I Dare You Darlin’

This post was inspired by, and is dedicated to, my very dear friend Ruby.  She has been facing some severe difficulties recently, as described in her post I Am Disabled.  But she isn’t the only Canvas blogger having a very rough time lately.  Lulu, James Claims, and Manic Monday have all hit their own major bumps and dips in life lately, which you can read in their own words, on their own blogs (respectively, As the Pendulum Swings, James Claims, and Manic Monday).

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I Am Disabled

This post is a skosh more personal than what I usually write on Canvas – to understate things.  It’s a continuation of a post I started on my personal blog, called Charting The Course To See Where I Fell Off The Map, which might be of interest to some of you.  For those of you who prefer not to wade through the muck in my mind, the short version follows.

I have been in an extremely severe mixed bipolar episode.  If you want to know any of the finer points of that, you  will have to read through the post It Was The Worst Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times.  There is no way to distill it here.

Breaking a Depressive Cycle

I will give credit where credit is due. This is another post very much inspired by ColonialPunk from her post The Sleep Variable.

Honestly, I’m not typically a person that gives advice unless specifically asked for it. It is true that I am opinionated and often overbearing, but I have learned from my past about freely giving my two cents. It usually ends up costing me a dollar or more.

Experiences with Free Mental Health Care

I live in the USA, where health care is not free or taken care of by the state. But I’ve been lucky to experience free mental health care through my university.

In the UW system that I’m a part of, our tuition goes to pay for University Heath Services. A place where basic health problems can be dealt with and referrals can be obtained. When I had a back injury, I went there to receive free x-rays and a lot of vicodin for the pain. It’s free and open to the population of students and graduate students. Some 30,000+ people have access and it’s only 2 floors of medical services with labs on one floor. Yet, no lines, hardly any wait.

Further Resources And Disclaimer

Another atypical post, but if you’re a subscriber to Canvas  and don’t visit the site often, you might miss this info, and I want to be sure it gets out to all concerned parties.  🙂

Different, But In A Good Way

This isn’t a typical post for A Canvas Of The Minds, it’s a slight detour into an event which occurred yesterday.  I hope you will all enjoy it almost as much as we did.  Make sure to click both links, it’s the only way to get a more complete picture, and I think it shows a wonderful dichotomy.

Organizing the Chaos

Mental illness often presents us with a mental chaos. Panic disorders disrupt the everyday flow of life with high anxiety; generalized anxiety disorders present falsities about what we should be afraid of. Bipolar disorder with the disorder of moods, and schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms generously give false beliefs. All of the above in some way disorganize the mind as well as everyday life, and it is often the chore of reigning it back in that helps in the battle against these disorders. Personally, I have most of the above. I have panic attacks as well as generalized anxiety disorder, along with bipolar 1 and paranoia.

Processing Emotions with Repression

Brandon, the blogger of The Daily Bipolar, inspired me to write this topic. In his post Emotional Repressiveness and I’m Past Depair, he explored emotional responses, the lack of expression, and some of his reasoning how this may have come about.

None of us are immune. We are all guilty of repressing an emotion at one time or another. But the question is why? With all of this talk of emotional outlets and coping strategies, why do we still continue to engage in this behavior?