Mental Illness

• mrtinkertrain

  Anyone on here have a mental illness or a family member that suffer's from one? I have one myself and it run's deeply in my family.
• gerb131

  

  Society has some great advice.
• gerb131

  

  But on a serious note. What ya got?
• mrtinkertrain

  I have bi-polar disorder
• Art Modell

  

  CoA and like_that should be able to offer you some advice.
• LJ

  

  I have GAD (general anxiety disorder) everyone in my family has it
• gerb131

  

  mrtinkertrain;728490 wrote:I have bi-polar disorder

  
  One of my buddies does to. He seems to keep his check pretty well. Thanks for your honesty.
• derek bomar

  

  LJ;728513 wrote:I have GAD (general anxiety disorder) everyone in my family has it

  
  never heard of that - but doesnt everyone have some kind of anxiety? or are u always anxious?
• derek bomar

  

  ex roomy in college was bi-polar...he tried to kill me one night. Fuckin bizzare kid
• LJ

  

  derek bomar;728519 wrote:never heard of that - but doesnt everyone have some kind of anxiety? or are u always anxious?

  
  Its a type of ocd almost. You have anxiety over one particular ridiculous thing along with always being anxious. I take a very small dose of lexapro daily and it takes the edge off and lets me relax
• Fab1b

  

  derek bomar;728520 wrote:ex roomy in college was bi-polar...he tried to kill me one night. Fuckin bizzare kid

  
  So what happened here, do tell???
  
  
  Also forget the pills and meds people, smoke the weed it's all natural! Those pills will kill ya!
• tuskytuffguy

  Omfg, don't get me started on mental "illness."
• LJ

  

  tuskytuffguy;728528 wrote:Omfg, don't get me started on mental "illness."

  
  Oh lets hear it
• keenangoolsby

  its terrible to have it
• coyotes22

  

  ADHD. Have had it since I was little. I came from the days of Ritalin, took it all thru elementary school.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  derek bomar;728520 wrote:ex roomy in college was bi-polar...he tried to kill me one night. Fuckin bizzare kid

  
  Did he ever end up killing you?
• bLuE_71

  ernest_t_bass;728619 wrote:Did he ever end up killing you?

  
  Yup
• Dr Winston O'Boogie

  

  I have severe anxiety. I don't know if it's a disorder/disease/illness, but it's there. I take some meds for it and it helps a lot. I severely abused alcohol for a long time and I believe in hindsight it was self-medicating. It just made matters worse.
  
  Exercise is a HUGE factor in helping to manage this.
• luckydog

  Fab1b;728523 wrote:So what happened here, do tell???
  
  
  Also forget the pills and meds people, smoke the weed it's all natural! Those pills will kill ya!

  
  This +1
• DeyDurkie5

  

  I am pretty sure I have a mental illness, if not more...but the weed keeps me sane
• Cat Food Flambe'

  

  My college roommate (who was also the bast man at my wedding) developed a severe case of schizophrenia in his mid-twenties. He was the Navy at the time - he went AWOL from his base in SC, and was found wandering the streets of Columbus wondering where he had lost the key to the campus area-apartment we had shared a few years earlier. He had no ID on him (he'd been mugged), but did remember my name.
  
  Lady D'Friskies and I got a call to come down to a mental-health intake facility and identify him. He appeared to be just fine - he was not at all agitated or upset, recognized both of us. and chatted with us quite a while about his family and events that had occurred while we were in school. He also asked if we were planning on getting married soon. After about ten minutes of this, my wife asked him what had happened to then Navy. Then and there, he realized who and where he was - and where he should have been. He literally looked as if someone had hit him with a ball bat.
  
  We found his car parked on a side street near the Fairgrounds with his uniforms, some personal possessions - and a suicide note.
  
  Incredibly, the Navy not only retained him - they put him on board a fast-attack submarine about a year later. He had another episode at sea - it was bad enough that the boat had to interrupt patrol, surface, and have him moved to a surface ship until they could get him to a suitable facility onshore. He received a medical discharge about six months later.
  
  He called a few months after that to let me know he had re-settled in Northern California - and I've never heard from him again. I strongly suspect that he is no longer with us. It's easily the most unsettling thing I've ever dealt with in life.
• O-Trap

  

  I have two, actually.
  
  The more noticeable is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
  
  Seemingly inconsequential things cause me a lot of anxiety if I don't do them in a certain way. For example:
  
  When I walk on a tile floor with a checker pattern, I compulsively walk in such a way as to be sure my toes are always on squares that are in some diagonal pattern (basically, like the usable squares on a checker board).
  
  I compulsively chew in patterns ... usually either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 pattern.
  
  When I go from one room to another, I also require a 1-to-1 pattern of steps, so that I take the same number of steps in the room with each foot.
  
  When I ascend or descend stairs, I compulsively do so by either skipping no steps the whole way or skipping steps in the same pattern the whole way.
  
  It needs to be noted that these behaviors, in and of themselves, do not lend evidence to OCD. It's the fact that they are done out of compulsion, and that a lack of doing so causes a noticeable level of anxiety. If I haven't done one of these things, I'll default to compensating the next time. I'll stutter-step leaving a room, or chew an extra time or two, or barely tip a step with my foot on the way down a flight of stairs. I don't do it out of volition, as it is completely behavioral. I was always picked on as a grade school student for freaking out if I took more steps with one foot than another in a room. It sucked.
  
  However, my case is not nearly as severe as some.
  
  The other is, I actually have a mild tic disorder, which I know a lot of people associate with this kind of behavior and Tourettes.
  
  Most people who have a tic disorder, however, exhibit just a small characteristic constantly like sniffing, throat clearing, coughing, or twitching. It almost never results in random vocal outbursts (though I've been told that that is a possibility). For me, it's a constant clearing of the throat or minor coughing. I get a lot of "God bless you," "Would you like something to drink?" and "Do you need a lozenge?" I've gotten to the point where I just say thank you, and if they offer something, I accept it. It's just easier than explaining it.
• cbus4life

  I've suffered from it in one way or another for most of my life, but i think i've done a fine job of keeping it under control, through therapy and medication, when needed. Went through some rough patches where i self-medicated with alcohol, but otherwise, i'm proud of the way i've dealt with it.
  
  OCD, mostly, as well as just good ol' fashion major depressive disorder, i.e. depression.
• tcarrier32

  

  got a couple of family members with anxiety disorders. they all manage well with medication as needed.
• O-Trap

  

  tcarrier32;732241 wrote:got a couple of family members with anxiety disorders. they all manage well with medication as needed.

  For years, I tried to "Charlie Sheen" mine (cure it with my mind ), but eventually, I went to therapy and began using medication. It has done wonders.