mental illness

Chris Knight's avatar

YYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Well, this section of the book is now finished.  The first draft of Chapter 25 was completed a short while ago.  It follows the one that had stumped me since February, up until a week and a half or so ago.  The one that took me so long to crack and I couldn’t have done it without a dear friend being here to give support and encouragement.

So the complete draft of Chapter 24 was done, but 25, well… I could see the shape of it, the general form, but the particulars were eluding me.  So I thought “maybe I should write the next chapter while waiting for 25 to really present itself”.  And that’s what I did.  So there was 24, followed by 26, with 25 in between still to be written.

This past hour, Chapter 25 was done.  I wound up waking up for some vague ...

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I’m a writer.  It’s incumbent to my nature to put down my thoughts and observations, either for personal review later on or for appreciation by others so that they may come away from the time they have just spent with a little understanding and enlightenment.  At least, that is what I try to gain from anything from others that I take the time to read.  Writing is how I contribute to the larger world, and I have to be honest about what it is that I am writing about.  Regardless of how it reflects on me.

So I have no real problem with documenting my more severe bipolar episodes.  Friends on Facebook know, perhaps too well, how my writing there reflects the state of my moods.  A little over a year ago however I began to more clinically… or at least as is possible to do with such things… document ...

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…I am writing for my book.

Let’s summarize for a moment.  Last May and up until late October, my book was going at a very good pace.  Oh sure, there were some fits here and there, and I made a few mistakes from which I learned a great deal (and made the book much better, I think) but as this sort of thing goes, it’s my understanding that this was going along better than a lot of first-time authors.

Then Dad had his stroke.  And a little over two weeks later he passed away.

Things have been in turmoil since then.  And the past few weeks especially.  I am now looking at some very drastic life changes which I had not had to consider anytime during the course of my life.  And on top of all of that, work on my book practically ground to a halt.

Then in late ...

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Please note: I am not a physician or a chemist or a pharmacological engineer or anything of that nature.  I’m only your friendly neighborhood blogger who comes across interesting things to share, and more importantly musings and observations from my own peculiar vantage point on the world.  So you know to take what I’m about to say for whatever that’s worth.

That said, this is by now something worth putting out there.  Maybe others have had the same thing happen to them.  I’m very eager to find out if that’s the case.

Hay fever is the bane of my existence.  Come every spring and the yellow residue of pollen collecting everywhere, those damnable grains infiltrate my nostrils, set off the chemical receptors and flood those inner tissues with histamine.  And so the cascading effect ends with me sneezing my head off, my eyes and forehead scrunched together in writhing unrelenting ...

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I think I’m getting back into the full swing of writing my book, at last.

I’ve completely re-written Chapter 1.  And I seriously hope that I’m not just seeing things but the more I read over it and how it flows into the rest of the manuscript, the better and better it’s looking.  It sets up a much better tone for the book that follows.  It’s more gripping.  It’s more “me” than the original version was.  And that is what this project is about, isn’t it?  Reaching deep down and translating my heart and soul and mind onto the printed page.  Being true to myself.  Sometimes that is going to hurt.  But there is also going to be a lot of humor too.

So the new first chapter is something I’m really stoked about more than I had become about the original.

The prologue has been somewhat re-written, but not ...

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Note:  This blog hasn’t been the same lately.  I don’t know if I should keep going or not.  What do you think?

The night before…

The recent state of this blog is reflecting my personal life, and it has nothing to do with just turning 40.

40 is the biblical number of completion.  Moses was 40 when he fled Egypt and it was 40 years later when he returned to lead his people to freedom.  It was 40 years after that when the children of Israel arose to take the land promised them.

Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days, fasting and being tempted by Satan.  Only after that did He begin His ministry.  Noah and his family endured rain for 40 days and 40 nights.  No doubt there are other examples.

(I haven’t seen the Noah movie.  I don’t plan to either.  When I heard there were Ents ...

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In light of the e-mails that came asking if things were okay on this end, I’m feeling led to address why I’ve been absent for the better part of the past two weeks.

There’s really no other way to put it: I got hit with a bipolar depressive episode.  The worst that I have had to go through in a very long time.  And it absolutely robbed me of my desire to write or to post anything at all.  Apart from a few Twitters or Tweets or whatever they’re called, my activity online was a fair reflection of my activity in real life: pretty much nil.

I’ve written about bipolar depression before, but this latest bout
refreshed in my mind how horrible this condition is and how I would
never, ever wish it upon any person.  One moment, you’re feeling high on life.  And the next, totally without warning, your ...

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Dear Scott Adams:

Today’s edition of your comic strip Dilbert is one of the most encouraging – and one of the funniest – cartoons that I’ve come across in a long time. As a person with bipolar disorder and on behalf of many others who must deal with having a mental illness, thank you for giving us something to laugh and smile about 🙂



I think after reading this, I’m gonna begin referring to most other people as “normals” and myself as… how does “meta-human” sound? 🙂

Sincerely,
Chris Knight...

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Being Bipolar, The Knight Shift, bipolar disorder, mental illness


This is the latest in a series of articles that The Knight Shift and its strange proprietor is glad to present about what it is to have bipolar disorder.  As always, I am attempting to chronicle and document my journey through a life with mental illness thoroughly, with honesty, and at times with a healthy dose of humor!  If you are new to this blog (hey, stick around!  I  try to keep things interesting around here 🙂 then you may wish to read the previous entries of Being Bipolar.  Whether you have kept up with the series or are just now discovering it, this new installment takes us into the wild and unpredictable realm of medications and mental illness.



Let’s talk about… drugs!

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, medication time

I’ve had five possible installments for the next Being Bipolar sitting on my desktop for the better part of a year because I hadn’t been able ...

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This past weekend Matthew Warren – the son of Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life – took his own life after struggling for years with mental illness.  In the wake of this tragedy there has already been considerable reflection by many among the body of Christ about mental illness and what our reaction should be to it.

Ed Stetzer, the president of LifeWay Research, has a very good guest essay on CNN.com.  Titled “My Take: How churches can respond to mental illness”, Stetzer relates his own experiences with Christians plagued with such conditions and how churches should and should not approach it.  From his article…

The first time I dealt with mental illness in church was with a man named Jim. I was young and idealistic – a new pastor serving in upstate New York. Jim was a godsend to us.

...
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