Last February (2019) was rough. I wasn’t sleeping well; getting only five or six hours most nights. I was constantly hypomanic. Hypomania is great in moderation. It takes its toll when it is chronic, though. As I’ve written before, my hypomania is accompanied by nasty irritability. I was not a pleasant person. I’m not sure …
Exercise, the free antipsychotic
When I was three, I received a Fisher Price tee ball set for my birthday. The tee sat on a plastic home plate. You could detach the tee and set the ball directly on the base. There was this pump that was attached to the base, and when you stepped on it, the ball shot …
Music and neurochemistry
I took piano when I was eight until I was ten, and I was terrible. I didn’t learn how to read music in those two years. When my teacher assigned me a piece of music, I would go home and write the corresponding letter next to each note. I had the keys on the piano …
Mixed-state beware
The hallmarks of bipolar disorder are mania and depression. The illness used to be called manic-depressive disorder until someone decided calling it bipolar disorder is more PC. The semantics do not matter a whole lot to me, but calling it manic-depressive is more descriptive and informative. The word bipolar lends itself to word play, so …
The good, the bad, and the ugly (See also: hypomania)
Because of my medicine (which is awesome in every way) and how vigilant I am with sleep, I spend a lot of time in hypomania or just shy of that extreme. What is hypomania? Terri Cheney describes hypomania as three-quarters manic. Speaking from experience, I have boundless energy and ideas are fast when I’m hypomanic. …
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Woman crashes car after going blind listening to hip-hop radio station
The following is satirical. Sherry Sorensen has a long and arduous commute to her job three miles from her house. Sherry will be the first to admit three miles, on the face of it, doesn’t seem to qualify as long, much less arduous; however, upon further investigation, both claims seem to hold true. Sherry has …
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To be, or not to be?
In 2011, after going 85 hours without sleep and the ensuing psychotic break, my parents started taking me to a mental health facility during the day. I did not like it. At all. My mind was fried, and I thought I was seeing things that didn’t exist. I couldn’t tell the patients from the therapists …
How a CPA changed my life
I arrived at Baylor for my freshman year of college on a Thursday. Just a week later, I had to unenroll over the phone on my way back to Dallas (my dad came and got me). I’d gone 85 hours without sleep and experienced that wonderful hell known as mania. Always the overachiever, I also …
The joys of being moody
Yay. Another night where I can’t sleep. Fun stuff, let me tell you. Sometimes I feel like I have my sleep figured out; other times, like tonight, all my usual “tricks” don’t work. Oh, well. I probably take sleep for granted, so this keeps me honest. Still sucks, though, cause tomorrow morning will be a …
Good qualities
Well, I can’t sleep, so it looks like I might get two posts in tonight. Not sure why I’m not tired; oh, well. I’ve neglected my blog for a few weeks, so it’s nice to have some time to write, even if it is past my bedtime. Like I mentioned in my last post, a …
