This Week in Mentalists (27)

Okay, you impatient lot. Here is the weekly round-up of mental health blogging.

To nominate a blog e-mail zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk

Crazy Nurse is in a pretty bad way right now.

7 days ago I forced myself into work, feeling absolutely horrendous, but having already had 3 days off sick I was petrified of having any more.

8 days ago I self discharged from hospital. When I got home I partook in some self venepuncture – I used a tourniquet so I would bleed more. Consequently I now look like an IVDU

11 days ago I presented in A+E in DKA. I managed to walk into the reception, but collapsed in triage. My pH was 7.20. My blood sugar was 68.4

12 days ago I drank 3 litres of lucozade.

13 days ago I stopped taking my insulin.

I AM SO PISSED OFF AT MYSELF – WHY AM I STILL SUCH A FUCKWIT. WHY?

Crazy Nurse, we at Mental Nurse wish you well and hope matters improve for you soon.

Aethelred the Unread discusses self-medicating with alcohol.

When I’m depressed, or anxious, alcohol is a Seriously Bad Idea. I know this. Years of experience have taught me so. I’ve had some problems with alcohol in the past (in the sense of drinking a lot more than is good for me, not the needing medical treatment sense). Like a lot of fellow depressives, I went through a self-medication phase. In the dying months of my job I was getting through a couple of bottles of wine a night, more on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The Shrink gets some customer feedback on whether they want to be called “patients” or “service users”

We asked in-patients, day hospital patients, out-patients, home visits and day respite patients what they wanted to be called. We then did it all again, months later. We then did it across the entire district. We then asked a carer forum. We then asked another carer foruim. We then asked the local Alzheimer’s Society branch. Locally MIND isn’t that active with older adults, but we asked them anyway. The response was almost 100%, we should address them as “patients.”

To stop stigmatising mental illness with different terminology, to stop them being called “clients” (which resonates with hairdressers, prostitutes and lawyers) or “users” or “service users” which our older adults associated with drugs, “patients” it was.

Seaneen offers a further instalment of her excellent “Insane Guide to Living with Mental Illness”. This edition focuses on The Psychiatric Appointment.

1. Look Like Shit

Everybody knows that Mentalists don’t know how to take a brush to their teeth and hair. Even if, in fact, you haven’t done so for a week, don’t let social graces impose upon the day of the psychiatric appointment. You may want to tart yourself up a bit for the sake of politeness, but mental people don’t care about their appearance, and if you do, then you don’t have any mental problems at all and the psychiatrist will know that.

Dribble some, neglect to use deodorant, throw on your most stained slacks and, if you must wear make up, apply it with the skill of a drunken two year old.

Serotonin ponders self-talk.

Do any of you with a mental illness/diagnosis have conversations in your head? When I say this I do not mean hearing voices, but more like practicing a conversation with somebody that you are going to see in the next few days or week.It’s also a bit like a video playing in my head.Cos atm this is what keeps me awake.
In addition I find myself having a narrative going around in my head sometimes ? (a bit like JD from Scrubs).I really cannot switch off & it is getting me down.

A newcomer to my blogroll, Mental Patient About Town, is experiencing thought broadcast.

I have started to believe that people can hear my thoughts. It first happened on the bus to Notting Hill last week and has continued this week during my walks through Hyde park. Several days I haven’t gone out because of it.

Predictably enough I’ve looked this up on google and I gather that it’s what’s referred to as, “thought broadcast”. That said, I don’t feel that my thoughts are being broadcast as such, I just think that they are too loud and that people can hear them. I keep thinking I should think more quietly.

Another new addition to my blogroll, Furious Seasons spots a new trend.

This letter, sent by a parent to a news service’s advice doctor, speaks for itself:

“My daughter is a junior in high school who is preparing to take the ACT. She is an excellent student with a 3.75 grade-point average, and she wants to apply for early admission to college.

“Given this background, you can imagine my surprise when she asked that I take her to the doctor to get a prescription for ADHD medication. I was blown away. She says many “smart” parents have their children tested and diagnosed with attention deficit disorders so the students have the advantage of prescription medicine and un-timed standardized tests.

“Is this really a trend in education?”

Furious seasons concludes:

I’ve noted several times in the past that psych meds and DSM diagnoses have crept into corners in our culture where I don’t think anyone would’ve augured when Prozac hit the streets in 1987. We’re talking antipsychotics for sleeping, ADHD drugs for test taking help, and anti-depressants for people who want to take off their edge. This is a dangerous and stupid trend in our culture. One of these days, we are going to have to let people be what they are once again, or we are going to lose ourselves.

In my CAMHS clinic, we get a few parents trying to get ADHD diagnoses for spurious reasons, but trying to get them into a good university is a new one on me. Maybe this is something to come.