25/F/Bipolar: International Women’s Day & My Relationship with Mental Health
I wrote this last year and it still rings true.
I am a woman who has been misdiagnosed 3 times.
I am a woman who has had to endure the humiliation of relaying my trauma to a health care professional, only for them to break confidentiality and enable my abuser to continue the abuse.
I am a woman who has been prescribed Prozac, Lithium, Clonazapem, Zopiclone, Concerta, Abilify, Lamotrigine, Zyprexa, Depakote, Olanzapine - many after only one consultation and not being made aware that one of these, at the age I began taking it, could render me infertile.
I am a woman who has seriously considered electroconvulsive therapy as a viable option at the height of my depression and mania, as pharmaceuticals that kept me in bed for over a year and contributed to a significant weight gain, were easier to write scrips for than the effort of connecting me to a qualified therapist.
I am a woman who has grown up seeing the women closest to me treated with the same disregard for their mental health and observing this as the norm.
I am a woman who has seen the women in my life survive rape and abuse, only to be cast aside by the health care system when they needed help the most.
I am a woman who has had my illness downplayed by those around me when it was invisible, but during a manic episode, written off and dehumanized with the term “crazy”; not having it recognized as something that may require immediate medical attention.
I am a woman who has had to struggle like so many others, with an ignorant and ableist society that misuses the terms bipolar, psychotic, obsessive compulsive and depressed - appropriating it to their everyday, minimizing the ability of those struggling with mental illness to access language that accurately conveys their inner conflicts.
I am a woman who believes this can change, and post this with that hope that perhaps you may consider the women in your life, and how you might empower them in the future instead of invalidating them when it comes to mental health.
romaincrisis
vaporwave
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
kaledo-art
