First Person, Singular: Oysters
Another essay from our friend Terry Boal, who grapples with schizoaffective disorder:
The world is my oyster, an odd turn of phrase, Shakespearean in fact. In one sense, it means your world’s unfolding before you.
Oysters were on my mind when I shopped this afternoon so I picked up a small container. They didn’t have the pedigree of Blue Points, Apalachicola, Cotuit or Wellfleet but would have to do in a pinch.
When I was a kid we camped on an island a stones throw from a string of oyster farms. Our beach was covered with the bivalves and I’d proceed down it oyster knife and Tabasco Sauce in hand and wrest shells open, apply the sauce and then slurp them down.
Louise is late. We’d agreed to meet here at four thirty; it is now half past five. Hash brown are simmering. They’re almost done and olive oil is spitting in the skillet. I can’t wait. So, I dredge the oysters in oatmeal and flour. Just as I’m about to drop the first one into the pan, there is a knock at the door. It’s her, of course. I apologize for not waiting. She says not to worry, just keep cooking and we can talk.
I worry I won’t be able to talk and cook at the same time. This is unfounded. I quit smoking after Christmas and now don’t know what to do with my hands. Cooking keeps them busy.
Louise is my Community Living Support Worker and so is an integral part of my safety net. I spent twenty years in institutions and have no desire to return. Louise is part of my care team along with a psychiatric nurse and a psychiatrist.
Psychotherapy is now proven to aid those with mood disorders or, like me, a schizoaffective one. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy took me out of catatonia and back into the world of the living, but in general, I’m too passive-aggressive for therapy to have much effect.
[Image: Oyster plates from MaineOyster.com]
liz | 10:17 AM | Uncategorized
My mind is a blank
Perhaps because I took extra Ativan last night, I’m exhausted and empty. I took it because I was congested and I get really anxious when I’m congested about the fact that I might not be able to sleep. I’m a freak, it’s true.
So today, I’ve had nothing to say. Nada.
liz | 2:51 PM | Uncategorized
I think this is a good idea
I realize I lucked out with my parents in terms of emotional support and the like, but I think it’s a good idea for college students to be treated as though their parents are a meaningful part of their lives. Parents should be alerted when their kids are in crisis or in danger. College students–no matter how empowered they feel their first year away from home, drunk on cheap wine and Take Back the Night marches–are still kids. And they still need care and counsel–yes, from their parents. We can’t rely on schools to take the place of family. It’s not fair to the kids, and it’s not fair to the institutions.
From emaxhealth.com:
The Mental Health Cooperation Act for Families and Schools will allow schools and universities to share a student’s mental health information with their parents or guardians if the student is found to be at risk of suicide, or of committing homicide or physical assault.
“Far too often schools are too worried about litigation rather than the overall well-being of the students on campus,” said Congressman Murphy, the only child psychologist in Congress and Co-Chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus. “The Mental Health Cooperation Act for Families and Schools will remove this fear and allow schools to communicate with parents on the best needs of their child. Parents may be in the best position to help a student suffering from significant mental illness by providing emotional support, medical history, coordinating care with various mental health and medical professionals, and long-term follow-up. They will be there for the child long after the school is gone.”
Changes Urged for Student Privacy Law
[Photo: I'm too busy to put one in!]
liz | 5:20 PM | Uncategorized
Christian advice
I was totally into this article, thinking it quite progressive and interesting, until I got to this sentence:
“But demon possession is not always the problem.”
It’s still a good article, though.
Regeneration, Deliverance, or Therapy?
liz | 2:53 PM | Uncategorized
Okay, this is getting too funny
The latest from the angry sugar-glider camp, I kid you not:
“How horrible. Thoose little sugargliders should eat YOU alive.”
So says Jen, who also says, “You are nasty.”
liz | 12:39 PM | Uncategorized
The easiest kind of activism there is
Not sure if Americans are allowed to sign the petition, but check out the below article urging the British government to confront racial discrimination in mental healthcare services. It’s a very interesting look at mental health issues in the U.K.
Downing Street petition on mental health
liz | 12:50 PM | Uncategorized
RANT
For reasons I won’t go into right now, let’s just say it’s been a harrowing couple of months. When I’m depressed, as I’ve mentioned and written about several times, I take great pleasure in my pets. Frankly, I’m considered pet-obsessed, verging on weird. I know I spend waaaay too much time thinking about them and loving them and worrying about their well-being.
Apparently, it’s just not enough for some people. Despite the thriving good health of my three lovely sugar gliders–who are at this moment happily chirping as they eat their mealworms, after which they’ll be hopping and gliding for hours, their fur lustrous and their bellies full and their vet exams all perfect–I am being attacked by people angered by my post about sweet Little Moxie, the sugar glider who was eaten by her parents. The comments are so angry and vicious, and even go so far as to mockingly refer to my mental illness. What do they know about my life, about my reasons for my behavior?
Hey, all you angry sugar-glider people, here are some things you don’t know: I have a disability. I can’t stay up all night. That’s not an option that’s open to me. I wish I were a normal, regularly abled person, but I’m not. Don’t assume that everyone is exactly as you are, and has all the resources you do–financially, physically, mentally. It’s elitist to assert what a person should or shouldn’t do without knowing the circumstances of that person’s life.
I preferred to let the little one to stay with her mother–advice I got FROM A MESSAGE BOARD clearly populated by people who are nicer than you are–because it was unclear how this would resolve. I had never had a sugar glider baby in my care before; how many people have? Do you live in Philadelphia, by the way? In my neighborhood? Do you know the likelihood of getting someone to come to my door in West Philly at 1 a.m.? Have you been to Homicide City, USA, lately?
There are people dying in this city’s streets. I work for an organization that ministers to incarcerated people and their families and communities–people without hope, children without parents. I talk to people on the phone every day whose lives have been absolutely devastated by violence and poverty–and what are you complaining about, exactly? You know why people continue to suffer and be marginalized? Because it’s far easier to get people to give a shit about sugar gliders than it is to get them to give a shit about their fellow human beings.
God forbid that should ever happen to me.
liz | 5:07 PM | Uncategorized
Unfit? Or manipulative?
Interesting debate going on in Canada:
Psychiatrist says Despres fit to stand trial, contradicting other assessment
liz | 3:11 PM | Uncategorized
Anchors aweigh
Sometimes it saddens me to read about a research study that has extremely boring results. John M. Grohol breaks down one such study on PsychCentral. Basically, researchers wanted to know if frequent self-weighing is linked to depression. The answer? No.
But they did find out that women who weigh themselves frequently tend to have a lower BMI. So go crazy, gals! Weigh away!
Frequent Weighing Not Linked to Depression
liz | 1:23 PM | Uncategorized
