I went to a NAMI informational session today (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill). My plan is to volunteer with them because I really like what they do and I think I have some skills that dovetail nicely with things they have going on.
Most likely I will join the Speakers Bureau and give anti-stigma talks to different groups. It will take a while to get trained in, but I am not in a hurry (I keep reminding myself this). The person I met with to talk about volunteer opportunities told me that he is living with bipolar. The first speaker at our informational session was a father who lost his 33-year old son to bipolar disorder. The second speaker was a woman who has been living with bipolar disorder for 40 years. She mentioned what I am coming to realize: that successfully managing bipolar does not mean living symptom free. But it does mean that she recognizes when she is starting to spiral off one way or another (or a friend or family member notices) and she can get back on track sooner. Seemed like a message (in a quaker-y kind of a way). THEN I had a meeting at work and one of my co-workers (who totally rocks) stopped me as I was telling about all the cool new things I want to try with my class. "That sounds like a lot of new relationships to manage..." I can't remember exactly what she said, but the gist of it was that I should take care that my mania doesn't start ruling the roost as I get excited about new stuff. She is smart. (Have I mentioned how much I love my coworkers? Seriously.) Last night I did not get to sleep until 2 am. Now I feel like a zombie. I did get to take a nap in the morning from 9:30-10:30, which was nice. But now I feel truly sapped. Grateful Crap: dish washers Equatorial Actions meds (70mg venlafaxine, 450mg bupropion, 200mg lamotrigine) saw the sunshine (perhaps the six months of winter will be over soon?) Comments are closed.
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K. BuchananQuaker, teacher, parent, |