Guest Posts – Page 4 – Delight in Disorder

Out of the Darkness by Laura M.

I have a horrible confession, an unthinkable thought. At one point, I thought about ending my life. Why? Well, I’d just had a baby and my husband of thirteen years had been constantly on my case, during my whole pregnancy, about what a horrible person I was, what a failure as a mother I was, and how I cornered him with this pregnancy. What was the point of my being here then? It never occurred to me, until later, of course, that those feelings were a mix of sleep deprivation, of not having the medicine I needed to heal, of postpartum depression, and that my husband was abusive. I was breastfeeding our child and his tummy was not filling up. Plus, he was a newborn with his days and nights mixed up, and was busting out of his swaddles like Hulk Hogan. All I saw, instead of those logical [...]

Out of the Darkness by Laura M.tonyroberts2021-01-13T14:16:24-05:00

From Mental Illness to MBA by John Witcher

Living with a mental illness is very challenging and can be very frustrating. In 1994, when I was diagnosed, the culture surrounding mental illness was much different. Many of the support groups were not as easy to access, due to technology limitations. The internet was not as user friendly, if you had it at all. When you were the person in the room with a mental illness, you typically kept it to yourself, and it was suggested that you do not disclose. With the help of organizations like NAMI, SARDAA, APSE, Vocational Rehabilitation, KEY and many others, mental health is becoming something that is easier to discuss, when in the past, it was not. In 2017, I received an MBA with honors, from IndianaTech. I remember, in the 1990’s, when I was considering going back to college, I got a great deal of pushback. I heard countless times, that it was a crazy thought. Then, I approached my [...]

From Mental Illness to MBA by John Witchertonyroberts2021-01-06T07:32:34-05:00

Postpartum Psychosis by Bipolar Mumma

I can remember quite clearly the moment that I realized that I might have had postnatal depression. It was in the middle of a Canberra winter; cold grey skies, it was windy outside and I was stuck inside with newborn. I had tried everything to get my child to go to sleep. I had rocked him, bounced him on my exercise ball, walked laps around the house, I even pleaded with him in case that might have worked. But nothing was going to get my child to go to sleep. I ended up placing him carefully in a pram and rolling him over the ledge between my carpets and flooring, over and over again. I was crying as I was doing this. Pleading with myself that this was something that most mothers went through. But what most mothers did not go through was voices in their heads. I heard a [...]

Postpartum Psychosis by Bipolar Mummatonyroberts2018-08-04T22:32:29-04:00