My first scrapbook page!

Well, I tried my hand at scrapbooking. It’s bright and it’s cheery. I do have bipolar disorder, so it’s the first stop at the crazy carnival: The Med-go-Round. I basically cut up some PI sheets from meds I take.

I feel like a little kid. I used stamps, and stickers, and foam letters and glue!

 

This was fun.

Hope you like it.

I do a lot of “art therapy”, even though I’m not an artist at all. Here’s another doodle from this mornings anxiety attack.

Pardon my handwriting.

I kinda suck at this stuff, but it’s fun and I like it!

For those interested, I have bipolar disorder type 1 with rapid cycling and psychosis, diagnosed 2001. I also have schizotypal personality disorder, but I’ve been told “you have the schizotypal, but not the personality disorder”, diagnosed 2008. Whatever that means. I think I hit the criteria. I also have mild inattentive ADHD, diagnosed when I was a kid. I take:

Topamax as a primary mood stabilizer, 150mg and still titrating. Lithium was my “godsend” but I ended up with a rare kidney disease. Epival/depakote lands me in mixed episodes, Tegretol and I don’t play nice, Gabapentin is meh.. I don’t mind the weight loss side effect, even though chocolate and pop (and beer) taste odd.

Haldol as a primary antipsychotic, 5mg and seeing how that goes (may have to add an extra dose)

Artane for possible Haldol side effects. I take Haldol because atypical antipsychotics (such as Seroquel, Abilify, etc) don’t work well for me. I have nearly NO side effects from Haldol. I tolerate it well.

Lexapro (40mg and reducing) for anxiety and mild depression. I’m using US names for you. 😉 It’s Cipralex in Canada.

Ritalin for inattentive ADHD, 20 to 40mg, it helps with sedation, even though I’m rarely sedated.

Clonazepam for anxiety, up to 1.5mg.

I’ve also had unilateral ECT, in 2008, 6 sessions, and it worked WONDERS. I haven’t had an episode of depression that wasn’t caused by a situation (for example, death in the family) or suicide attempt since.

If you think my med list is long now – you should have seen it then. I’ve been on almost everything. I had a short (3 week) hospitalization in Oct 2013, to stabilize, to de-stress and get involved in groups. I was a voluntary patient, and had a med overhaul. I’ve been stable since.

I also ride horses. It’s not horse therapy, per se, because I’m a competitive hunter/jumper. I journal, do CBT and DBT (which are good therapies for anyone, even without mental illness) and have a worker in the community. I see my psychiatrist every 6 weeks. I finally have a good one!

I just thought I’d share that with you.