If you're a new reader, and would like to "skip to the good stuff"....this page contains links to the blog posts explaining K's story, and a couple written by different K's.
The Lost Blog Post (history of our mental health as told by a different K)
Major Breakthrough or Break From Reality? (K has an important realization)
The Discovered Diaries (clues to our past and present)
The Mystery Blog Post (written by a different K)
Help From Afar (an email from the ex-boyfriend to my husband, regarding my switching)
Peeling Off An Old Label (life-changing news about our diagnosis)
How I Became A Walking Drugstore (a breakdown of our past diagnoses)
How To Be Our Friend (tips on how to get to know us)
What's Wrong With Us? (we talk about Dissociative Identity Disorder)
Another Day, Another K (switching)
My Own Reality Show (what it's like inside our head)
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
An Animated Day
Today (Wednesday) has been quite a trying day, but interesting at least. We were supposed to be at therapy at 9:30 this morning. I found out around 9:00 that the car wouldn't crank. Luckily, my husband was home and getting ready to go to work at 10:00...so I called my psychiatrist and told her I'd be a half hour late. Obviously I started the day off on a highly stressful note, and that is my greatest trigger, so it really came as no surprise that I had a rough day. Hubby drove us in his car when we left, and he had to stop at the drugstore on the way to work. I waited in the car, and by the time he came back I was no longer in my body. I struggled to pull myself back inside my head, but it was a hopeless battle. I dissociated and don't remember anything until he's getting out of the car, and I see that we are at his job, and like a robot I get out of the car and walk around to the driver's side and get behind the wheel... Hubby kissed me goodbye then disappeared inside but I just sat there in the car with the engine running for a long time. I was trying to figure out how to make the car move. Everything began to physically transform and the inside of the car took on an animated appearance, like a cartoon. I began to operate on auto-pilot. Driving to my doctor's office was exactly like being in a video game. I don't know how else to describe it. My hands weren't really touching the steering wheel; it seemed very far away, much too far for me to reach. I was looking through the windshield and it was unreal, everything was far in the distance and out of focus. I had the distinct feeling, nay knowledge that I was untouchable, unstoppable, impervious to harm. I knew I could not, would not wreck the car or have any sort of accident or run-in with the police. It wasn't possible, for all of this was just a game. Not real. I don't know how long it took to get to the psych's office; everything was in slow motion yet seemed to be flying by very fast at the same time. I don't understand how that was possible, but that's how it seemed to us. Once in the parking lot, I just sat in the car for a long time with the air blowing in my face. I pulled the visor down to look in the mirror and was quite upset to see that the reflection looking back at me was wearing bright red lipstick.
I do NOT wear bright lipstick, although we're aware that some of the K's do. I unceremoniously wiped it off with the back of my hand, then just stared stupidly at the red streaks coloring my pale skin. Decided I just didn't care-what difference did it make?-and just left the red lipstick smeared all over my hand. Finally walked into the building but it felt more like I was gliding or floating or something. I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet. I made it inside and walked up to the counter and signed my name, but not without some difficulty. I was unable to write in cursive; I had to print my name, and the handwriting was shaky. I had taken 1 mg Xanax while in the car at my husband's job, and as soon as I sat down in my usual corner chair I took another 1 mg. There were a number of people in the waiting room with me; I'm not sure how many because I kept my head down and wouldn't look at anyone. I pulled my legs up underneath me and tried to curl up into a ball in my seat... and the waiting started. I was antsy and anxious and very eager to see my psychiatrist, as I'd been under a lot of stress since our last appointment. I got out my notebook and tried to make a list, but just couldn't focus...I was too distracted by the thought that everyone in the room was staring at me. I kept looking down, or took out my journal and flipped through it, or played with my phone, perhaps even tried to tweet I can't remember now. I just couldn't think about anything except how things were in what looked like claymation...3D cartoons of sorts. I was looking around the room in wonder when this guy came in the door... He was younger than K's body but walked like an elderly person, all hunched over and wobbly and he shuffled across the floor using a crooked wooden can and his jeans were hanging very low around his hips, exposing his striped boxer shorts, and for whatever reason, he scared us. K's heart began to pound just as soon as she laid eyes on him (even though she never looked directly at him) and of course our luck would have it that he came over and sat down in the chair right beside us. Panic started welling up inside me. My body was turned away from the strange young man, and I was intentionally looking across the room, through the other people, staring at the wall with nothing in my head except the irrational fear I felt of the person to my left. I wasn't sure I could handle it, and thought briefly about going outside and sitting in the car, but I was terrified my name would be called while I was out and I'd lose my place and have to wait even longer to see the doctor. So we sat there, panicking, in the middle of a childlike environment filled with caricatures of people...and then my name was called. The receptionist walked over to me and asked me to come with her. I was confused but did as I was told; I wondered if we were being scolded for some reason. She walked us out the door and around the building to a back door, while explaining to us that the toilet had overflowed and how sorry she was for the inconvenience. It was bizarre to me, but so was everything right then. Now I'm in the psychiatrist's office and I'm trying to explain to her how everything feels like a video game...and she asked me if I was a different person. I can remember all these things because we wrote them down in our notebook. We take notes in therapy now and it is really helping us. So she asked me if I was a new K, but I didn't know the answer to the question. It's strange to not know who you are. I really can't even begin to put it into words. You feel lost and empty and...like nothing. I told her I didn't know for sure who I was at the moment, and that I felt "switchy". I don't remember the rest of the session, except for one part: she was telling me how to use a calendar to keep up with time, so that I can remember when things happen. I guess that sounds silly to someone with a normal grasp of time, but to someone who struggles to keep up with what day of the week it is, this is a really big deal. She asked me if something happened this past Sunday or last Sunday, and I didn't know the difference. I admitted that I never knew when things happened, that I use old text messages as clues to how I spent my time. So she told me to get a calendar and take notes on it, like it was a diary. Write down when I go places, when I do things. She said it'd help me put my lost time together. I intend to try it. I don't remember the rest of the session, nor do I remember driving home. The rest of the day is scattered and disconnected. I can only recount bits and pieces of it...someone bought McDonald's fries and K doesn't eat at McDonald's anymore, hasn't in years. I remember we decided that perhaps if we took a nap, that the proper K would be with us whenever we woke up. I might have tweeted about that, I'm not sure. Then there's a big chunk of time missing, where I'm assuming I was napping. Next thing I know, I'm putting on an act for my mother, and pretending everything is normal as I put her to bed. After that, I found myself hanging out with my husband in our bedroom, and I remember him asking questions like "Which K are you?" and "Are you switching on me?". Again, I remember because I made notes about all these things. I found the questions intriguing. I don't remember anything else after that. I think his questions flipped some switch in my brain, and my reality shifted once again. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in bed in my clothes and wearing my glasses. And that's when I began to write this blog post.
I do NOT wear bright lipstick, although we're aware that some of the K's do. I unceremoniously wiped it off with the back of my hand, then just stared stupidly at the red streaks coloring my pale skin. Decided I just didn't care-what difference did it make?-and just left the red lipstick smeared all over my hand. Finally walked into the building but it felt more like I was gliding or floating or something. I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet. I made it inside and walked up to the counter and signed my name, but not without some difficulty. I was unable to write in cursive; I had to print my name, and the handwriting was shaky. I had taken 1 mg Xanax while in the car at my husband's job, and as soon as I sat down in my usual corner chair I took another 1 mg. There were a number of people in the waiting room with me; I'm not sure how many because I kept my head down and wouldn't look at anyone. I pulled my legs up underneath me and tried to curl up into a ball in my seat... and the waiting started. I was antsy and anxious and very eager to see my psychiatrist, as I'd been under a lot of stress since our last appointment. I got out my notebook and tried to make a list, but just couldn't focus...I was too distracted by the thought that everyone in the room was staring at me. I kept looking down, or took out my journal and flipped through it, or played with my phone, perhaps even tried to tweet I can't remember now. I just couldn't think about anything except how things were in what looked like claymation...3D cartoons of sorts. I was looking around the room in wonder when this guy came in the door... He was younger than K's body but walked like an elderly person, all hunched over and wobbly and he shuffled across the floor using a crooked wooden can and his jeans were hanging very low around his hips, exposing his striped boxer shorts, and for whatever reason, he scared us. K's heart began to pound just as soon as she laid eyes on him (even though she never looked directly at him) and of course our luck would have it that he came over and sat down in the chair right beside us. Panic started welling up inside me. My body was turned away from the strange young man, and I was intentionally looking across the room, through the other people, staring at the wall with nothing in my head except the irrational fear I felt of the person to my left. I wasn't sure I could handle it, and thought briefly about going outside and sitting in the car, but I was terrified my name would be called while I was out and I'd lose my place and have to wait even longer to see the doctor. So we sat there, panicking, in the middle of a childlike environment filled with caricatures of people...and then my name was called. The receptionist walked over to me and asked me to come with her. I was confused but did as I was told; I wondered if we were being scolded for some reason. She walked us out the door and around the building to a back door, while explaining to us that the toilet had overflowed and how sorry she was for the inconvenience. It was bizarre to me, but so was everything right then. Now I'm in the psychiatrist's office and I'm trying to explain to her how everything feels like a video game...and she asked me if I was a different person. I can remember all these things because we wrote them down in our notebook. We take notes in therapy now and it is really helping us. So she asked me if I was a new K, but I didn't know the answer to the question. It's strange to not know who you are. I really can't even begin to put it into words. You feel lost and empty and...like nothing. I told her I didn't know for sure who I was at the moment, and that I felt "switchy". I don't remember the rest of the session, except for one part: she was telling me how to use a calendar to keep up with time, so that I can remember when things happen. I guess that sounds silly to someone with a normal grasp of time, but to someone who struggles to keep up with what day of the week it is, this is a really big deal. She asked me if something happened this past Sunday or last Sunday, and I didn't know the difference. I admitted that I never knew when things happened, that I use old text messages as clues to how I spent my time. So she told me to get a calendar and take notes on it, like it was a diary. Write down when I go places, when I do things. She said it'd help me put my lost time together. I intend to try it. I don't remember the rest of the session, nor do I remember driving home. The rest of the day is scattered and disconnected. I can only recount bits and pieces of it...someone bought McDonald's fries and K doesn't eat at McDonald's anymore, hasn't in years. I remember we decided that perhaps if we took a nap, that the proper K would be with us whenever we woke up. I might have tweeted about that, I'm not sure. Then there's a big chunk of time missing, where I'm assuming I was napping. Next thing I know, I'm putting on an act for my mother, and pretending everything is normal as I put her to bed. After that, I found myself hanging out with my husband in our bedroom, and I remember him asking questions like "Which K are you?" and "Are you switching on me?". Again, I remember because I made notes about all these things. I found the questions intriguing. I don't remember anything else after that. I think his questions flipped some switch in my brain, and my reality shifted once again. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in bed in my clothes and wearing my glasses. And that's when I began to write this blog post.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
K's Reaction
Breathe, K. Slow, deep breaths...in...out...Get it together. Oh dear. We must get it together. One of us wanted to post the blog that the other K wrote, or maybe it was more than one of us who wanted that. At any rate, she wanted to be heard. She wanted to speak her mind. And so we let her. And now someone inside us is freaking out very, very badly. Since posting that last blog entry, I've developed a severe, splitting headache. I'm aware of someone screaming and yelling and crying and just all around having a hissy fit, someone somewhere inside of me. I'm having trouble catching my breath, I'm having chest pains, and I think I've been having a panic attack for about an hour now. Mouth is dry. Hard to swallow. Having trouble focusing my eyes on the screen. Hands are shaky, trembling. I feel like I might throw up. Every so often, a chill runs up my spine and I physically, violently shiver all over for just a moment. I can't breathe. I don't know if we can handle this. This might be too much. What is happening to us?? Who is so afraid and why? I think I might have an idea what the trigger was which brought the not-so-friendly K out. The blog post before the last one talks about me perhaps telling a friend about my DID. I think maybe that scared us K's so badly, the thought of making ourselves vulnerable, that this other K came to protect us. This hard-shelled K came out and let it be known that she would not be made to look foolish. It's obvious to me that she does NOT want me to share our secret with anyone. Whew. My heart is racing. I also think we're very worried about offending someone with that foul-mouthed blog post (that I didn't even write anyway!). Sorry folks. Such is the nature of Dissociative Identity Disorder: you never know what you're gonna get. If I go back through all the old blog entries, I can find other posts by her, but this is definitely the longest written rant she's ever gone off on, at least that I can remember. Here's an example of her typical writing: (Un)Happy Hour I'm sure there are others, I just happened to find this one. So you see, this new K is not new; she's been around for a long time...she just doesn't come out as frequently as she did when we were younger. Thank heavens for small miracles. She'd probably land us in jail if she stayed out.
Don't Be Such A Damn Baby
What a fucking cry baby. Jesus Christ, could K be any more pathetic? Now I'm here to tell you that not all of us are so bloody wimpy. Not all of us are such push-overs. It's true that some of us have issues with self-esteem. At least a couple of us have serious self-image problems. And damn but K worries too much what other people are thinking about her, she cares too much what people say and how they view her. K is completely obsessed with how she looks, and how she comes across to the public, in every sense of the word-physically, intellectually, personably. Now like I said before, we're not all such pitiful creatures. I am NOT a loser. I am tougher than that. I don't give a flying fuck what people think about me. I speak my mind, and if someone doesn't like it, they can kiss my motherfucking ass. It's MY life, it's MY WORLD, and most likely, you are not welcome here. I don't trust any of you assholes, you're all just looking out for yourselves and trying to take advantage of K, who's overly nice. God! And she's so fucking sensitive it just makes me want to vomit. Sweet and loving and kind-hearted. HA. What a load of bullshit. I don't have that attitude. I look out for me. I look out for K, for all of us. I keep those users at bay. Some of us get our feelings hurt, but not me. I don't allow myself to have such feelings. It's all just a bunch of shit to me. I have none of this emotional drama that surrounds the other K's. They absolutely make me want to punch ourself in the the face, and I do sometimes. A lot of times I just have to slap the shit out of K, to try and knock some sense into her. Yeah, I guess you could say that I abuse her, but it's for her own damn good. She's got to learn to stick up for herself. She's got to toughen up, to be a man so to speak. These wussy, waah-waah's just need to get the fuck out of our head for awhile. I need to take charge, to make things right, to try and undo some of the damage that K has done by showing her pale underbelly, her soft spot, to the outside world. I just hope I can fix this shit. She's really made us look bad. Like a goddamn fool even. I don't know what I have to say to you fuckers to convince you that we are NOT like that, we are stronger than that, we can handle ourselves just fine thank you very fucking much. I can take it. Say whatever the hell you want, it won't hurt me. I'm in control of our emotions now, and I say FUCK YOU ALL. Screw you if you thought you could take advantage of us. K may be sensitive at times, to a fault even, but I am NOT like her. I am a tough one. I can take your shit. Bring it on. Show me what you've got. I can handle it. I can handle pretty much anything. Like the physical abuse, I'm the one who took that and absorbed it and to be honest I even got off on the pain. I enjoy the hurt. So give it your best shot. I swear to the fucking gods that you can NOT get to me. I will never allow it. I have pills to make me immune to your reality. I have my own reality, and in it K doesn't cry or worry or wonder about her image. She's a tough broad. She's a fighter. We fought in the hospital when they locked me away. We fought our abusive ex-husband. We can fight you all, I fucking dare you to try and tap into my emotional side. You won't find much there. Anger. Rage. Hate maybe. Boy, K would be really upset to hear that. She's convinced she doesn't have a hateful bone in her body, but she'd be wrong. We do hate. It was pounded into our brain years ago and I will not let us forget it. I remember the bullshit, the pain of the past. Now I'm not the one who can see into our childhood. I just see our life from about the age of 13, and I know how much they hurt us, taunted us, teased us as a teenager. So I rose up and pushed back. Got K into a good deal of trouble at times, but I don't give a shit. We can handle it. I can handle anything you can throw my way, fucker.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Should I Come Out?
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I announced on Twitter recently that I was mentally ill (it's no big secret), and proceeded to name some of my ailments. I have a laundry list of them you know. I'm pretty sure it cost me some followers. (Oh, well. If they can't handle me crazy, they don't need to be in my life.) So far, that is all I have done to spread awareness. But I've been thinking of doing more. I am seriously considering coming out to a friend in Real Life about my being mentally ill. I keep weighing the pros and cons, and I repeatedly keep coming back to the point of it being really important to have support. We don't have a ton of support. I mean, I have our shrink, and Husband, and social media, like Twitter. I can't tell you how many times a simple @ tweet directed to me has affected my mood in a positive manner, perhaps even pulled me away from the edge of insanity. It feels good to send out a message in a cyber bottle, and have someone from around the world answer that message, and give me words of encouragement, or just make me laugh. I think the narcissist in us loves being singled out. Of course, at least one of us hates the attention and would rather no one pay us any mind. It's an inner struggle most every day.
If I do decide to come out to someone, I need to plan out what I will say, how I will put it into words. So let me think about that for a minute. What exactly do I want to tell them? How much information do I need to share? I certainly don't want to overwhelm them with too much, too soon. And it would be a shame to tell more than is necessary and cause myself greater embarrassment. Yes, this will be very embarrassing. And what about their questions? I need to be prepared with answers to the basic questions which they are bound to ask me after I drop such a bomb on them. I don't even know which of my illnesses to share with them; certainly not all of them-that'd be too much information. So I need to pick an ailment, and prepare a little speech about it... But first, before any of this comes to pass, there's something even more important that I must do. I must decide which friend I want to reveal my secret to. I know that whomever I choose will forever see me in a different light after my confession, so I have to choose carefully. Whom do I feel closest to? Whom do we need support from? Who do I trust enough to tell? That last question is easy. Answer: No one. I don't trust anyone enough to tell them about my mental health issues. I'm afraid, I admit it. Afraid I'll be thought less of, afraid I won't be invited to socialize anymore, afraid the person I tell will spread rumors about me. It would be a huge risk on my part to open up to an outsider. I don't take this decision lightly.
When, or if, I decide to open up to someone, I need to make sure that person understands that this is a very private matter and that I'd rather not have everyone in town know about my condition. They need a strong ability to keep a secret. I have to assume that whomever I tell will most likely tell their spouse, and that fact makes the decision even harder. Right now, the only people who know about my DID are my doctor and my husband. I've only come to accept this diagnosis myself as of January, so all of this is new territory for me. I'm still learning about myself, about the different me's, about who and what we are. I can't imagine trying to explain all that to another person. How can I, when I don't even understand it myself? I am still learning to recognize my parts, so I couldn't possibly introduce them to an outsider. I know what the first question out of their mouth would be: "How many of you are there?" This is the question everybody always asks, and I wish I had the answer. The truth is, I don't know how many of me there are. I've identified a half dozen personalities, but there are still more voices inside my head which haven't been singled out. So I don't know how many K's there are. Hmm. Perhaps telling about my Dissociative Identity Disorder would be too much; I don't want to overwhelm my friend(s). Maybe I should confess only to something simpler, something easier to come to grips with, like my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder. I'm pretty sure my friends already have their suspicions about these things, so it wouldn't be such a stretch for me to just come out and admit that I have these disorders. I'm fairly certain that whomever I choose to tell will be understanding and sympathetic, and I don't think it will have any sort of negative impact on our friendship. Knowing that then, why is it so hard for me to imagine revealing my secrets? What am I so afraid of?
stig·ma [stig-muh]
noun, plural stig·ma·ta [stig-muh-tuh, stig-mah-tuh, -mat-uh], stig·mas.
If I do decide to come out to someone, I need to plan out what I will say, how I will put it into words. So let me think about that for a minute. What exactly do I want to tell them? How much information do I need to share? I certainly don't want to overwhelm them with too much, too soon. And it would be a shame to tell more than is necessary and cause myself greater embarrassment. Yes, this will be very embarrassing. And what about their questions? I need to be prepared with answers to the basic questions which they are bound to ask me after I drop such a bomb on them. I don't even know which of my illnesses to share with them; certainly not all of them-that'd be too much information. So I need to pick an ailment, and prepare a little speech about it... But first, before any of this comes to pass, there's something even more important that I must do. I must decide which friend I want to reveal my secret to. I know that whomever I choose will forever see me in a different light after my confession, so I have to choose carefully. Whom do I feel closest to? Whom do we need support from? Who do I trust enough to tell? That last question is easy. Answer: No one. I don't trust anyone enough to tell them about my mental health issues. I'm afraid, I admit it. Afraid I'll be thought less of, afraid I won't be invited to socialize anymore, afraid the person I tell will spread rumors about me. It would be a huge risk on my part to open up to an outsider. I don't take this decision lightly.
When, or if, I decide to open up to someone, I need to make sure that person understands that this is a very private matter and that I'd rather not have everyone in town know about my condition. They need a strong ability to keep a secret. I have to assume that whomever I tell will most likely tell their spouse, and that fact makes the decision even harder. Right now, the only people who know about my DID are my doctor and my husband. I've only come to accept this diagnosis myself as of January, so all of this is new territory for me. I'm still learning about myself, about the different me's, about who and what we are. I can't imagine trying to explain all that to another person. How can I, when I don't even understand it myself? I am still learning to recognize my parts, so I couldn't possibly introduce them to an outsider. I know what the first question out of their mouth would be: "How many of you are there?" This is the question everybody always asks, and I wish I had the answer. The truth is, I don't know how many of me there are. I've identified a half dozen personalities, but there are still more voices inside my head which haven't been singled out. So I don't know how many K's there are. Hmm. Perhaps telling about my Dissociative Identity Disorder would be too much; I don't want to overwhelm my friend(s). Maybe I should confess only to something simpler, something easier to come to grips with, like my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder. I'm pretty sure my friends already have their suspicions about these things, so it wouldn't be such a stretch for me to just come out and admit that I have these disorders. I'm fairly certain that whomever I choose to tell will be understanding and sympathetic, and I don't think it will have any sort of negative impact on our friendship. Knowing that then, why is it so hard for me to imagine revealing my secrets? What am I so afraid of?
stig·ma [stig-muh]
a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation. Social stigma is the severe disapproval of, or discontent with, a
person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from
other members of a society.
That's your answer. The stigma of mental illness is what I'm afraid of. Don't think that there isn't one-it's alive and well and I've seen it firsthand. I know what it is to be discriminated against because of my mental status. I know how it feels to be the butt of jokes at the workplace. I've seen that look that people get in their eye just as soon as my mental health is brought up. It is impossible to fully understand it unless you've experienced it. People treat you differently. Medical doctors often think the physical ailments I complain about are simply "in my head". They are afraid to prescribe medications as I'm seen as a suicide risk. At work, I'm not trusted with important tasks or asked for input on anything serious. People seem to think that because I'm mentally ill, I'm less intelligent than they are. I'm not taken seriously. Or I'm thought to be lying, or making up stories. There are a thousand different ways in which to discriminate against the mentally ill. Unfortunately, I've dealt with quite a few of them; I'm not eager to deal with any more. So perhaps I'll just keep my mental illness to myself. After all, I'm very good at keeping secrets. As far as Mental Health Awareness Month goes...I assure you, I am aware.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
About a Wedding
I spent most of yesterday in bed, sleeping, in an attempt to recover from my exhausting weekend. But oh, what a weekend it was! On Friday, I drove my husband and my mother 7 hours to Savannah, Georgia to attend my nephew's wedding. From the moment we got there, it was a non-stop whirlwind of activity and celebration up until (and after) we left Sunday. We stayed in a breathtaking 2 story loft type residence inside an old cabinet making business. I loved the exposed brick walls, 15-foot ceilings, industrial-looking pipes everywhere-it was very urban and modern and funky. We had a downstairs apartment with 2 bedrooms and a kitchen and a huge great room with pool table and 50" flatscreen TV; my sister and her husband and my niece and her boyfriend stayed in the upstairs apartment, which was just as hip plus had a fireplace and a balcony. Savannah is an amazing old city. In case you've never seen the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", I'll tell you that Savannah is gorgeous.
The Savannah Historic District is one of the nation's largest; this city is just a beautiful old Southern coastal town with beautiful architecture and gigantic shade trees dripping with Spanish moss, and 22 different parks with fountains and old statues and cobblestone streets complete with horse-driven carriages. There's a waterfront area where artists set up their easels and paint and artisans sell their crafts and street musicians perform. There are delightful little cafe's and pubs, and my husband and I found our way to a few of these Friday afternoon. The wedding festivities began with a rehearsal dinner Friday night. I didn't attend that, but it was my responsibility to get my mother dressed and do her hair and makeup. After everyone left for the rehearsal dinner, I was able to breathe easier, and my husband and I went off on our own and walked the streets of downtown and had dinner at an eclectic little place which offered $2 beer. After some sightseeing, we headed back to get ready for the pre-wedding cocktail party, held at a fancy old restaurant/bar. I intentionally skipped all my meds just so I could drink at the party. And drink I did! I think I was trying to make up for my lack of Xanax. After several drinks, my brother-in-law brought me my own bottle of champagne, every drop of which I drank...and then a second bottle appeared. I drank and danced and smiled and pretended to be at ease, but truthfully I was a nervous wreck. For a person with Social Anxiety Disorder, this was the ultimate test: It was crowded and noisy and I was surrounded by hundreds of strangers, all of whom seemed young and thin and beautiful. But I hung next to my husband and my mother, and so I felt somewhat shielded from the dangers of the reality outside my little bubble. It was so wonderful to spend time with my big sister, whom I rarely get to see as she lives on the other side of the country. She introduced me to someone as "her beautiful sister" and I took that as a sarcastic comment but my husband said she was being sincere. It's not that I think she'd try to be mean to me, it's just that I'm paranoid by nature and always assume the worst. We stayed for a good long while, long enough for me to see my 83-year old mother drink and dance with several young men, including her grandson (the groom). I was thrilled to see her having such a good time, and she said it was the most fun she's had since Daddy died. After she was too tired to go on, my husband and I took her back to where we were staying and put her to bed. There was another party to attend, but I didn't think I could handle another crowded social function, so instead we stayed in and my husband made me margaritas (my sister stocked our kitchen with snacks and our bar with liquor!) and he opened a bottle of Captain Morgan's and we did some more partying by ourselves. I got so drunk that I ended up hugging the toilet for a good part of the evening. Oh well, it was totally worth it.
The next day was hectic and entailed a breakfast get-together where I consumed much champagne and orange juice. I intentionally skipped my meds again so I could enjoy all the champagne I wanted.
I LOVE champagne. After breakfast, everyone scattered to do their own thing and my hubby and I went sightseeing. We walked all over town and ended up in a frozen drink bar. From a wall of colorful assorted frozen drink machines, I chose the blue one. I ordered my drink and then saw the sign which proclaimed that the drinks are made with 190 proof pure grain alcohol and are much stronger than regular bar drinks. Needless to say, I thought that drink was going to put hair on my chest! We headed back to the apartment to prep for the wedding. I helped Mom get dressed and did her makeup and hair and Mom left to get wedding pictures made. Husband and I had an hour to ourselves before we had to leave for the wedding. Which means that I was ready on time, but that there was enough time for me to get very anxious. I stuck some Xanax in my purse but really didn't want to take any because I wanted to drink at the reception. Well, once my husband and I were all decked out in our formal attire (he looked so snappy in his bow tie!) we headed down the street 2 blocks to catch the trolley which my nephew had hired to take everyone to the church. The wedding was beautiful and afterwards we headed to a mansion for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Servers clad all in black milled about with trays of food and wine, and there was an open bar which we took full advantage of. I admit, I didn't do any mingling. I knew no one but a handful of relatives there, so I wasn't comfortable talking to anyone. I put Mom in a chair and got myself a Cosmopolitan and spent the next hour or two chatting with my husband and trying not to have an anxiety attack. It seemed to take an eternity, but at last it was time for dinner, and the wedding party filed into the ballroom and everyone went to their assigned seats. I was so relieved to find that we were sitting with my mom and sister and niece. I had a cocktail with me, then a man came around and poured champagne, and then after that a man came around with 4 different kinds of wine. I chose white. The dinner was ultra gourmet--filet mignon and a single gigantic shrimp served with asparagus. It was much fancier than I am able to describe. I ate very little but drank plenty. After that there were speeches and toasts and dancing and general merrymaking. I can't remember how I got back to the apartment... it seems that my husband and I did some more drinking that night and I guess I passed out at some point; I woke up in the wee hours of the morning wearing my clothes. There was no sleeping in that day, for we had to make the journey home. I stumbled into the kitchen to make coffee, then started packing my suitcase. For a 3-day trip, we had a ton of luggage. Plus a cooler filled with drinks and plastic bins filled with snacks and all of Mom's medical equipment...it looked like we were moving. I think it took Husband 20 minutes to load the car. It was raining the day we left, and that seemed to match the mood of everyone as we said our goodbyes. It was sad-Mom cried. The drive home was long-about 8 hours-and exhausting. I kept having to stop to throw up, presumably from all the drinking I'd done the night before. Finally we pulled into our driveway. I hated that our trip was over but was also glad to be home. Then I saw the evidence of the stress of the trip. I found that my legs had been picked at and scratched at and were all bloody and raw. My upper arms were also covered in sores due to compulsive skin picking. I don't remember doing it but it's obvious that it was a reaction to stress and the pressure of being around so many strangers. I skipped all my meds for 3 days and went "all-natural" -something was bound to happen. And so I dealt with the anxiety by drinking too much and picking at my skin. Also bit my nails but not as bad as it could have been. In retrospect, I don't think I could've had a better time. And I'm so proud of myself for not freaking out during all the excitement. My doctor had warned me I'd probably dissociate during the wedding, but I don't think I ever did. I remember the ceremony. I remember the reception. I got a little floaty and distracted during dinner, but I think I successfully stayed in my body for most of the whole event... Wow! This weekend gave me not one, but two things to celebrate.
The Savannah Historic District is one of the nation's largest; this city is just a beautiful old Southern coastal town with beautiful architecture and gigantic shade trees dripping with Spanish moss, and 22 different parks with fountains and old statues and cobblestone streets complete with horse-driven carriages. There's a waterfront area where artists set up their easels and paint and artisans sell their crafts and street musicians perform. There are delightful little cafe's and pubs, and my husband and I found our way to a few of these Friday afternoon. The wedding festivities began with a rehearsal dinner Friday night. I didn't attend that, but it was my responsibility to get my mother dressed and do her hair and makeup. After everyone left for the rehearsal dinner, I was able to breathe easier, and my husband and I went off on our own and walked the streets of downtown and had dinner at an eclectic little place which offered $2 beer. After some sightseeing, we headed back to get ready for the pre-wedding cocktail party, held at a fancy old restaurant/bar. I intentionally skipped all my meds just so I could drink at the party. And drink I did! I think I was trying to make up for my lack of Xanax. After several drinks, my brother-in-law brought me my own bottle of champagne, every drop of which I drank...and then a second bottle appeared. I drank and danced and smiled and pretended to be at ease, but truthfully I was a nervous wreck. For a person with Social Anxiety Disorder, this was the ultimate test: It was crowded and noisy and I was surrounded by hundreds of strangers, all of whom seemed young and thin and beautiful. But I hung next to my husband and my mother, and so I felt somewhat shielded from the dangers of the reality outside my little bubble. It was so wonderful to spend time with my big sister, whom I rarely get to see as she lives on the other side of the country. She introduced me to someone as "her beautiful sister" and I took that as a sarcastic comment but my husband said she was being sincere. It's not that I think she'd try to be mean to me, it's just that I'm paranoid by nature and always assume the worst. We stayed for a good long while, long enough for me to see my 83-year old mother drink and dance with several young men, including her grandson (the groom). I was thrilled to see her having such a good time, and she said it was the most fun she's had since Daddy died. After she was too tired to go on, my husband and I took her back to where we were staying and put her to bed. There was another party to attend, but I didn't think I could handle another crowded social function, so instead we stayed in and my husband made me margaritas (my sister stocked our kitchen with snacks and our bar with liquor!) and he opened a bottle of Captain Morgan's and we did some more partying by ourselves. I got so drunk that I ended up hugging the toilet for a good part of the evening. Oh well, it was totally worth it.
The next day was hectic and entailed a breakfast get-together where I consumed much champagne and orange juice. I intentionally skipped my meds again so I could enjoy all the champagne I wanted.
I LOVE champagne. After breakfast, everyone scattered to do their own thing and my hubby and I went sightseeing. We walked all over town and ended up in a frozen drink bar. From a wall of colorful assorted frozen drink machines, I chose the blue one. I ordered my drink and then saw the sign which proclaimed that the drinks are made with 190 proof pure grain alcohol and are much stronger than regular bar drinks. Needless to say, I thought that drink was going to put hair on my chest! We headed back to the apartment to prep for the wedding. I helped Mom get dressed and did her makeup and hair and Mom left to get wedding pictures made. Husband and I had an hour to ourselves before we had to leave for the wedding. Which means that I was ready on time, but that there was enough time for me to get very anxious. I stuck some Xanax in my purse but really didn't want to take any because I wanted to drink at the reception. Well, once my husband and I were all decked out in our formal attire (he looked so snappy in his bow tie!) we headed down the street 2 blocks to catch the trolley which my nephew had hired to take everyone to the church. The wedding was beautiful and afterwards we headed to a mansion for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Servers clad all in black milled about with trays of food and wine, and there was an open bar which we took full advantage of. I admit, I didn't do any mingling. I knew no one but a handful of relatives there, so I wasn't comfortable talking to anyone. I put Mom in a chair and got myself a Cosmopolitan and spent the next hour or two chatting with my husband and trying not to have an anxiety attack. It seemed to take an eternity, but at last it was time for dinner, and the wedding party filed into the ballroom and everyone went to their assigned seats. I was so relieved to find that we were sitting with my mom and sister and niece. I had a cocktail with me, then a man came around and poured champagne, and then after that a man came around with 4 different kinds of wine. I chose white. The dinner was ultra gourmet--filet mignon and a single gigantic shrimp served with asparagus. It was much fancier than I am able to describe. I ate very little but drank plenty. After that there were speeches and toasts and dancing and general merrymaking. I can't remember how I got back to the apartment... it seems that my husband and I did some more drinking that night and I guess I passed out at some point; I woke up in the wee hours of the morning wearing my clothes. There was no sleeping in that day, for we had to make the journey home. I stumbled into the kitchen to make coffee, then started packing my suitcase. For a 3-day trip, we had a ton of luggage. Plus a cooler filled with drinks and plastic bins filled with snacks and all of Mom's medical equipment...it looked like we were moving. I think it took Husband 20 minutes to load the car. It was raining the day we left, and that seemed to match the mood of everyone as we said our goodbyes. It was sad-Mom cried. The drive home was long-about 8 hours-and exhausting. I kept having to stop to throw up, presumably from all the drinking I'd done the night before. Finally we pulled into our driveway. I hated that our trip was over but was also glad to be home. Then I saw the evidence of the stress of the trip. I found that my legs had been picked at and scratched at and were all bloody and raw. My upper arms were also covered in sores due to compulsive skin picking. I don't remember doing it but it's obvious that it was a reaction to stress and the pressure of being around so many strangers. I skipped all my meds for 3 days and went "all-natural" -something was bound to happen. And so I dealt with the anxiety by drinking too much and picking at my skin. Also bit my nails but not as bad as it could have been. In retrospect, I don't think I could've had a better time. And I'm so proud of myself for not freaking out during all the excitement. My doctor had warned me I'd probably dissociate during the wedding, but I don't think I ever did. I remember the ceremony. I remember the reception. I got a little floaty and distracted during dinner, but I think I successfully stayed in my body for most of the whole event... Wow! This weekend gave me not one, but two things to celebrate.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
What's Up, Doc? (False Truths Pt.2)
Two weeks ago, I went to therapy and said some things that I later regretted. I told my psychiatrist that not everyone believes my mental illness is real; some people think I'm faking it. So ever since I left her office, I've been paranoid as we could be. I got the thought in my head that I'd planted an idea in her mind and that she no longer believed the things I was telling her. I decided that she thought I was a liar and a fraud. I was unsure whether or not I'd be able to talk to her anymore. I even considered changing doctors. I wrote a blog post about my paranoia on this subject Here. I literally have obsessed about this morning and night ever since that therapy session. So I had my first session with her since the incident...I was incredibly nervous before I went in. Making me even more nervous and paranoid was the fact that they called me 3 times to reschedule the appointment; I got it in my head that they didn't like me and didn't want to see me. Then, once at the office, the waiting room was so crowded I had to be placed in an adjoining room, all alone. All alone is just fine with me-it's far less stressful than being around people. So anyway, I wait and wait and wait. Over an hour and a half passes and still I'm waiting. I was just getting more and more anxious as the minutes ticked by. Finally, my name was called. I held my head down low as I walked slowly into the doctor's office. I sat across from her but could not look at her. At first I couldn't speak...then I got out my notebook, in which I'd written down topics to discuss, questions to ask, and journal entries to read to her. When I finally opened my mouth, the words gushed out all over each other. I let everything out-my paranoia about our relationship, my fear that she thinks I'm lying, my obsessing about our last therapy session, my worries of being doubted. I poured out my feelings on all of these matters, and she listened patiently and then smiled broadly. She told me that she didn't think I was capable of concocting some elaborate scheme to make people think I'm mentally ill. She said that in our last session, when I confessed to her about the doubters and disbelievers, she thought that took courage on my part to bring those things up. She doesn't think I'm a liar. She doesn't think I'm faking my symptoms. Oh thank the heavens! Relief washed over me and my mind was cleansed of negativity and I felt like a new person. The rest of the session was spent discussing this weekend's big event: my nephew's wedding. I have to drive over 6 hours to get there. I have to meet the family of the bride. I have to attend fancy teas and dinners and cocktail parties and on Saturday, a black-tie wedding. A very-crowded, formal affair is not my idea of a fun weekend. Just sounds stressful and terrifying and panic-inducing. In fact, my psychiatrist told me that because of the stress and anxiety caused by the wedding, I'd more than likely dissociate. That does NOT help me feel better. I asked her if it would be OK for me to have some champagne at the wedding; she said I could drink IF I did NOT take my Xanax that day. Well, hell, I can't even leave my room without taking a Xanax, so I guess that means I won't be drinking. The last thing I want to do is tempt fate by not being sedated in a crowded public environment.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Twitter is More Real Than My Life
Only four people in Real Life know about my DID: my husband and my psychiatrist of course, and also, from another city, my last psychologist, and my ex-boyfriend (who lived with me for a year). It was he who wrote a letter to my husband explaining how I switch. (You can read the letter here) I'm only honest about my switching into other K's here, in this blog. To a lesser extent, I talk about my various mental health issues on Twitter, such as the voices, the paranoia, and my panic attacks; I don't go into much detail about my alters when I'm tweeting. Also, we K's tend to blog more than tweet (that is, the ones who communicate; some of the K's don't do either).
Mostly I just vent on Twitter. I follow and am followed by around 150 people, so Twitter remains an intimate experience for me. I don't think I could follow a ton of people-it'd be overwhelming for us K's. I have a hard enough time just trying to remember a handful of names, I could never communicate with a large group of Tweeps. To be honest, I have to take notes about different people I chat with on Twitter or else I'd never remember anyone. We like to get to know a handful of people rather than just follow hundreds of strangers. This is why I don't participate in the whole "Follow Friday" thing, where people on Twitter suggest other Tweeps follow certain accounts. I don't want to single out any Tweep as being better than any other Tweep, and more importantly, we don't want to encroach upon anyone's privacy. Also, I'd rather not be singled out myself, because the idea of a lot of people following us makes me uncomfortable.
I'm such a paranoid person to begin with, and if I stop to think about the fact that over a hundred people are currently reading my personal thoughts....well, quite frankly it freaks us the fuck out. I will admit that it'd be nice to get more readers for this blog, although I'm surprised at myself for thinking that. After all, I began writing the blog for me, for the K's, to use as a record of my symptoms and moodswings and switching. It seems odd that I'd be looking for exposure...but I would love to help someone out there who might be struggling with some of the same mental issues as we, the K's are.
Mainly, we use Twitter as a support system. If I'm having an anxiety attack, I can send a tweet out into the universe and maybe, just maybe, someone will answer me and either chat with me until my panic has subsided or at least give us some words of encouragement. My Tweeps have gotten me through the nightmare that is sitting in a waiting room on many occasions. In addition to the support, I am also entertained; many of the people I follow are quite funny. I mostly follow other people with mental health issues, because I can better relate to them than to regular, non-mental people. In real life, I don't have any friends with whom I can discuss my eating disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder, but on Twitter there's always someone out there who understands and can empathize.
I avoided Twitter for so long....I used to make fun of my husband for using it. Now, just 3 months after I first began following people, I am hooked. A few of the K's tweet often, and many mornings when I go back and read the tweets from the past 24 hours, I am surprised at what they've (we've) said. I'm also frequently embarrassed. But that goes along with the nature of a dissociative disorder-you never know when you're going to dissociate and perhaps do or say something inappropriate, something that draws unwanted attention to us. I don't remember these things, or else I just get flashes or bits of them; usually I find out because someone will tell me or say something about how funny I was the other night, or make a comment about seeing me totally wasted (often what people think when I'm somewhere else in my mind). I don't really mind people thinking I'm drunk or stoned; it's less embarrassing to me than the truth, when the truth is that I was someone else, or "out to lunch" in my head.
But on Twitter, and in this blog, I can be truthful about what's going on. I can exclaim that I'm losing my mind or seeing bugs everywhere or whatever-and no one will think much of it. In real life, I'd be stared at, laughed at, made to feel self-conscious and foolish. So in many ways, Twitter and this blog are more representative of my real life than even my Real Life, where I have to hide my true self. How ironic. Twitter, where people can lie and be whomever or whatever they want...and I happen to be more open and honest there than even in Real Life.
Mostly I just vent on Twitter. I follow and am followed by around 150 people, so Twitter remains an intimate experience for me. I don't think I could follow a ton of people-it'd be overwhelming for us K's. I have a hard enough time just trying to remember a handful of names, I could never communicate with a large group of Tweeps. To be honest, I have to take notes about different people I chat with on Twitter or else I'd never remember anyone. We like to get to know a handful of people rather than just follow hundreds of strangers. This is why I don't participate in the whole "Follow Friday" thing, where people on Twitter suggest other Tweeps follow certain accounts. I don't want to single out any Tweep as being better than any other Tweep, and more importantly, we don't want to encroach upon anyone's privacy. Also, I'd rather not be singled out myself, because the idea of a lot of people following us makes me uncomfortable.
I'm such a paranoid person to begin with, and if I stop to think about the fact that over a hundred people are currently reading my personal thoughts....well, quite frankly it freaks us the fuck out. I will admit that it'd be nice to get more readers for this blog, although I'm surprised at myself for thinking that. After all, I began writing the blog for me, for the K's, to use as a record of my symptoms and moodswings and switching. It seems odd that I'd be looking for exposure...but I would love to help someone out there who might be struggling with some of the same mental issues as we, the K's are.
Mainly, we use Twitter as a support system. If I'm having an anxiety attack, I can send a tweet out into the universe and maybe, just maybe, someone will answer me and either chat with me until my panic has subsided or at least give us some words of encouragement. My Tweeps have gotten me through the nightmare that is sitting in a waiting room on many occasions. In addition to the support, I am also entertained; many of the people I follow are quite funny. I mostly follow other people with mental health issues, because I can better relate to them than to regular, non-mental people. In real life, I don't have any friends with whom I can discuss my eating disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder, but on Twitter there's always someone out there who understands and can empathize.
I avoided Twitter for so long....I used to make fun of my husband for using it. Now, just 3 months after I first began following people, I am hooked. A few of the K's tweet often, and many mornings when I go back and read the tweets from the past 24 hours, I am surprised at what they've (we've) said. I'm also frequently embarrassed. But that goes along with the nature of a dissociative disorder-you never know when you're going to dissociate and perhaps do or say something inappropriate, something that draws unwanted attention to us. I don't remember these things, or else I just get flashes or bits of them; usually I find out because someone will tell me or say something about how funny I was the other night, or make a comment about seeing me totally wasted (often what people think when I'm somewhere else in my mind). I don't really mind people thinking I'm drunk or stoned; it's less embarrassing to me than the truth, when the truth is that I was someone else, or "out to lunch" in my head.
But on Twitter, and in this blog, I can be truthful about what's going on. I can exclaim that I'm losing my mind or seeing bugs everywhere or whatever-and no one will think much of it. In real life, I'd be stared at, laughed at, made to feel self-conscious and foolish. So in many ways, Twitter and this blog are more representative of my real life than even my Real Life, where I have to hide my true self. How ironic. Twitter, where people can lie and be whomever or whatever they want...and I happen to be more open and honest there than even in Real Life.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Alone With Our Thoughts
I've only had one meal and 2 hours' sleep in the past two days. Husband's out of town and I'm feeling alone and vulnerable yet I'm oddly hyper and my brain is going a million miles an hour. I've been all...switchy. It feels like my mind is a slot machine and life pulls the lever and then whatever comes up from the spin is who I will be, but only until the next spin. I keep coming in and out of time, at least the "here and now" kind of time. I guess this is how it was for me before I got married. Just me, alone with the voices, fighting to keep my voice heard over everyone else, but then at the same time I'm wondering if it's my voice that's supposed to be doing the talking anyway, because I have other, different voices talking too, and they somehow all feel like me, even though they don't all sound like me. Even though my brain is crowded, I feel so alone. I am...incomplete. Like a chunk of me is missing. My husband is my strength and support and without him I feel weak and uncovered, like I'm a target or something. It feels like all the world's problems are chasing me and I can't run fast enough to get away. I'm sprinting through time, and I want very badly to pause for a moment, just a moment, and relax and notice all the little things that I'd normally miss as I'm going by so fast. My husband helps me slow things down. He helps me organize my time. He keeps me on my toes, and on the ball with my medications and doctor's visits and the like. Husband helps me get through the day, everyday, even when he doesn't know he's helping me. A simple text from him can transform my mood, and it very often does. Sometimes, after he leaves for work, a dark cloud will descend upon me and threaten to ruin my whole day. But a message from him is like the sun bursting through the clouds. He is my light at the end of every day's tunnel. I don't know what I'd do without him and his support.
It seems odd to me now that I was able to live my life all these years without any support. I mean, no one knew about my dissociative disorder. People thought I was a strange girl, of that you can be certain! But no one ever guessed how fractured my mind really is. Coming out to my husband was difficult to say the least, and not just for me. He was overwhelmed at first, and shocked that I could hide such a secret from him for all the years we've known each other. But we didn't live together then, so he never saw the sudden, dramatic transformations which sometimes occur. He just thought I was moody. Yes, yes I am. Quite. When I finally did come out and tell him, it was Switch Kellie who did the explaining. I'm not sure, but perhaps that was the reason he was so freaked out; to his knowledge, he'd never met Switch Kellie. In truth, he had met her, in fact she was the one who had handled all the wedding planning and she came every day to check on the details and see to it that all the wedding and honeymoon plans were in place. She was a constant for 2 months, then she receded back inside me, where she stays until I need her. She comes when the stress gets to be too much. She comes when I'm overwhelmed and can't handle the pressure. Switch Kellie is smart and tough and can take care of business while keeping a clear head. HA! "A clear head"-I don't think that's something we ever really have. There's always something going on in there, always people talking.
This is the longest I've been without support in what feels like an eternity. I've not been apart from my husband for this long since we got married 2 years ago. I miss him terribly. It's very early and normally we'd both be sleeping right now, but I am unable to sleep without him beside me. I feel unsafe. For whatever reason, the strong K's are nowhere to be found; it's just us weaklings here now. Last night, I got scared of the dark at more than one point in the night, and I had no one to turn to, no one to put their arms around me and tell me I am safe. I had more than one anxiety attack last night. In between those, I was nearly manic. So much energy, so full of conversation...but no one to talk to and so I was unable to relax and calm down. I'm all wound up and am having trouble being in the moment; I keep jumping ahead of myself, going too fast. I need to slow things down to a manageable pace. This hyperactivity on my part is damn annoying! I'm trying to keep quiet so that Mom doesn't know I'm awake. I'm just not ready for interaction with others yet. I might just hide out in my room all day until Husband gets home. The only thing I need is coffee, and I'm pretty sure I can sneak into the kitchen unnoticed...
It seems odd to me now that I was able to live my life all these years without any support. I mean, no one knew about my dissociative disorder. People thought I was a strange girl, of that you can be certain! But no one ever guessed how fractured my mind really is. Coming out to my husband was difficult to say the least, and not just for me. He was overwhelmed at first, and shocked that I could hide such a secret from him for all the years we've known each other. But we didn't live together then, so he never saw the sudden, dramatic transformations which sometimes occur. He just thought I was moody. Yes, yes I am. Quite. When I finally did come out and tell him, it was Switch Kellie who did the explaining. I'm not sure, but perhaps that was the reason he was so freaked out; to his knowledge, he'd never met Switch Kellie. In truth, he had met her, in fact she was the one who had handled all the wedding planning and she came every day to check on the details and see to it that all the wedding and honeymoon plans were in place. She was a constant for 2 months, then she receded back inside me, where she stays until I need her. She comes when the stress gets to be too much. She comes when I'm overwhelmed and can't handle the pressure. Switch Kellie is smart and tough and can take care of business while keeping a clear head. HA! "A clear head"-I don't think that's something we ever really have. There's always something going on in there, always people talking.
This is the longest I've been without support in what feels like an eternity. I've not been apart from my husband for this long since we got married 2 years ago. I miss him terribly. It's very early and normally we'd both be sleeping right now, but I am unable to sleep without him beside me. I feel unsafe. For whatever reason, the strong K's are nowhere to be found; it's just us weaklings here now. Last night, I got scared of the dark at more than one point in the night, and I had no one to turn to, no one to put their arms around me and tell me I am safe. I had more than one anxiety attack last night. In between those, I was nearly manic. So much energy, so full of conversation...but no one to talk to and so I was unable to relax and calm down. I'm all wound up and am having trouble being in the moment; I keep jumping ahead of myself, going too fast. I need to slow things down to a manageable pace. This hyperactivity on my part is damn annoying! I'm trying to keep quiet so that Mom doesn't know I'm awake. I'm just not ready for interaction with others yet. I might just hide out in my room all day until Husband gets home. The only thing I need is coffee, and I'm pretty sure I can sneak into the kitchen unnoticed...
Monday, May 7, 2012
Scrap of Paper
I found a handwritten note to myself (at least I think it's to me). Not all of it makes sense, but I found it interesting and it's a peek inside K's mind. I thought I'd share it with you here. It goes like this:
I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM. I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT MY NAME IS. I CAN'T FUCKING REMEMBER THINGS. RIGHT NOW. WHO THE HELL IS THIS PERSON TALKING TO (my husband), EXPLAINING TO HIM THAT WE CAN'T REMEMBER WHO WE ARE. WHO AM I? FOR JUST A MOMENT, I WAS THE ONE WHO DOES MATH. IT WAS IN THE CAR.
(I typed that all in caps because that's how it was written) That's the end of the note, which I found on a scrap of paper stuck in between the pages of my journal. I don't know when it was written and I don't remember writing it.
I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM. I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT MY NAME IS. I CAN'T FUCKING REMEMBER THINGS. RIGHT NOW. WHO THE HELL IS THIS PERSON TALKING TO (my husband), EXPLAINING TO HIM THAT WE CAN'T REMEMBER WHO WE ARE. WHO AM I? FOR JUST A MOMENT, I WAS THE ONE WHO DOES MATH. IT WAS IN THE CAR.
(I typed that all in caps because that's how it was written) That's the end of the note, which I found on a scrap of paper stuck in between the pages of my journal. I don't know when it was written and I don't remember writing it.
CBT or DBT?
CBT is cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive meaning of or pertaining to the mental processes of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning (as contrasted with emotional processes). Behavioral refers to the sum total of responses to internal and external stimuli. Therapy...well, you know what therapy is. The premise of cognitive behavioral therapy is that changing faulty thinking leads to change in emotions and in behavior. Therapists use CBT techniques to help individuals challenge their patterns and beliefs and replace errors in thinking such as overgeneralizing and catastrophizing with more realistic and effective thoughts, thus decreasing emotional distress and self-defeating behavior. Catastrophizing is to view or talk about an event or situation as worse than it actually is. (I have a problem with this) CBT also focuses on changing or reversing the habits of magnifying negatives and minimizing positives. It helps individuals replace maladaptive coping skills, emotions and behaviors with more adaptive ones, by challenging an individual's way of thinking and the way that they react to certain habits or behaviors. In other words, it's showing a person another side, an alternative, something different, that happens to be more positive rather than negative. Replacing "bad" thoughts with new, improved thoughts. It's like gaining a fresh, new perspective.
DBT is dialectical behavioral therapy. Dialectical refers to linguistics, or language, and behavioral refers to actions. DBT combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindful awareness largely derived from Buddhist meditative practice. It uses a combination of one-on-one therapy and also group therapy. DBT may be the first therapy that has been experimentally demonstrated to be effective in treating Borderline Personality Disorder (generally speaking). It also has been shown to help with mood disorders, including self-injury. Recent studies suggests its effectiveness with sexual abuse survivors and chemical dependency. (I'm a chemically dependent self-injurer who's been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in the past and who my psychiatrist (and some of the K's) believes is a survivor of sexual abuse, who also has an unspecified mood disorder.) DBT strives to have the patient view the therapist as an ally rather than an adversary in the treatment of psychological issues. Accordingly, the therapist aims to accept and validate the client’s feelings at any given time, while, nonetheless, informing the client that some feelings and behaviors are inadequate or faulty, and showing them better alternatives. Mindfulness practice is increasingly being employed in Western psychology to alleviate a variety of mental and physical conditions, including obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety (both of which I have).
The more I read about DBT, the more I'd like to try it. The idea of using Eastern meditative traditions in my therapy sessions really appeals to me. It's too bad that DBT also involves group therapy, and I don't do group since I generally don't like people, and am even afraid of them. It appears that my therapist is using CBT (I think) and since we seem to be making progress, and even more importantly, since I've finally found a doctor whom I both respect and like as a person, I shall continue with my current course of treatment. After all, it's taken me years to find a therapist I feel comfortable with, and I think that's the most important thing of all when it comes to therapy.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Attempting To Heal: Beginning Week 3...or Am I?
As I've blogged about before, I have Dermatillomania, an impulse control disorder; it's where a person uncontrollably picks at their skin until tissue damage is caused. It's quite embarrassing and I'm very ashamed of it. Recently, two Sundays ago, I started a new project, that being a healing plan for my skin, which is currently afflicted with terrible wounds from CSP (Compulsive Skin Picking). I blogged about Day 1 here: Attempting To Heal My shins, in particular, had become so damaged that I was unable to wear skirts or anything which shows my legs. I have a wedding to attend May 19, and so I decided to start a new routine, and I was hoping that by forcing myself to follow this healing regime day after day, I'd develop an obsession for it, and would begin compulsively treating my wounds. That was my hope. It's not uncommon for me to develop new obsessions and/or compulsions, so I was hoping to force this one into being. So far, that has not happened, although I have been treating my sores daily. What I want is compulsive treatment of my wounds, and an obsession with healing. Still hoping that will happen.
I lasted three days. Three days, and I caught myself scratching. I didn't actually pick at the sores until Day 6, and on Day 8 I finally ripped off a scab and started bleeding. So I guess I must admit this project was a failure. But. I will start again tomorrow. And truthfully, my legs do look better. Even though I scratched them a few times, the creams I was layering on really did aid in healing the scabby places, and there are no bloody spots anymore. Correction: there is one place on my left leg. I scratched til I drew blood yesterday. Sigh. But the number of wounds on each leg has decreased; I only have 12 on my left leg now. (it was over 20 at one point) My right leg, on the other hand, only has 6, and really it's less than that. I'm counting every blemish that I can easily see. Some of those really shouldn't be included as CSP injuries, as some of them are moles or freckles. Of course, if and when I scratch at them until they bleed, they then become part of my list of CSP-afflicted areas.
The second week of my healing routine was a rollercoaster of good days and bad days. The bandaged areas are healing nicely, but the majority of my wounds are still tempting me to pick at them. The itching, which I suppose is caused by the healing process, well it's just about unbearable. I unconsciously scratch my legs; I catch myself doing it and sometimes I've drawn blood and then I feel like a failure and have to start all over again with the steroid cream and the antibiotic gel and the hydrocortisone. The wedding I'm attending is fast approaching, and I'd so hoped that my legs would look decent by that time. I have 2 weeks from today. So I'm making a promise to myself. No more scratching. No more picking. I will NOT touch my legs other than to apply medicated creams which will aid in healing. I lasted 3 days the first week without picking, and only 1 day the second week. Let's hope the third week is more successful. Perhaps I should plan on rewarding myself when my shins are healed. Maybe I'd motivate myself to stick to the plan if I bought myself a new dress to wear when my legs look good again. Last summer, my skin looked pretty good. Granted, I have scars all over my body, but I wasn't picking at that point and I was able to wear more revealing clothes. I even went to the pool a few times. There will be no pool for me this Summer unless I am successful with my anti-CSP plan. I MUST do this. No one in real life can find out about this humiliating condition, and I'm afraid that wearing long sleeves and long pants in 100 degree heat might look suspicious when everyone around me is in shorts and tank tops.
I lasted three days. Three days, and I caught myself scratching. I didn't actually pick at the sores until Day 6, and on Day 8 I finally ripped off a scab and started bleeding. So I guess I must admit this project was a failure. But. I will start again tomorrow. And truthfully, my legs do look better. Even though I scratched them a few times, the creams I was layering on really did aid in healing the scabby places, and there are no bloody spots anymore. Correction: there is one place on my left leg. I scratched til I drew blood yesterday. Sigh. But the number of wounds on each leg has decreased; I only have 12 on my left leg now. (it was over 20 at one point) My right leg, on the other hand, only has 6, and really it's less than that. I'm counting every blemish that I can easily see. Some of those really shouldn't be included as CSP injuries, as some of them are moles or freckles. Of course, if and when I scratch at them until they bleed, they then become part of my list of CSP-afflicted areas.
The second week of my healing routine was a rollercoaster of good days and bad days. The bandaged areas are healing nicely, but the majority of my wounds are still tempting me to pick at them. The itching, which I suppose is caused by the healing process, well it's just about unbearable. I unconsciously scratch my legs; I catch myself doing it and sometimes I've drawn blood and then I feel like a failure and have to start all over again with the steroid cream and the antibiotic gel and the hydrocortisone. The wedding I'm attending is fast approaching, and I'd so hoped that my legs would look decent by that time. I have 2 weeks from today. So I'm making a promise to myself. No more scratching. No more picking. I will NOT touch my legs other than to apply medicated creams which will aid in healing. I lasted 3 days the first week without picking, and only 1 day the second week. Let's hope the third week is more successful. Perhaps I should plan on rewarding myself when my shins are healed. Maybe I'd motivate myself to stick to the plan if I bought myself a new dress to wear when my legs look good again. Last summer, my skin looked pretty good. Granted, I have scars all over my body, but I wasn't picking at that point and I was able to wear more revealing clothes. I even went to the pool a few times. There will be no pool for me this Summer unless I am successful with my anti-CSP plan. I MUST do this. No one in real life can find out about this humiliating condition, and I'm afraid that wearing long sleeves and long pants in 100 degree heat might look suspicious when everyone around me is in shorts and tank tops.
Friday, May 4, 2012
False Truths
I had a psychiatrist's appointment yesterday morning, and now I'm feeling paranoid and nervous and highly uncomfortable and terribly anxious. I fear I have made a huge, glaring mistake. I am afraid that my words have tarnished the professional relationship that I have with my doctor and that she will never trust me again. I'm scared that I've planted a seed, a seed which will sprout into a full-grown disaster. I can't believe that after all the progress which has been made, I had to go and fuck everything up like this. Or, at least I think so... It seems like we were advancing before then... I mean, it's easier for me to talk to her now; isn't that an improvement? So it seems that I've been coming along-after 2 years I was finally able to talk to her openly. And then I go and do something like what happened yesterday.
First, I told her how some people feel about my illness. I told her that I'm not taken seriously, that I am thought to be pretending, that I am believed to be a spoiled brat who just doesn't want to work. That's completely outrageous. How could I possibly, as a little girl, have thought out this elaborate plot to fool everyone into thinking that I'm mentally ill over a span of decades? More importantly, what could I possibly hope to gain from that? Why would anyone want people to think they're nuts? It's done nothing but make my life harder. It just doesn't make any sense. K was so actively involved with life when she was younger, (plays, choir, soccer, Girl Scouts, Art Club, gifted class, etc) I guess it's just hard to believe that she could be living with all these symptoms for all these years and have only a couple of people ever figure out what's really going on. Only a couple of people ever "got it"; just 2 in my lifetime, only 2 people outside of a couple of my doctor(s) recognized that I switched and became different K's. Both of the people who figured out my secret were men who lived with me for a year or more.
So it would seem that I really am a good actress. I fooled everyone all right, I fooled everyone into thinking that I'm just one of them. That I'm stable, that I'm existing in the same reality as everyone else is. We certainly can't let on that we are on a different plane of reality; that might upset people or create problems for us, so we must hide that from the world. And that's just what we've done, for all these years. We've been pretending to be emotionally mature, to be a regular person, to think clearly and rationally. It's not true. It's all make believe. The part where I'm "sane" that is. That is all just make believe. Then, as if that weren't bad enough, I suggested to my shrink that the memories I have could possibly be false memories, or that they might only be true in my head, not in the real world. I said this as an outside observer of K, watching from the sidelines. (I wrote it down; that's how I remember) So I basically admitted to my shrink that there's a chance the bad stuff I remember is all fairy tales, that it's not true. That I've somehow twisted the facts around in my memory and created things out of misconceptions. I'd like to call these memories "false truths", memories which I completely believe to be true, but which are actually just distorted partial recollections. I can't remember now where I got that idea or how I started thinking stuff along those lines.
Maybe I was reading something from out of the diary... I remember taking it into the session. In fact, I'd left home and forgotten to bring it, and I actually turned around and went back home to get it before my session. So it seems there was some stuff in the diary that I wanted to talk to her about. Yes... yes, I remember talking about 3 different males in my life who would have had both the opportunity as well as the reputation to suggest that they might have done something wrong, and that it involved me. I just don't get it. I am struggling with myself to accept that these things from my childhood are not my fault and to forgive myself. I suffer from guilt like you wouldn't believe. I feel perpetually guilty, about things I can't even remember properly. It's completely ridiculous. And now I've gone and implanted the thought in my psychiatrist's head that I might be a fraud. What the hell were we thinking?! Now the paranoia has me, and it's squeezing the breath out of me.
I'm also worried that perhaps I am faking it and just don't know it. But that doesn't seem to make any sense. I mean, if I don't know I'm doing it, then it's a subconscious thing, which means it's real. Fuck. I'm so confused. Am I doing all this on purpose? Have I taken so many pills that my brain is fried and I'm unable to be like other people? Have I forgotten what normal means? Yes, there's a good chance I have forgotten the meaning of normal. I haven't felt like a regular person since, roughly, age 10. That's tough to admit. But it's true. I've felt like an outsider, like a visitor or something, not like a real person existing in the here and now.
I'm so paranoid that I'm thinking of doing something crazy, like stalk my shrink. I need to find out if she's still on my side, or if she's the enemy now. Because I honestly don't know anymore. I don't know if she's with me, or against me. I can't stand not knowing. I MUST find out what she thinks. I can't live with this feeling. I can't tolerate being disbelieved, being thought to be dishonest. I strive so hard in my life to be truthful... I even hurt people's feelings sometimes as a result of my brutal honesty (I hate when that happens though). I believe lying is bad karma. I just won't do it. I may withhold information, but I cannot lie. I'm just beside myself with worry about all of this. What if Dr. H doesn't believe me anymore?? What if she's crossed the line into enemy territory? I'll have to get a new doctor... Damn!!! And I was just getting to feel really comfortable with her. Now it's all weird between us, even though she doesn't know that.
First, I told her how some people feel about my illness. I told her that I'm not taken seriously, that I am thought to be pretending, that I am believed to be a spoiled brat who just doesn't want to work. That's completely outrageous. How could I possibly, as a little girl, have thought out this elaborate plot to fool everyone into thinking that I'm mentally ill over a span of decades? More importantly, what could I possibly hope to gain from that? Why would anyone want people to think they're nuts? It's done nothing but make my life harder. It just doesn't make any sense. K was so actively involved with life when she was younger, (plays, choir, soccer, Girl Scouts, Art Club, gifted class, etc) I guess it's just hard to believe that she could be living with all these symptoms for all these years and have only a couple of people ever figure out what's really going on. Only a couple of people ever "got it"; just 2 in my lifetime, only 2 people outside of a couple of my doctor(s) recognized that I switched and became different K's. Both of the people who figured out my secret were men who lived with me for a year or more.
So it would seem that I really am a good actress. I fooled everyone all right, I fooled everyone into thinking that I'm just one of them. That I'm stable, that I'm existing in the same reality as everyone else is. We certainly can't let on that we are on a different plane of reality; that might upset people or create problems for us, so we must hide that from the world. And that's just what we've done, for all these years. We've been pretending to be emotionally mature, to be a regular person, to think clearly and rationally. It's not true. It's all make believe. The part where I'm "sane" that is. That is all just make believe. Then, as if that weren't bad enough, I suggested to my shrink that the memories I have could possibly be false memories, or that they might only be true in my head, not in the real world. I said this as an outside observer of K, watching from the sidelines. (I wrote it down; that's how I remember) So I basically admitted to my shrink that there's a chance the bad stuff I remember is all fairy tales, that it's not true. That I've somehow twisted the facts around in my memory and created things out of misconceptions. I'd like to call these memories "false truths", memories which I completely believe to be true, but which are actually just distorted partial recollections. I can't remember now where I got that idea or how I started thinking stuff along those lines.
Maybe I was reading something from out of the diary... I remember taking it into the session. In fact, I'd left home and forgotten to bring it, and I actually turned around and went back home to get it before my session. So it seems there was some stuff in the diary that I wanted to talk to her about. Yes... yes, I remember talking about 3 different males in my life who would have had both the opportunity as well as the reputation to suggest that they might have done something wrong, and that it involved me. I just don't get it. I am struggling with myself to accept that these things from my childhood are not my fault and to forgive myself. I suffer from guilt like you wouldn't believe. I feel perpetually guilty, about things I can't even remember properly. It's completely ridiculous. And now I've gone and implanted the thought in my psychiatrist's head that I might be a fraud. What the hell were we thinking?! Now the paranoia has me, and it's squeezing the breath out of me.
I'm also worried that perhaps I am faking it and just don't know it. But that doesn't seem to make any sense. I mean, if I don't know I'm doing it, then it's a subconscious thing, which means it's real. Fuck. I'm so confused. Am I doing all this on purpose? Have I taken so many pills that my brain is fried and I'm unable to be like other people? Have I forgotten what normal means? Yes, there's a good chance I have forgotten the meaning of normal. I haven't felt like a regular person since, roughly, age 10. That's tough to admit. But it's true. I've felt like an outsider, like a visitor or something, not like a real person existing in the here and now.
I'm so paranoid that I'm thinking of doing something crazy, like stalk my shrink. I need to find out if she's still on my side, or if she's the enemy now. Because I honestly don't know anymore. I don't know if she's with me, or against me. I can't stand not knowing. I MUST find out what she thinks. I can't live with this feeling. I can't tolerate being disbelieved, being thought to be dishonest. I strive so hard in my life to be truthful... I even hurt people's feelings sometimes as a result of my brutal honesty (I hate when that happens though). I believe lying is bad karma. I just won't do it. I may withhold information, but I cannot lie. I'm just beside myself with worry about all of this. What if Dr. H doesn't believe me anymore?? What if she's crossed the line into enemy territory? I'll have to get a new doctor... Damn!!! And I was just getting to feel really comfortable with her. Now it's all weird between us, even though she doesn't know that.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Jewelry Jumble
I just had one of those moments. Those moments when I remember that there's something "wrong" with me. Those moments wherein I seem particularly symptomatic, or especially mentally...confused.(?) It was trivial really, but for some reason it just struck me, and I can't stop thinking about it now. I was going through my closet, and I found a box containing a bunch of necklaces and bracelets and some earrings. According to the evidence and my husband, this jewelry was all made by K (She's an artist who has worked in many different mediums over the years) but I couldn't remember making it. I couldn't remember the jewelry at all in fact. That was not me who had done that, who had designed and created those delicate glass-beaded necklaces and colorful gemstone bracelets. When I got to the bottom of the box, I found a whole cluster of necklaces and other pieces of jewelry, all wadded up together in a big mass. It looked as though it'd been long ago forgotten. As I carefully separated each piece from the tangled mess, I looked at the necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and anklets with the eyes of a new beholder. Here I was, someone who liked jewelry, and I was checking out this random lady's jewelry that she'd made and collected over the years. I liked some of it but not all of it. It's hard to describe how it felt.... it was like I was a stranger going through my own things. They didn't feel like MY things. In fact, they weren't my things. They were HER things. There was one necklace that was familiar to me, but it seemed like I'd only seen pictures of it before or something. It felt like I was touching it for the first time. Strange. Very strange. I can't remember the last time I made jewelry...
Saturday, April 28, 2012
My Own Reality Show
It's hard work being more than one "entity" and sharing a brain. I'm mentally & physically & emotionally exhausted. I'd like nothing more than to open up my skull, remove my brain, and stick it on a shelf for the night. Just let me be empty. No feelings. No thoughts. Nothingness. That sounds glorious. I'm so very tired of thinking. So many thoughts, coming at me from all sides, some being shouted at me by different voices in my head, some whispered into my ear. Mental noise. So much mental noise! Sometimes I fear I'm going to freak completely out, just going to snap from all the voices trying to talk over one another, each one vying to be heard. Some of the voices are male, some are children, many of them are females of different ages both young and old. Then there are the other, outsider voices which are (almost) always present in my mind. These are the voices of the news broadcasters, the sports announcers, the disc jockeys, the talk show hosts, and the paparazzi-all of whom exist in my head-and who bombard me with information, questions, and laughter. I also hear applause, cheering, and, more often, booing and heckling; sometimes I'm even threatened with violence. They are telling the story of my life as though it is unfolding live on TV and the world is watching. My every action is commented on, "liked" or "disliked", critiqued, analyzed and gossiped about. I am currently the star of a reality TV show and I'm never sure if the "special guests" are going to talk me up or make fun of me. And it's all live, in real time.
It is notable that I often "rewind" parts of the show and watch them over and over again. Sometimes I pause a scene, to look more closely at the physical details. I can't erase anything I see or hear. That's very important. I can't erase what I hear. I may very well forget, but my subconscious never does. And while I can still recall listening to the sports announcers discuss my every move as I played tennis (actually just bouncing a ball off a brick wall) at about the age of 8-for example, one of the men would exclaim "Wow! What a great shot!"-the people who narrate my life now are not nearly as nice, as complimentary, as appreciated as the ones of my childhood. When I was 10, the news broadcasters praised my people skills, my high I.Q., my talents for art and short-stories... I was a celebrity in "Kellie World" and I was popular. By the time I was 13, though, all of this had changed. People (in my head) started making fun of me, criticizing me, and insulting me. There was -and is- often laughter in my head, laughter directed at me, and not in a good way. I must take the time now to note that not all of the K's are very nice to us/me, and in my day-to-day life other K's talk down to me, make fun of me, point and laugh, and worst of all, one of them slaps me in the face or even punches me. I'm my own worst enemy. Wow. I've never admitted that before, not even to a therapist. I guess that's pretty important: the fact that I hit myself in the face. Hmm. Perhaps I should tell my psychiatrist about it... I wonder what she would say? Maybe I should write a short synopsis of my TV show and take that to her. Is it strange that I've never told her about all of this? You must remember that I've only just begun to trust my doctor, it took me 2 years to get comfortable with her, and so I started talking to her openly and honestly about 3 months ago. So there's a TON of stuff that I haven't told her yet. I go in to see her every week, and my mind just goes blank. I can never remember what I want to talk about or tell her. Actually, after the session is over, I usually can't remember what happened anyway. She tells me that this is because I sometimes come to therapy in a switched state or I'll switch while I'm in her office. I don't know what to make of this. All I know is, my TV show is for mature audiences only due to bad language, drug use, sex, mature subject matter, and, I realize now, violence as well. I never thought about the violence until today. At least, not about any violence that K causes. She's often been the victim of violence, but I'm surprised to learn that she can also be the perpetrator. Hmm. Oh well-I guess it makes for better television.
It is notable that I often "rewind" parts of the show and watch them over and over again. Sometimes I pause a scene, to look more closely at the physical details. I can't erase anything I see or hear. That's very important. I can't erase what I hear. I may very well forget, but my subconscious never does. And while I can still recall listening to the sports announcers discuss my every move as I played tennis (actually just bouncing a ball off a brick wall) at about the age of 8-for example, one of the men would exclaim "Wow! What a great shot!"-the people who narrate my life now are not nearly as nice, as complimentary, as appreciated as the ones of my childhood. When I was 10, the news broadcasters praised my people skills, my high I.Q., my talents for art and short-stories... I was a celebrity in "Kellie World" and I was popular. By the time I was 13, though, all of this had changed. People (in my head) started making fun of me, criticizing me, and insulting me. There was -and is- often laughter in my head, laughter directed at me, and not in a good way. I must take the time now to note that not all of the K's are very nice to us/me, and in my day-to-day life other K's talk down to me, make fun of me, point and laugh, and worst of all, one of them slaps me in the face or even punches me. I'm my own worst enemy. Wow. I've never admitted that before, not even to a therapist. I guess that's pretty important: the fact that I hit myself in the face. Hmm. Perhaps I should tell my psychiatrist about it... I wonder what she would say? Maybe I should write a short synopsis of my TV show and take that to her. Is it strange that I've never told her about all of this? You must remember that I've only just begun to trust my doctor, it took me 2 years to get comfortable with her, and so I started talking to her openly and honestly about 3 months ago. So there's a TON of stuff that I haven't told her yet. I go in to see her every week, and my mind just goes blank. I can never remember what I want to talk about or tell her. Actually, after the session is over, I usually can't remember what happened anyway. She tells me that this is because I sometimes come to therapy in a switched state or I'll switch while I'm in her office. I don't know what to make of this. All I know is, my TV show is for mature audiences only due to bad language, drug use, sex, mature subject matter, and, I realize now, violence as well. I never thought about the violence until today. At least, not about any violence that K causes. She's often been the victim of violence, but I'm surprised to learn that she can also be the perpetrator. Hmm. Oh well-I guess it makes for better television.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Truthfully, I'm Lying
Lies. Every word out of our mouth today and yesterday, in the Real World. Lies. K doesn't lie, so we're all suspicious and on edge. Something's going on. Something...well, it's probably not good. Negative feelings seem to be hanging in the air at times, but we can't remember if I've done anything wrong. Feel angry. Been pissy at everyone. Can't control it. Whomever is visiting lately has also been sneaking cigarettes, and K doesn't smoke anymore. So what the hell?!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Another Day, Another K
Today was interesting. Went to therapy. Floated across the waiting room and onto the ceiling and looked down at K. Noticed she was all dressed up and wearing heels, and that her makeup was very dramatic. The weirdest part of all of this is that I was watching her, and she was talking to a couple sitting in the room with her. She was talking very quickly and was using her hands a lot and was quite animated. She was out-going and friendly and chatty and self-assured. I listened to her, fascinated, and kept wondering what she was going to say next. She was a storyteller...but chunks of what she said were untrue. She was not like K normally is; this girl was confident and not at all afraid of people. But she was familiar to me. When I got into my psychiatrist's office, I told her about this experience. I asked her if I were dissociating, would I be aware that I was dissociating. She said what I was experiencing was depersonalization (a sense of detachment or separateness from one's self), which I would be aware of, and that it can be a part of dissociation. I know this because I wrote it down. In fact, I took some notes today, and it's good that I did. Otherwise I'd not remember a thing I'm afraid. Which is one of the things that I wrote down, coincidentally. Dr. H told me that I probably wouldn't remember much about today's session. And she was right. All I can remember is what I've jotted down, and I don't really remember those things. One of the things I put down is that Dr. H believes all the me's exist to take care of K, and that each K has a different, specific job. Several times she spoke about "the other K's". I made a note that Dr. H used the term "different personalities" today when talking about me; that seemed important. Also, she pointed out that I was dressed differently today, and that my makeup was different, and that I was different. She said the K who usually comes to see her dresses all in black, and I was wearing a full-length paisley dress in bright shades of green, accessorized with tall platform shoes and a lime green, faux-crocodile purse in a funky, curved shape. I know all of this because I'm looking at a pile of clothes on the chair in my room and I'm able to see exactly what I was wearing. Also, I made some notes about my outfit when Dr. H was telling me that I was a different K today.
Earlier this evening, I had to remove heavy and colorful eye makeup in shades of lime green and turquoise, and hot pink lipstick. That's the first time I've worn eye shadow in...well, a good while. I just know that I've felt funny all day long. I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong but I was...um.. I felt like I was just outside of my body, or like I was in a movie, that it wasn't really real. I also felt like I was sharing a brain with someone else; I was an us, more so than usual even. Sitting here now, reading my notes from therapy, and looking at the facts in black and white, both from my notes and from this blog post, it occurs to me that I remember this K, but that I can't recall seeing her in at least a year, perhaps longer. Tonight, though, there's physical evidence that she was here. The clothes. The jewelry. The glitter I found in the bathroom. The fact that my toenails are now painted lime green-the same color as the purse I carried today. The fact that my freshly cut and colored (bright red) hair has been meticulously styled. All of these things describe one of the K's whose job is to socialize, to see and be seen. She often went on dates for K before she got married, and yes, Husband dated her sometimes. I remember all these things because I'm reading my old online diary now, from 2008. Interesting reading. Perhaps I should do a blog post introducing each of the K's, or at least the ones I am familiar with (thanks to numerous diaries/sketchbooks/photos). A number of them journal, and that's how I get to know myself/us. I can't tell who I am at the moment; think I'm in between me's. I'm in a drugged, dream-like state and I feel as though I'm running on autopilot. I wonder what/who tomorrow will bring...
Earlier this evening, I had to remove heavy and colorful eye makeup in shades of lime green and turquoise, and hot pink lipstick. That's the first time I've worn eye shadow in...well, a good while. I just know that I've felt funny all day long. I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong but I was...um.. I felt like I was just outside of my body, or like I was in a movie, that it wasn't really real. I also felt like I was sharing a brain with someone else; I was an us, more so than usual even. Sitting here now, reading my notes from therapy, and looking at the facts in black and white, both from my notes and from this blog post, it occurs to me that I remember this K, but that I can't recall seeing her in at least a year, perhaps longer. Tonight, though, there's physical evidence that she was here. The clothes. The jewelry. The glitter I found in the bathroom. The fact that my toenails are now painted lime green-the same color as the purse I carried today. The fact that my freshly cut and colored (bright red) hair has been meticulously styled. All of these things describe one of the K's whose job is to socialize, to see and be seen. She often went on dates for K before she got married, and yes, Husband dated her sometimes. I remember all these things because I'm reading my old online diary now, from 2008. Interesting reading. Perhaps I should do a blog post introducing each of the K's, or at least the ones I am familiar with (thanks to numerous diaries/sketchbooks/photos). A number of them journal, and that's how I get to know myself/us. I can't tell who I am at the moment; think I'm in between me's. I'm in a drugged, dream-like state and I feel as though I'm running on autopilot. I wonder what/who tomorrow will bring...
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Attempting to Heal: Day 1
I'm a self-harmer, but I go through phases where I stop and let my wounds heal. These periods have, in the past, lasted from a few days to a few years. I'm ashamed to say I haven't had clear, uninjured skin in a year now. So I've decided to take action, before it's summer and I want to wear something that reveals skin. I am just starting on a healing program for my Dermatillomania (or CSP- Compulsive Skin Picking). (See blog post Evolution of my Self-Mutilation: Part II to learn more about this condition) My calves are currently covered in angry, deep, red wounds. Bloody and scabby and rather large-about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide. It all started as a small, pink rash. But I started scratching. Soon I had scratched all the skin off, and before long I had bloody holes in my legs, all over. I mean a dozen or so wounds, maybe more. I'm not sure how long it's taken me to get to this point; I remember that my legs looked bad back in February. I got brave at my last therapy session and showed my doctor my legs. I
decided at the last minute to do that; some part of me, inside, decided
it was time to break my silence. So I showed Dr. H my shins. She said, "Oh my goodness!" and then suggested a few products for me to try. I got a prescription for a steroid cream, and I'm using Neosporin antibacterial cream and hydrocortisone. I put the Neosporin on first, then the steroid, then I cover the whole leg with hydrocortisone to prevent itching. Some of the more serious wounds need bandaging. I'm also using these 3 creams on my arms, as they're affected by my CSP as well. So today is Day #1...sortof. I've been using the medicines I got for several days now, but today is the first day I haven't picked or scratched or ripped off a scab. Of course, the day isn't over yet. But I'm really determined to get my skin cleared up and smooth and healed and scab-free by the time sleeveless weather gets here. I don't know what I'll do if I'm unable to wear shorts or a dress this Summer. This healing plan MUST work. Now I've done it before, many times, but as I said earlier, the latest bout of skin picking has been constant and severe for the past year. It's directly related to stress; when things get serious or difficult, I have to turn to something I can control. So I self-inflict wounds to my body. Yes, I'm a cutter, but even more so now am I a picker. It takes a lot of stress and negativity to get me to actually cut now with a razor. But the skin-picking, well that's something I just cannot control. I lose time whenever I go into the bathroom, and I'll often emerge hours later, covered in bleeding sores. Everytime I enter a bathroom, there's a risk I will self-harm. If I have no access to any implements, that is, razor blades or scissors or tweezers, then I'll use whatever I can find. An earring post. A nail from out of the wall. A bobby pin. Safety pins are a favorite; when I was younger I took great pleasure in sticking safety pins through parts of my body-ears, lips, hands. Sometimes I'd get a needle, thread it, and sew words into my arms. There's just no telling what I'm liable to do to my skin. My Body Dysmorphic Disorder makes it impossible for me to see myself in the mirror the way other people see me, so while I've always been told that I'm very attractive, I just can't see it. I'm obsessed with my skin, particularly on my face, but all over really. I can find any flaw, no matter how tiny, and within a few moments, I can have it large and red and angry and bleeding. But for some reason, in my mind, when I pick at something imperfect on my skin, then I'm helping make it go away. Logically, I know that by picking it I'm making it look worse. But I just can't think that way. I just think "Must remove flaws" and I'll do whatever it takes to dig out a perceived blemish.
Dermatillomania is a condition which causes tremendous shame, and it's difficult to write about the subject. However, I really, really am going to try and make an honest attempt at getting my life back on track and healing all my body wounds. Plus. I've been asked to model again and I can't possibly do it unless I get my face cleared up at the very least. So I'm doing it. I'm going to layer the three creams onto my scabby sores throughout the day and night, every chance I think about it. Dr. H told me that if I keep the area moist, I'll be less likely to pick. So I'm going to try it. Giving me even more incentive to quit mutilating my skin is my desire to shave my legs. I'm unable to shave or wax while I have these large open wounds on my legs. It's just too risky. So I have to admit that my legs are awfully hairy at the moment, at least where the wounds are located. I can't wait to clear up all these sores, for all my scabs to fall off (on their own, not by me pulling them off), and for new skin to start coming in and renewing my complexion. Yes, there will be scars, some of these will be my worst ones ever...but many of the scars will fade (I have a scar-fading program I follow too) and by the time I'm invited to a pool party, I should be mostly "normal", or at least I can appear that way through the use of waterproof body makeup on the most prominent scars. Other scars should fade to something pink and/or shiny by July. Yes, my body is covered in scars. All over my body. In unexpected places. But I can't help that-I've been a compulsive skin picker since 4th grade. Dermatillomania is an impulse-control disorder which is also akin to substance abuse. It's been a lifelong struggle for me. Hopefully, today is the beginning of a new upswing in my daily life. I'm hoping to replace my habits of picking with habits of treating the wounds and bandaging them. I'm determined to wear a short dress this Summer. Day 1 has been a success. Let's see how Day 2 goes...
Dermatillomania is a condition which causes tremendous shame, and it's difficult to write about the subject. However, I really, really am going to try and make an honest attempt at getting my life back on track and healing all my body wounds. Plus. I've been asked to model again and I can't possibly do it unless I get my face cleared up at the very least. So I'm doing it. I'm going to layer the three creams onto my scabby sores throughout the day and night, every chance I think about it. Dr. H told me that if I keep the area moist, I'll be less likely to pick. So I'm going to try it. Giving me even more incentive to quit mutilating my skin is my desire to shave my legs. I'm unable to shave or wax while I have these large open wounds on my legs. It's just too risky. So I have to admit that my legs are awfully hairy at the moment, at least where the wounds are located. I can't wait to clear up all these sores, for all my scabs to fall off (on their own, not by me pulling them off), and for new skin to start coming in and renewing my complexion. Yes, there will be scars, some of these will be my worst ones ever...but many of the scars will fade (I have a scar-fading program I follow too) and by the time I'm invited to a pool party, I should be mostly "normal", or at least I can appear that way through the use of waterproof body makeup on the most prominent scars. Other scars should fade to something pink and/or shiny by July. Yes, my body is covered in scars. All over my body. In unexpected places. But I can't help that-I've been a compulsive skin picker since 4th grade. Dermatillomania is an impulse-control disorder which is also akin to substance abuse. It's been a lifelong struggle for me. Hopefully, today is the beginning of a new upswing in my daily life. I'm hoping to replace my habits of picking with habits of treating the wounds and bandaging them. I'm determined to wear a short dress this Summer. Day 1 has been a success. Let's see how Day 2 goes...
Disorderly Eating
I have an eating disorder. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I don't think I've ever talked about it in serious detail. Well, the present time seems appropriate to tell the tale, as I'm currently, right this minute, in the process of researching the ABC diet. The ABC diet is also known as Ana Boot Camp (ana is a slang term for anorexia nervosa). In my lifetime, I've had doctors tell me I was anorexic and I've had doctors tell me I was bulimic. I don't know what I am, but it's definitely a disorder. There's a very loud voice inside me that tells me this is unhealthy, that I'm verging on a relapse, that I should NOT be checking out new, extreme ways to get thin. The ABC Diet lasts 50 days, and is built around a very strict caloric restriction. Days of fasting are interspersed with days of consuming a maximum of 500 calories. The calorie intake changes day to day, but the lowest day on the program allows a mere 50 calories. Most days average around 200-300 calories a day. Diet experts say that the minimum recommended daily calories consumed should be no lower than 1000-1500. So this diet has risks. Any diet has risks, but this particular diet puts the dieter at risk for low blood sugar, which causes low energy and dizziness. Other risks include malnutrition, fatigue, sensitivity to cold temperatures, paranoia, depression, a learned obsession with calories, fat and sugar intakes, and an increased likelihood to participate in other dangerous eating rituals. Now here's what scares me. It would be a walk in the park for me to stick to the calorie counting. There are many days in which I consume less than 500 calories, and I fast at least once a week. This would just mean getting a food diary and keeping track of every calorie I consume. So really, it wouldn't be all that hard for me to stick to the diet's rules. It worries me/us that we are considering starting this diet Monday. I have a wedding to go to in 4 weeks-that's half the time of the diet. I really, really would love to shed some pounds before that date. It's a family wedding-I'll be in the photos-and I would hate to ruin a beautiful wedding picture by looking too fat. It doesn't help anything that the bride has an amazingly hot body. She's tall and thin and gorgeous; I have no desire to stand next to her in any photos. But back to my point-I believe I could do the food part of the diet. The hard part is that you have to exercise obsessively, preferably something super intense like P90X. There's no way I could handle that kind of workout in my current state of health. I am simply too out of shape to follow such a hardcore program; sad but true. I have no strength and no endurance. It would take me so long to get used to the exercise portion of this diet that half my progress would be spent just getting to a "normal" fitness level. I just don't know how to remedy this situation. I can start working out today but there's little chance I can speed up my metabolism and start burning the kind of calories that this diet recommends. I currently eat so little every day that my body has gone into "starvation mode"-this is according to my medical doctor-and is therefore hoarding calories and storing fat within me. My doctor actually told me that to lose any weight, I'd have to start eating more. So perhaps this ISN'T the right diet for me, as it certainly isn't an increase in my food consumption, but rather a steep decrease. I just don't know what to do.
I remember the very day I first decided that I was fat. I was in 3rd grade, just 8 years old, and I was not at all overweight. (Have you heard this story before? If so, I apologize for being repetitive.) The weather was very warm and I was wearing shorts. I was sitting in class, in my desk, and I happened to look down at my thighs. I couldn't help but notice how, when they were pressed flat against the seat, they spread out much wider than when I was standing. Something clicked in my mind, and right then and there I decided that I was too fat. I went home and walked to the store and purchased my very first diet soda. I hate to age myself, but it was a Tab; that was the only diet soda made at that time. It was sweetened with saccharin, and so it was bitter. I didn't like it, but I forced myself to drink those cancer-causing ingredients, and so began a lifelong habit of drinking diet sodas. I've been drinking them so long now that I usually can't tell the difference between a regular soda and a diet soda; I'm just used to the bitter taste. I've been a Diet Coke fiend since it was first introduced, and to this day I drink mostly coffee and Diet Coke. I realize now that this is a terrible habit, and that even diet sodas still cause bloating and weight gain. I understand that I must give up my Diet Coke habit in order to successfully lose enough weight to make myself "happy" (whatever that means). So I'm ready. I'm drinking coffee right now, and after I'm done I shall switch to drinking water for the rest of day. I intend to drink water only everyday from Monday until we leave for the wedding, which is on May 19. I also intend to ingest diuretic pills so as to shed even more water weight. I realize that this is a quick fix and that I'll only be losing water, not actual fat, but that's OK right now. I just need to shed some pounds for the wedding; I can begin to focus on body mass index after we get back from the wedding trip. The wedding is out of state, and my husband and my mother and I are driving down for the whole weekend. Mom has to be there for the rehearsal dinner, as she's the grandmother of the groom. My husband and I are not in the wedding, but we are attending both the wedding and the lavish reception, which is to be held at a mansion in Savannah, Georgia. It's a very long drive for us, but since my husband has never been to Savannah, and because I simply adore that city, I am really excited to make the trip. The wedding and everything surrounding it should be a blast. I will get to spend time with my big sister, whom I rarely see as she lives in Utah, and my niece and of course my nephew is the groom. He lives in L.A. and so I only see him once a year or less. He's very, very health/fitness conscious, and I dread having him see how much weight I've gained since he last saw me. The weight gain is not due to overeating, but rather is a side-effect of the medication which I must now take. Worst. Side effect. Period.
I first began my dance with medication and weight gain when I was 16 and the doctor put me on Lithium; I gained about 30 pounds. I was horrified at how puffy my face got. But I endured it until the day came when my medication was switched. Some of the pills they put me on caused me to lose weight, and that was always a pleasant bonus for me. But many of the psychotropic medications I've been given over the years have had the unwanted side-effect of weight gain, often substantial. I'm currently prescribed six different medications: 2 atypical anti-psychotics, a regular anti-psychotic, an SSRI antidepressant, an NDRI antidepressant, and an anti-anxiety medication of the benzodiazepine class. I have no idea which ones of these drugs are causing the weight gain, but when I began my newest prescription I noticed a jump in my weight, a big one. And so it could be that more than one of them is causing the weight gain; but which ones do I give up to lose the extra pounds? And seriously, is it worth it to lose my mind in order to be thin? (someone inside me is screaming "Absolutely!")
Now as far as my eating disorder goes, I've been showing signs and symptoms since that fateful day when I was 8. After that first Tab, I became obsessed with calorie counting and sugar, fat, and carbohydrate control. I quit using sugar and switched to an artificial sweetener, and I began buying reduced-fat, low-cal, and sugar-free foods. I also began to regulate how much I consumed and adhered to a strict diet. It was also around this time that I began to exercise obsessively. At the age of 10 I went running until my legs turned to jelly, played tennis, did aerobics (with my Jane Fonda videotapes), and wouldn't go to bed at night until I'd done a specific number of sit-ups (100) and leg lifts and other floor exercises. All these behaviors stayed with me throughout my teenage years and by high school I'd begun fasting. There were several occasions wherein I passed out at school from lack of food. But then my prescriptions changed and I gained weight and it was out of my control. So I began making myself throw up. After a while, it was easy. I got sick every time I ate. This helped drop some weight but was very unhealthy. I didn't care though. I continued to starve myself and fast and throw up and eventually, in my 20s, I began using laxatives as well. It was in my 20s that I reached my lowest weight. I achieved this through the use of diet pills, which were basically just speed, and also I quit taking my psychiatric medications. If I got hungry, I'd pop a pill and smoke a cigarette instead of eating. The diet pills, along with the starvation, the obsessively exercising, the vomiting and the laxatives all helped me achieve a weight of 98 pounds. I was so proud of that fact, although at the time I was convinced that if I'd only lose "a few more pounds" I would really look good. I remember the constant weigh-ins. I was always on a scale, and I obsessed over each and every pound. Later, my doctor made me get rid of the scale, and I'm forbidden to own one now. I remember lying in bed, running my hands along my rib cage, counting each rib to see how bony I was. I also took great pride in having pelvic bones which stuck out prominently. And I'd lie there and suck in my stomach and see how concave I could get it. When I see the photos of me from that time, it's bizarre because I'm torn in different directions--the K(s) with the eating disorder think I look good, while the other K's think I look frail and unhealthy. I remember what a typical day's food intake was back then: no more than 5 saltine crackers and a plain baked potato. That's it, along with coffee and Diet Coke. And I fasted every 3rd day. It's amazing I didn't cause some sort of permanent damage to my body. But this is my life, or how it's been for most all of my life. I also later went through a phase, at age 30, where I'd gained so much weight due to the medications I was on that I became seriously depressed and absolutely gave up at one point and began compulsive overeating. I'd binge and eat everything I could find. I could eat a whole package of cookies, and sometime I did. I'd eat like this at night, so that no one would know about it. I was ashamed and I hid my eating. No one ever saw me eat-it was my secret. But I reached my heaviest weight during this time, and that was 183 pounds. (God, it's hard to admit that, even though I don't weigh that much anymore.) The throwing up and laxatives and diet pills came into play again and I shed it eventually, but because of the medication I am on, it's been a lifelong struggle with my weight-it goes up and down. Right now, I'm somewhere in the middle, but on the chubby side in my opinion (thank you new meds). I currently flip-flop between complete starvation and binging and purging. My husband doesn't know about all these habits of mine, and I intend to keep it that way. All he needs to know is that I want to look good for him, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. So I've stocked up on a variety of appetite suppressants, carbohydrate blockers, metabolic stimulators, and calorie-restricting pills. Plus some good old fashioned "legal speed". I'm not sure how all of these things are going to fit in with The ABC diet, or if I can fit them in at all. I don't know exactly how I intend to shed this weight, but I guarantee you it will be unhealthy as hell. And I will adhere to my strict diet and exercise program at least until the wedding. After that, we'll settle into a healthier-eating/daily exercise routine and hopefully I can achieve a desirable, "normal" weight. I just hope I can properly gauge what a "normal" weight is. I can't continue to live this life of extremes. It's getting more and more dangerous as I get older, and I'm beginning to fear for my health...but not enough to stop.
I remember the very day I first decided that I was fat. I was in 3rd grade, just 8 years old, and I was not at all overweight. (Have you heard this story before? If so, I apologize for being repetitive.) The weather was very warm and I was wearing shorts. I was sitting in class, in my desk, and I happened to look down at my thighs. I couldn't help but notice how, when they were pressed flat against the seat, they spread out much wider than when I was standing. Something clicked in my mind, and right then and there I decided that I was too fat. I went home and walked to the store and purchased my very first diet soda. I hate to age myself, but it was a Tab; that was the only diet soda made at that time. It was sweetened with saccharin, and so it was bitter. I didn't like it, but I forced myself to drink those cancer-causing ingredients, and so began a lifelong habit of drinking diet sodas. I've been drinking them so long now that I usually can't tell the difference between a regular soda and a diet soda; I'm just used to the bitter taste. I've been a Diet Coke fiend since it was first introduced, and to this day I drink mostly coffee and Diet Coke. I realize now that this is a terrible habit, and that even diet sodas still cause bloating and weight gain. I understand that I must give up my Diet Coke habit in order to successfully lose enough weight to make myself "happy" (whatever that means). So I'm ready. I'm drinking coffee right now, and after I'm done I shall switch to drinking water for the rest of day. I intend to drink water only everyday from Monday until we leave for the wedding, which is on May 19. I also intend to ingest diuretic pills so as to shed even more water weight. I realize that this is a quick fix and that I'll only be losing water, not actual fat, but that's OK right now. I just need to shed some pounds for the wedding; I can begin to focus on body mass index after we get back from the wedding trip. The wedding is out of state, and my husband and my mother and I are driving down for the whole weekend. Mom has to be there for the rehearsal dinner, as she's the grandmother of the groom. My husband and I are not in the wedding, but we are attending both the wedding and the lavish reception, which is to be held at a mansion in Savannah, Georgia. It's a very long drive for us, but since my husband has never been to Savannah, and because I simply adore that city, I am really excited to make the trip. The wedding and everything surrounding it should be a blast. I will get to spend time with my big sister, whom I rarely see as she lives in Utah, and my niece and of course my nephew is the groom. He lives in L.A. and so I only see him once a year or less. He's very, very health/fitness conscious, and I dread having him see how much weight I've gained since he last saw me. The weight gain is not due to overeating, but rather is a side-effect of the medication which I must now take. Worst. Side effect. Period.
I first began my dance with medication and weight gain when I was 16 and the doctor put me on Lithium; I gained about 30 pounds. I was horrified at how puffy my face got. But I endured it until the day came when my medication was switched. Some of the pills they put me on caused me to lose weight, and that was always a pleasant bonus for me. But many of the psychotropic medications I've been given over the years have had the unwanted side-effect of weight gain, often substantial. I'm currently prescribed six different medications: 2 atypical anti-psychotics, a regular anti-psychotic, an SSRI antidepressant, an NDRI antidepressant, and an anti-anxiety medication of the benzodiazepine class. I have no idea which ones of these drugs are causing the weight gain, but when I began my newest prescription I noticed a jump in my weight, a big one. And so it could be that more than one of them is causing the weight gain; but which ones do I give up to lose the extra pounds? And seriously, is it worth it to lose my mind in order to be thin? (someone inside me is screaming "Absolutely!")
Now as far as my eating disorder goes, I've been showing signs and symptoms since that fateful day when I was 8. After that first Tab, I became obsessed with calorie counting and sugar, fat, and carbohydrate control. I quit using sugar and switched to an artificial sweetener, and I began buying reduced-fat, low-cal, and sugar-free foods. I also began to regulate how much I consumed and adhered to a strict diet. It was also around this time that I began to exercise obsessively. At the age of 10 I went running until my legs turned to jelly, played tennis, did aerobics (with my Jane Fonda videotapes), and wouldn't go to bed at night until I'd done a specific number of sit-ups (100) and leg lifts and other floor exercises. All these behaviors stayed with me throughout my teenage years and by high school I'd begun fasting. There were several occasions wherein I passed out at school from lack of food. But then my prescriptions changed and I gained weight and it was out of my control. So I began making myself throw up. After a while, it was easy. I got sick every time I ate. This helped drop some weight but was very unhealthy. I didn't care though. I continued to starve myself and fast and throw up and eventually, in my 20s, I began using laxatives as well. It was in my 20s that I reached my lowest weight. I achieved this through the use of diet pills, which were basically just speed, and also I quit taking my psychiatric medications. If I got hungry, I'd pop a pill and smoke a cigarette instead of eating. The diet pills, along with the starvation, the obsessively exercising, the vomiting and the laxatives all helped me achieve a weight of 98 pounds. I was so proud of that fact, although at the time I was convinced that if I'd only lose "a few more pounds" I would really look good. I remember the constant weigh-ins. I was always on a scale, and I obsessed over each and every pound. Later, my doctor made me get rid of the scale, and I'm forbidden to own one now. I remember lying in bed, running my hands along my rib cage, counting each rib to see how bony I was. I also took great pride in having pelvic bones which stuck out prominently. And I'd lie there and suck in my stomach and see how concave I could get it. When I see the photos of me from that time, it's bizarre because I'm torn in different directions--the K(s) with the eating disorder think I look good, while the other K's think I look frail and unhealthy. I remember what a typical day's food intake was back then: no more than 5 saltine crackers and a plain baked potato. That's it, along with coffee and Diet Coke. And I fasted every 3rd day. It's amazing I didn't cause some sort of permanent damage to my body. But this is my life, or how it's been for most all of my life. I also later went through a phase, at age 30, where I'd gained so much weight due to the medications I was on that I became seriously depressed and absolutely gave up at one point and began compulsive overeating. I'd binge and eat everything I could find. I could eat a whole package of cookies, and sometime I did. I'd eat like this at night, so that no one would know about it. I was ashamed and I hid my eating. No one ever saw me eat-it was my secret. But I reached my heaviest weight during this time, and that was 183 pounds. (God, it's hard to admit that, even though I don't weigh that much anymore.) The throwing up and laxatives and diet pills came into play again and I shed it eventually, but because of the medication I am on, it's been a lifelong struggle with my weight-it goes up and down. Right now, I'm somewhere in the middle, but on the chubby side in my opinion (thank you new meds). I currently flip-flop between complete starvation and binging and purging. My husband doesn't know about all these habits of mine, and I intend to keep it that way. All he needs to know is that I want to look good for him, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. So I've stocked up on a variety of appetite suppressants, carbohydrate blockers, metabolic stimulators, and calorie-restricting pills. Plus some good old fashioned "legal speed". I'm not sure how all of these things are going to fit in with The ABC diet, or if I can fit them in at all. I don't know exactly how I intend to shed this weight, but I guarantee you it will be unhealthy as hell. And I will adhere to my strict diet and exercise program at least until the wedding. After that, we'll settle into a healthier-eating/daily exercise routine and hopefully I can achieve a desirable, "normal" weight. I just hope I can properly gauge what a "normal" weight is. I can't continue to live this life of extremes. It's getting more and more dangerous as I get older, and I'm beginning to fear for my health...but not enough to stop.
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