Depression

All posts tagged Depression

The Rash

Published July 18, 2016 by helentastic67

Rash 2

The Rash!

Trying to get to write about the thing and the thing and the thing, but I’ve been talking to a friend today about depression. So the thing can wait.

I suffer depression and anxiety. For me the depression has come and gone throughout life depending on the ‘shit’ at the time I’ve been dealing with. I imagine from 9 years of age and un-diagnosed at the time. And back then, shit just happened and you just got on with life. Keeping in mind that was circa 1980-ish (because I’m old!).

These days, my depression and anxiety has been the icing on the top of the cake on top of several other medical conditions.

But I manage to paste on a smile when I leave the house and I can problem solve like the best of them and laugh and joke with my friends (Carers).

It doesn’t mean I’m not depressed; it just means I cope better.

So, the analogy I used for my friend today who was sad that his depression had returned that depression comes and goes. It’s like that bad ex-boyfriend or that rash, it comes and goes…

There is away depression has the power to suck the life out of you. It creeps up on you and can appear without you even being aware it’s your new best friend.

I prefer not to write when I’m really depressed. Because it’s disastrous and you can’t see the forest from the trees and even common sense decision making is beyond me.

I prefer to put on some loud obnoxious music and not just to annoy my neighbours.

Music for me seems to charge the energy in my home. Then I start to get motivated to do things, cooking, organise, whatever.

So, that moves more energy and then I can see progress and then it’s an improvement.

Depression can affect people who have chronic medical conditions.

It can affect people who seemingly have everything positive to live for.

Sometimes, it’s that one shitty thing, moment, thought that can put people over the edge.

Decisions

Published March 23, 2016 by helentastic67

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Decision

To make a decision, I was given the mantra in my teenage years that if you couldn’t make a decision for yourself, the decision would be made for you and you may not always like the results.

The funny thing about being depressed is you might struggle to make even the most simplest of decisions.

Some people just on observation, get stuck in their own ‘shit’ so much they can’t make a decision to save themselves.

Start with small decisions, things you have to attend to everyday. Then build up to the bigger, harder stuff. If you have serious chronic Medical conditions, make a damn decision. If there are options to try to improve those conditions that will give you the possibility to return life to some form of normalcy try them!

Wait:     TRY THEM!!!

You don’t know, if you don’t try them.

Sometimes, making a decision can snowball and if you can fix the things that have held you back some of the other problems are easier to deal with.

Depression can lesson and life can be easier and happier.

Hidden Disability

Published December 21, 2015 by helentastic67

Invisible disability 2

Hidden Disability

Seems to be the new ‘go to’ word/term for disability.

I had a technician come to my home last week to fix “something” and I was trying to explain to him I wasn’t a lazy cow for not being able to do my own tech support or not moving the 5 small things so he could more conveniently get to the issue he was there to attend to.

He seemed confused so I bluntly told him “you can’t tell, but I have a disability.” I basically gave him the cliff notes (short version) and told him what I’d lost. But around my home there are not many obvious signs that a person with a disability lives there and I compensate so well if you were to watch me you also wouldn’t realize how much I’ve lost…

But, so help me God! (In a non-religious way) every time I am out and about or in a taxi I will be asked: ‘What have you done to your arm?’

And it’s this big thing I have to explain. There’s advice. Advice from taxi drivers! Garlic and lemon pulp. Cure all!

Except, I’d be single forever even keeping the vampires away. Bah Humbug!

And you realize my disability is not hidden when people like to assume and judge me and imagine I did something to deserve this new existence.

I will revisit this topic because these days people see me out and about and they say to me “You look well put together!” And ignoring how old-lady that term is for now. When I’m out and about and have a smile on my face, people would imagine I’m always like that.

They don’t realize, I need a carer to help me in the morning so I can get out of the house…

They don’t realize every day I spend out of the house, out getting to appointments and doing “things” I spend the next day in bed…

They don’t realize I get out of bed and it takes about an hour for all the pins and needles to go from my good hand!

People just see my arm in the cuff and collar. They don’t realize there are secondary issues.

And the secondary issues on the secondary issues…

More of that later…

Life Review

Published December 3, 2015 by helentastic67

Life Review 1

Life Review

So, I’m now at a time in my life where you take a little “stock” of what you (me in this case) of what I’ve achieved and tallied the successes I’ve celebrated.

Completely heightened by a recent 25 year High School reunion that I did attend.

The current Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews was from my High School and what I’ve managed to achieve in life doesn’t add up to much at all. Except to say I have survived.

I know I’ve yet to divulge what exactly my medical condition is or my disability and that has been on purpose.

Rest assured all shall soon be revealed.

So, stocktake, I guess I’ve always been a bit of a free-spirit. I had ideas of how I thought light might go, but perhaps not how I would get there.

When I was younger, I thought life would just naturally fall into place and perhaps this was what was meant to happen because I’m still here!

I honestly thought I’d be married with kids “living the dream” by 30.

I wanted to have my own business “something” in the realm of Interior Decoration.

I studied something else. I studied the one thing that would have been better if I’d been a gay man! Two things ‘I’m not!’ I studied Visual merchandising (Window dressing).

It did teach me, I would not cut it with technical drawing.

And the whole married with kid’s thing, well in recent years, I’ve learnt that my medical condition, pregnancy could have been deadly.

Alas, I also did not meet my ‘husband’.

Here’s hoping – yet!

Friends of yesteryear and I would joke – he was lost!

But anyway, not doing this blog to find a husband…

But still assessing what the rest of life should include…

I do not work. All the things I have done for income in the past, I can no longer do and the NDIS would see us all being able to work again.

It’s a nice dream however, I struggle to get out of bed every day! And I struggle to stay out of bed every day!

The aim every day is to make it to the end of the day and not fall over! To still feel the parts of my body I make work that only work because I make them…

And to make it to the next day!

Life seems small these days!

I get to appointments that help me live. I create social connections at these appointments because over time they have gotten to know me and who I used to be…

But rest assured if I didn’t pay for services at those places, they would not have the time to be ‘friends’ with me outside of “work”.

So to the future, it’s a work in progress and please join me on the adventure…

My Left Arm Doesn’t Work

Published November 28, 2015 by helentastic67

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Every day, there’s something new to detest about having a disability. There’s just different ways with how to deal (or not) with how it affects you mentally.

As yet, I haven’t told you what my disability is, I know Soz Bro (my carer gave me this one today) but to give you an idea. My left arm does not work. I’ve lost my eyesight and about 5 shitty things later, I also suffer anxiety and depression. They weren’t first but to be clear they don’t help!

So the situation looks like this, I work on my left arm and hand all the time. All the time, when I’m sitting on the couch, on the tram, lying in bed trying to sleep.

ALL THE TIME! When I’m anxious. I also out of habit use my nails too long so I do my absolute best to trim them so I don’t scratch my good hand while I try to exercise my bad hand…

My carer has recently commented I have very short nail beds on my left hand.

I thought about this overnight and realised sometimes when the beautician files those nails to clean up the mess I’ve created, they hurt and I realise I can feel them…

So this gets to my point – finally. I can’t tell that I’m hurting myself when I trim my own finger nails!

I was a nail biter for my first 34 years! And it’s another story for another day. But my point right now is back then I NEVER BITE MY NAILS SO BADLY I COULDN’T FEEL IT!

2.30am

Published November 28, 2015 by helentastic67

2.30am

2.30am

There’s a really shitty thing about having a disability, there’s not lots of ‘good things that happen in your life. It’s just more shit things in varying degrees of more shit.

It’s not that I’m always being negative, it’s just really hard to put a positive spin on ‘shit!’

Example; A few weeks ago I had a review for my application for Public Housing. And it seemed that all of a sudden I might not even be eligible because I earn too much! WHAT THE FUDGE???

It seems I earn $12.30 too much per week. I’m not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. I pay my rent, I pay my bills and I get no funding. I go shopping and while I’m not extravagant I’ve started to do what I call the ‘Povo-shop’ which is to only buy the things on the shopping list and to watch the total at the register with my heart in my throat.

So you can see it’s hard to sugar coat it! It’s hard to put a positive spin on living day to day this way.

And then often friends don’t know how to respond. Trust me, I know it’s horrible, which is why I mostly don’t say anything, but if I say something, I’m not telling you so will offer to fix my problems. I don’t know what would fix my problems.

Please just have some empathy.

It looks like this; don’t say nothing, say something. It might be something really simple like this:

“I’m really sorry, it sucks! I didn’t know it was that bad, let me know if I can do anything…..”

Just so you know, I rarely ask for help, so don’t be afraid I’ll call on you for anything but a chat…

No Way to Live

Published November 27, 2015 by helentastic67

No way to live

It’s such a simple greeting “How are you?” I get asked it at all my regular stops and appointments. I often get asked the wog version – “How are you? Good.” So they answer it for me also. I just agree. People just presume I am good and I let them believe that because if I was blunt and honest they might be afraid to ask me in the future.

Someone once told me to be honest and tell people the truth. I put this in to practice with someone who deserved to be told the cold hard truth. It was a friend who only see when his life obviously crazy/busy, still has a better outlook than mine right now. I see this guy every few years only and he is more about the promises than actual reality.

So, I was blunt and I told him I was on anti-depressants and he told me straight back he was too!

In reality, he is on that knifes edge when he has invested serious cash in a business and he’s waiting to see if it pays off. Some of the success hinges on their choice in location, which is always a gamble.

But through the course of our last catch up I became aware I’d not been considered worthy of an invite to his 40th! Nor, despite being his friend for about 15 years, did not get invited to his wedding!

Let me impress upon you when his last relationship fell apart, I was the ‘friend’ he called every fucking day with the same “poor-me” issues.

So we’re both on anti-depressants and I decide to tell him I’m on the PILL! He is startled for a second and I think he is thinking I’m getting very, very lucky, so I point out in my 40 years I’ve never been on the PILL and I’m only on the PILL now, so once a month I don’t burst into tears at everything. I’m on the PILL because I’ve got crazy hormones!

I once only wanted to kill people every month, just one day every month but I wanted to kill someone. These days, crazy hormones makes me want to cry. I mean really cry. At everything!

I get out of bed, I cry. I get in the shower. I cry. I get out of the shower. I cry. Puppies! Kittens! Did I make my point?

That’s no way to live.

Sometimes I think I should create one day a year, where I’m brutally honest with everybody! And there should be no consequences…

It would go like this; I would call my local council who provide my carers and I could tell them they were incompetent! I could call family members and tell them they were doing sub-standard job as family members (note, now I softened that) I would call all my ex-boyfriends and tell them they were a ‘dud-root’ (it’s a classic term!).

I don’t know if I got to the point I started to make when I first sat to write this, but I think I did still succeed to make a point.

DEPRESSION! THE FUCKING POINT!!

Published November 26, 2015 by helentastic67

DepressionI may have written this before, but there are a set of questions that people ask to assess a client/patients/mental status. Usually when I get asked these questions by someone who is trying to help me; A doctor, a psychologist, case manager etc. And they are often embarrassed to ask. (I have been probed by many embarrassing questions) After a few questions, I rush in and answer the ‘rest’ of the questions. Let me lay them out for you. They go something like this:-

Have you ever tried to kill yourself?
Answer – No

Have you ever thought about it?
Answer – Yes

Have you ever planned way’s to kill yourself?
Answer – Yes

At some point I cut off the steady flow of questions with the rest of my answers, something like ‘Yes!’ ‘No!’, ‘No!’, ‘Yes!’, ‘Hell No!!’ ‘My mother would revive me to kill me herself!’

This usually confuses the person asking the questions. So the rest of the questions go along the lines of – ‘Will you attempt to take your life?’ ‘No!’ Are you sure (or something along those lines)?’ ‘You will not take your own life?’ This is the answer where I mention my mother.”

I am largely seen as someone with a happy disposition and to be clear, it’s a façade! I cover my sadness with humour. I do it very well. But to be clear sometimes, I think – ‘what is the fucking point?’

So you better appreciate the ‘Fucking Point!’I am a 41ish year old single woman who was born with a brain injury.

After a reasonably  “normal” life with the usual ‘hopes and dreams and aspirations for a kind world, love, family, children, a career with some moral standing and happy outcomes, a home, friends, holidays to faraway lands and enough abundance to give generously to others in need.

I was diagnosed with said brain injury and treatment to which ‘cured any potential of a stroke or certain death, and left me with ironically a permanent disability, resembling a stroke!’ And some!

Painfully, people don’t understand my chronic medical conditions and doctors have no answers how someone is born with a brain injury.

So it’s completely inconceivable that what my reality today wasn’t self inflicted.

I don’t fit into any ‘boxes’ for funding and now it’s questionable even the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) will solve any of my current problems either. It’s been the only beam of light at the end of the tunnel in the last 5 years I’ve had, my permanent disability and NO FUNDING.

So should anyone ever stupidly ask the question, “Why?” She seems OK. She seems happy. She was coping.

Let me answer this now!

I was not happy! Even with a disability, I was barely hanging in there!

To all those people tendering for business and doing big money grab to work in the Disability Sector, you dropped the ball! It was all about helping yourselves. I am NOT AND NEVER HAVE BEEN A COMMODITY, in your game.

My disability and my struggle has not been for your entertainment and your resources to beg corporations for funding.

Give me a Solution NOT MORE PROBLEMS!

If you can’t – STOP HELPING

*And to the best mum in the world! We fought a good fight and there was nothing more you could have done. You don’t deserve another of your children to have perished. However the constant dealing with all the idiots just got too much.