Originally Posted by Delphine

Been spending a lot of time reading psychiatric journals about alcoholism and mental health issues. I have a chronic and severe case of brain cooties in addition to being an alcoholic, so it's an interesting ride. My psychiatrist has recently changed my diagnosis from major depression (treatment resistant) and social anxiety to bipolar 2 (rapid cycling) and social anxiety. Bipolar 2 patients have a 48.2% comorbidity rate of substance abuse, which surprised me a bit.

Being an armchair researcher, I've read all I can get my hands on about traditional and alternative bipolar treatment. Just read this on a pop psychology website and am a little annoyed: "Bipolar disorder can ruin your life, destroying your relationships and your career. It’s pointless to disregard the full destructive power of bipolar disorder. Because of it some people may have to considerably scale back their expectations in life". This part was fun too: "Some final thoughts about bipolar disorder are that it may be one of the worst illnesses we know; and, the treatments may leave a lot to be desired, but you’re not powerless". Yeah those quotes are total crap. Will filter what I read for awhile.

So I am trying to develop a "bag of tricks" to manage my alcoholism and interesting mental states. Thinking of taking advantage of the blog feature on this site to complain, remind and inspire myself to do self-care. I know what helps to some degree but the follow-through is difficult. I also have a lot of fuzzy moments when I forget how to do simple things. Hoping that blogging and writing myself notes will help.

There is also a mental health forum here so I should try that out. I need to remember that my commitment to sobriety is the most important form of self-care.

My current goal is to get dressed and go for a walk with my baby. I live in California and it is warm and sunny outside. Then I will clean the house a bit and come back to SR to read Team February's posts.