On 2005-02-04 14:14:00, Nihilanthic wrote:
"So now I've got a few nuts loose or something? :eek: To err is human; to forgive is simply not our policy.
-- MIT Assasination Club slogan
"
No, Niles, *I'm* crazy. I have bipolar disorder (type II). It's one of the major mental illnesses. I'm one of the "maniacs" your mother warned you about.
I commented on it because I am, understandably, rather sensitive about the garden-variety perception of "nuts." Especially since, being extremely high function (which you could maybe sympathize with being high function with aspergers), I find that on my medication I'm often the sanest person in the room. It's incongruous, and it's an odd experience, but, well, there it is. I respond really well to medication, so I get good results.
But the other really odd experience to come to terms with is that people who are either mentally ill or eccentric and not treated or not responding well to treatment---people who are walking around actively nuts---well, I can perceive the same problems with their altered perceptions of reality and the results of same as anybody else could.
So while I will talk about someone disconnected from reality the same way anyone else does, "He's fookin' nuts!" At the same time I'm sensitive to, "He's crazy," used as an insult. Because a lot of times people say "crazy" when they mean "stupid."
In other words, the allegation pushed *my* buttons, for obvious reasons.
One of the unpleasant things you (generic "you") have to deal with a lot when you're "crazy"--you have a mental illness---but also "sane"---you're on meds and high function---is people who are functionally crazier than you are in their day to day life trying to be paternalistic and assert that *their* (crazy) rules should control *your* life.
Dealing with that over and over again makes me a bit hypersensative on the subject.
The programs are a special case of that, since a lot of the mentally ill kids that get stuck in programs would be saner than their parents and a lot of the other people around them if they were just stabilized on the right (for them and their individual biochemistry) meds, and often sticking them in programs actively prevents them getting good care from a competent psychiatrist that could/would get them stabilized on the right meds. I can really identify with such kids and it evokes a "there but for the grace of God go I" reaction.
There are a lot of people here to advocate for the kids who don't need to be on *any* medication to keep them from being given potentially dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will and against their medical best interests.
But who's here to advocate for the "nuts" kids who *need* medication---and need it under the care of a *competent* pediatric psychiatrist to make sure it's the *right* medication(s) in the right doses for that kid and gets properly adjusted as needed (and in adolescence, adjustments *will* be needed)?
Who's here to advocate for those kids who don't need a Program, they just need (and *really* need) the right meds?
Pretty much nobody but me, that's who.
So my relaying that joke was *not* my way of saying "you're crazy, Niles." It was my way of saying, "Yeah, *I'm* crazy. You wanna make something of it, buddy? *Smile* when you say that, pardner." [insert best scary manic grin here]
Capiche?
Timoclea
