Below is a poem I wrote to describe my determination to beat an illness that consumed my life, however challenging. I spent a lot of energy, time, and inner resources moving on from feeling so terrible to managing my symptoms and becoming more resilient, which was the main goal.
The seed of darkness
Embedded in my soul
It is there to reap
And to sow
It wants a color
Darkness makes it whole
There to be drawn
And made over
To be as pretty like a fawn
Seed of darkness
I will stop you
In the windblown dust
The world will filter you
Just like rust on steel
Seed of darkness
You stand no more
I am triumphant
You wither and scorn
Here is the "after" poem, how I felt I was progressing on the depression front. All my psych tools were beginning to pay off, not to mention time was starting to be on my side. I was told by many fellow travelers to take one day at a time.
The seedling finds its way to topsoil
Rich in potential growth, it binds with the air
No sound, no boundaries
It wants to reach the highest peak
Of a wind-blown backyard
Heartily a stem form
Winding its way upward
Forward march
Later spawning a rosebud
That spreads its wings
Spring's dew touches each petal
Moments in time plush in sweet color hues
A hummingbird chirps
Sings the dance of a new day
The sky opens blue
Some of what is tackled here cover underlying issues; also, they can share a common point. Trying to explore them from different angles, as they may crop up in unusual ways, the following outlay of ideas comes from personal observation.
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Some of what is tackled here cover underlying issues; also, they can share a common point. Trying to explore them from different angles, as they may crop up in unusual ways, the following outlay of ideas comes from personal observation.
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The psychiatric treatment has moved to a prescription "cocktail." As such, treatment goals may misaligned with what a person is suffering from at the moment. There are times when depression, for example, is thought to be the culprit. This may or may not be accurate. It can become very complicated in trying to prescribe medication, if needed, decisively.
Meeting only a handful of people in which there was a clear solution to their difficulties, the symptoms of mental peculiarity can be useful if observed in its entirety. Symptoms such as general irritability, quickness to anger, alcoholism, unusual sadness and isolation, can either indicate depression or other mental health challenges, for example. So, a doctor may conclude and eventually cite that a diagnosis equals a round number 10, a precise bull's eye mark, whereas it turns out to be a ballpark equation, such as three plus three.
As such, the baseboard of the diagnosis leaves room for interpretation. A person's mood can shift downward and not be depression. A recent study from the University of California at San Diego reveals a startling figure: fifty percent of people diagnosed with depression may instead suffer from bipolar illness. Since it comes in five flavors, it can be difficult to discern. However, when the treatment is refocusing on the bipolar disease, feelings of dysphoria and other symptoms seem to be lowered significantly. It is a personal experience.
Also, it cannot be to strongly stress that the evaluation of a person's behavior is impossible without orientation of the person's setting, in which it occurs, and it also involves the meaning of that setting to the person.
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That is, switching from one thing to another, quickly. It is instead useful to find alternatives, such as DBT or CBT (which also treats PTSD), to lesson what may wrongly be designated as a psychiatric symptom. That does not mean that there are no psychiatric symptoms; it is the choice of the person on how to deal with them.
Wishing there was a lot of proof that a good number of people felt a recovery from the first round of any treatment is an exception, unfortunately. Some people are struggling with physical maladies that may not be apparent, toss in genetic predisposition, and the matters become very complicated. Finding the best combination of medicine and type of therapy is best accomplished by slowly engaging each treatment, or types of methods to a client's societal realities. So, they can increase their tolerance, in their struggle to reach a type of resiliency, to whatever may be happening in their lives. For thirty percent of people trying to deal with a mental health illness, medication does not work.
That can be frustrating, especially if someone needs some. The consensus is that a person does not have to rely on any medication. I don't agree with that opinion. I adamantly tried vitamin therapy, and I was given hefty vitamin shots for several months -- even during my first-time visit to the hospital. Then my psychiatrist and I agreed to add one medication, which I was on for another several month. I had to quit the vitamin therapy, as I felt it was too much for my system to handle; that said, I, again, use vitamins to mitigate psychiatric symptoms. It does help me very much.
I have been entirely off medication three separate times, only to find that my mental health issue required some medication. All of my switch-outs were done very slowly, one time taking a year to eliminate. In conjunction with medicines, I was actively practicing meditation and mindfulness strategies, even during my first hospital visit. Instead of taking a sleeping pill, I meditated for an hour, went to sleep for three hours; when I awoke, I would practice meditation for another hour before going to sleep again.