come to me.  As with so much else that I produce I believe more in quality than quantity.  And though I’ve lived with bipolar disorder for half of my life now, it’s still something that I find myself taking time to ruminate upon.  But I like to think that the series has been a successful one, and I look forward to writing ...

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I regularly work with artificial intelligence as an AI trainer.  I also have a lot of experience in the mental health field, as both a professional helping others and also as a manic depressive who has been a “consumer” of services at various times.  So this article both fascinates me and also greatly disturbs me.

The website Futurism has published a VERY disturbing article about “ChatGPT Psychosis”.  Ever since the rise of that and other popular artificial intelligence “chatbots”, there has been an ever-increasing number of people who have become consumed by the technology.  Maggie Harrison Dupré has turned in a remarkable report illuminating the issue.

From the article:

And that’s not all. As we’ve continued reporting, we’ve heard numerous troubling stories about people’s loved ones being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even ending up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot.

“I

...
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 It was twenty-five years ago tonight that for the very first time I was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

The bipolar disorder had started during the preceding winter, but I didn’t know that’s what it was (it would be another four years before that diagnosis was handed to me).  I had been manic most of the winter and then the depression – what I came to call ” the dark fountain” – decided that it was time for it to show itself.  The death of my grandmother toward the end of March intensified the blackness.  All I came to think about was death and dying.  Everywhere I looked I saw dead people waiting to happen.  It was a dark fountain that was smothering me, driving me to the brink.

It got bad enough that one night some friends took me to the hospital in Burlington. ...

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Being Bipolar is a series that began in the winter of 2011.  Every so often I write about what it is to live with the mental illness known as bipolar disorder, or manic depression as it’s also often called.  I do this in the hope that others will gain insight and understanding about diseases of the mind, and also I do this in an attempt to inspire others who live with such conditions.  These diagnoses don’t have to be the end of the chance for a good life.  I want to believe that in however small a way, I might be helping people realize that.  In this series I attempt to write about the subject with honesty and with candor and, on occasion, with humor.  I am not a psychiatrist.  However I do come from a background of being a state-certified peer support specialist in the South Carolina Department of ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Being Bipolar is a series that began in the winter of 2011.  Every now and then I post a new article, as an ongoing attempt to chronicle what it is to have a mental illness.  In my case it is bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression.  Perhaps in doing so others might gain greater insight and understanding of what it means for millions of people who likewise must deal with severe mental and emotional disorders.  As always during this series I strive to be as honest and forthright as one possibly can possibly be.  I am not a psychiatrist.  However I do come from a background of being a state-certified peer support specialist for four years.  And it is especially in that capacity as having been a mental health professional that I endeavor to document mental illness.  If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, especially if you are ...

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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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