Posted by Atticus on January 23, 2005, at 20:34:21
In reply to do you define yourself by your disorder(s)?, posted by smokeymadison on January 23, 2005, at 17:20:22
That's a great question, smokey. I was in an intensive 18-week, 3 days a week outpatient group therapy program right after I was released from the lock-up psych ward for opening up my left wrist. I've got a label -- bipolar with rapid cycling (means I flip from manic to depressive and back again unusually rapidity, sometime in the space of a single really bad day -- these are the days when I apologize to my boss in advance and ask her to let me know if my behavior seems off; I find it hard to see from the inside out). In any case (sorry to run off the rails there for a bit), some people at the outpatient group would say "I'm a bipolar I or bp II or depressed or have panic disorder." I hated that. I felt like they'd let the illness take control of their self-conceptions. My usual response to a bad patch is to try to gut out a poem, no matter how weak it is; it gives me a sense of the person I was almost 9 years ago before the chemicals in my brain went loopy. Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:446358
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050123/msgs/446494.html