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DUAL DIAGNOSIS January 19 2007
BIPOLAR RECOVERY AS WITH ADDICTION
GOES FAR BEYOND CLINICAL TREATMENT--
THE BOOK IS A MUST READ!!
READ BOOK SYNOPSIS
The buzz word is DUAL DIAGNOSED or DUAL DIAGNOSIS, and the condition (in my case) applies to mental illness with addiction. It is a condition which is tough to identify clinically and a hundred times tougher to treat. The treatment for mental illness is quite different from the treatment for addiction, and it seems that almost no one treats both concurrently. Dual diagnosed individuals may end up wasting years of life in frustration and misery, perhaps even death. Yet my experience with my own dual diagnosis will demonstrate to you that you don't have to spend your life imprisoned by these troublesome and incurable diseases. Time, however, is the enemy as regards treatment, and self-help seems useless. Read the book, BLESSED TO BE BONKERS and explore some of the truths and insights I have employed to manage my dual diagnosis and to find happiness.
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BLESSED TO BE BONKERS
DUAL DIAGNOSED?
BIPOLAR? ALCOHOLIC? ADDICTED?
Books, Resources, Support
Dialogue, Spiritual Tools
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PLEASE VISIT MY BUSINESS SITE
WWW.CEREBRAL-STORM.COM
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UPDATED January 19 2007
Book Author: James A Rist
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PLEASE SEE SUPPORT LINKS BELOW
January 19 2007
WEBLOG
Read all of "DENNY'S STORY" as written to date
Go to www.cerebral-storm.com-
DENNY'S STORY CONT'D
DENNY’S UNEASINESS HAD COME ON SO GRADUALLY…,
beginning perhaps in the midst of his freshman year in high school. It had progressed so slowly from brief episodes of anxiety to constant intense anxiety with peaking of his senses so severe at times that his motor nervous system literally to quaver with frenetic energy.
The dilemma was that no one knew, no one could see what was happening to Denny. And Denny himself could feel these tormenting sensations, but he had no real awareness of them, because they had come on so subtly. Now in his junior year; his grades had taken a dive; he had pulled out from the football team; and, despite the very active past in his social life, Denny had been avoiding his friends. The only part of his experience tangible and comprehensible to those familiar with Denny was the drop in his grades. Friends reasoned that the pressure of his academic standing accounted for the change in his disposition and they understood, because they too had begun to feel the pressure--especially those college-bound students.
Denny’s parents had seen the changes too. Denny had become moody and at times angry.
CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF DENNY'S STORY
NO CHILD SHOULD FEEL SUCH TORMENT
…as I felt during my entry into adolescence.
My understanding of bipolar disorder and addiction is quite limited, limited that is to my own experience. A sincere and searching review of my life demonstrates symptoms of both my diseases at the age of perhaps eleven or twelve, and I remained untreated until the age of fifty-six. In a sense, given the prognosis in its most severe proportions, I am an unlikely survivor. I think that is a testimony to the resilience of my psyche and evidence that others too may have displayed the same resilience, but…at what cost?
I spent my childhood mostly in solitary pursuits. My social skills did not develop beyond perhaps the age of thirteen or fourteen. My academic performance became lackluster, even inadequate, despite genius-level IQ and phenomenal reasoning acumen. My job performance (I have failed at 59 jobs that I can recall) lacked in my ability to visualize, to organize, to persist, to interact with necessary and useful resources, or to sustain trust and confidence among my co-workers, associates, and clients. I remained self-centered and pleasure-oriented, seeking gratification rather than fulfillment in my relationships to women. To this day I feel I am incapable of sustaining a healthy and balanced heterosexual existence. My moods range to extremes--manic with rage and delusion, depressed with despair, lack of hope, self-deprecation and destructive thinking. My thinking and actions in any social environment tend to chaos and obsession and disproportionate focus on troubling details. Unable to resolve the chaos, I grow unduly anxious and fearful, claustrophobic under pressure, and I become volatile, irritable, angry, and retaliatory under the mildest of challenges.
As a child, I felt unloved, alone, misunderstood, misdirected in an environment which espoused good behavior and moral attitudes, yet an environment replete with anything BUT goodness. In 1958, I came into adolescence in a culture which had already begun to display tendencies to isolate the individual. My parents both worked while most of my peer group had the “Leave it to Beaver” family unit. I had adolescent emotional issues in which I found no one to whom I could talk. I had spiritual issues for which I could find no practical model of spirituality and no good human example. I had peer group and social issues which I felt I could resolve only through escape--fantasy, physical flight, deception, and avoidance. I became an emotional tinder box.
I do not remember healthy dialogue with my parents or other adult figures in my life. I do not remember having any rhythm that might have contributed to balance in my life. Without going into detail, it seems that I spent my young life isolated from reason and practical experience with problem solving, emotional endurance, and healthy social interaction. Most of all, when it seems that I really needed it, no one was present in my life to see a troubled kid and to “reach in” to help me.
Mood disorders in children, addiction, self-destruction, behavioral disorders--all have been associated with: genetic factors, environmental factors; physiology; trauma; various diseases and pathologies of the brain; spiritual influences or lack of; emotional states; co-dependence; drug and alcohol abuse; cultural influences; survival stress; isolation; and on and on.
When we finally face and ADMIT the diagnosis of bipolar disorder and/or addiction. What are we to do? What help are we to seek? What resources will we use? How will we learn to explain our lives and our failures to our loved ones? How will we manage our pain and discomfort through a period of recovery? Whom will we trust with our very lives and our sanity, now that we have arrived at the threshold of truth? How will we escape our troubled and destructive nature, and what will we find to put in its place?
It would be so much better and perhaps much more beneficial to have actual stories--stories other than mine--YOUR stories. Please find the courage to send me your stories. Let me know if you would care to post your story here--anonymously. I am not interested in who you are, but we are all anxious to hear your experience with bipolar recovery, addiction recovery, or both.
Please! You really aren’t so unique, and you certainly are not alone!
Here are some informative pages you might wish to visit:
http://www.bpkids.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lrn_100704 http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/info/mental/diagnose/manic.htm
http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/info/mental/diagnose/manic.htm
http://www.mentalhealth.com/p13.html
OR use www.google.com search term “bipolar addiction childhood” to open relevant pages.
CAUTION: Please do not instantly adopt as truth everything you read on these topics. Please look for supporting information from other sources; look for authority and experience underlying opinions; look for research; and, most of all, please begin to talk with and listen to others who have gone through what you are going through. Find out what works for them. Become aware. This is not a time to hide your feelings or to ignore your instincts.
The information at this web site is to help consumers, family members and mental health workers to make informed decisions about the care and treatment of bipolar disorder or manic depression in conjunction with addiction or alcoholism. These pages are not a substitute for consultation with your counselor, therapist, doctor, or psychiatrist, nor are articles to be construed as clinically accurate. Links, advertisers, and articles are not endorsed by blessedtobebonkers.com or by cerebral-storm.com; nor are they affiliated with cerebral-storm.com or blessedtobebonkers.com. You are required to verify with your doctor, your analyst, your pharmacist, and any other acknowledged authority anything you see on this site before you may employ information, ideas, and direction you may derive from your visit to this site. The book Blessed to be Bonkers and all other publications by the author of this site merely reflect the experience, strength, hope, and often the opinions of the author.
©2005-2006 by www.blessedtobebonkers.com or www.cerebral-storm.com
Reprinting these pages is prohibited.
PLEASE SEE SUPPORT LINKS BELOW
PENDULUM Resources for bipolar
BIPOLAR FOCUS Resource
SOBER RECOVERY addiction resource
CEREBRAL STORM books and resources
BIPOLAR WORLD resources books art
BONKERS FRIEND Art
MD JUNCTION a new site seeking to establish a dual diagnosed support group
HEALTHY PLACE spiritual resources support dialogue
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BUY THE BOOK
CLICK HERE FOR BOOK REVIEWS
CLICK HERE TO ORDER BOOK (CASH PURCHASE)
EMAIL ME PLEASE!
BIPOLAR? MANIC DEPRESSIVE? EXTREME MOOD SWINGS?
HOPELESS? POWERLESS? SUICIDAL? LONELY? CONFUSED?
GOING TOTALLY BONKERS?
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WEB PUBLISHERS:
I CURRENTLY HAVE PAGE ONE RECOGNITION ON FOUR MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES.
IF YOU ARE BIPOLAR OR DUAL DIAGNOSED AND YOU HAVE A WEBSITE PERTAINING TO BIPOLAR, ADDICTION, OR ALCOHOLISM OR YOU HAVE A BOOK TO PUBLISH, I WOULD LIKE TO ESTABLISH RECIPROCAL LINKS WITH YOU.
REVIEWS:
The book, "Blessed to be Bonkers" has now been in print for forty-five weeks, and I have continued to receive favorable reviews, both from reviewers and from purchasers of the book. As the number of reviews increases and those reviews become available you will find them at www.cerebral-storm.com. Click on "Reviews"
© 2005 www.blessedtobebonkers.com
THE HEAVENLY HASH DINER
In September 2006, we visited family members in Ohio.
On one of our little road trips we passed through Marshallville where we were able on a Friday afternoon to have a terrific little lunch.
Althought our host, Deborah Grayson, was not present, her inimitible touch was present everywhere in the pleasant little diner which she calls the Heavenly Hash Diner.
In an atmosphere which permitted (yeah even encouraged!) smoking, we found the perfect and traditional diner ambience and great food to match.
Our lunch came to a sated conclusion with a selection of twenty or so homemade pies from which to choose, including a benchmark shoofly pie straight out of "The Hall of Fame of Roadside Indulgence!"
Marshallville of course in on idyllic US Route 94 heading south toward Holmes County and Amish Country.
The Heavenly Hash Diner is a comforting and mandatory side trip away from the monotony of carb consciousness--a MUST. GO there! Gorge yourself without guilt!!
ALL CREDIT DUE
I call him Father, though perhaps he has no gender, because I want to think of my god's presence as that of my father. I speak to him and I ask him questions. He answers me through others, and he demonstrates that he has from the beginning of time placed all the answers to all the questions in the universe within my reach. Father, give me the strength, the vision, the courage to reach beyond my understanding, to trust and use all which you have placed into my hands for a beneficial purpose.
Thank you, Father!
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