I think mental illness is the most expensive disease a person can suffer from. And it’s not because psychiatrists charge so much. Although if you ask me, anyone who pays the kind of hourly rate they charge has to be crazy. But mental illness can also cost people their careers, their freedom, their families, and even their lives.
It cost my daughter everything but her family. We stood by her, but she was bipolar and there was nothing we could do to cure that problem.
She could not hold down a paying job for very long. She made bad choices in men. She spent a year in jail. And then she began taking Seroquel, a powerful psych medicine. A potential side effect reported for Seroquel is blood clots. A few months after taking this drug, she was hospitalized with blood clots in her legs. And then some of them broke free and traveled to her lungs, killing her at the age of 32.
About ten million Americans have bipolar disorder. That’s a lot of bipolar bipeds. And about one in five adults suffer from some sort of diagnosable mental disorder. There’s a plague of mental illness in our world, exacting immeasurable costs on many people.
If you often have a difficult time making healthy decisions for yourself, you could very well be mentally ill. Don’t live in denial. Admit your problem and seek help.
Also, if you’re mentally ill, learn to take advice from those who care about you, and are better than you at making good decisions. When our daughter started taking Seroquel she was warned to get regular checkups for blood clots. She blew that advise off. The mentally ill must accept that they need help making decisions. People with good vision read for the blind. People with good hearing listen for the deaf. And those with stable minds can help the mentally ill with their decisions.
Many people manage their mental illness successfully. If you’re mentally ill, seek the help you need. It doesn’t have to exact a high toll on your life. You can turn your life around, and stop paying such high prices.
Categories: Health
Chasing Unicorns 
A very tragic story and sound advice.
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I guess the irony is, people who aren’t mentally ill are better at following sound advice than people who are. Yet those who are mentally ill are the ones who need sound advice the most.
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That’s the sad way of the world.
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What a sad story. My sister Judy died from an embolism as well. The whole area of mental health is far more difficult than any physical health issue any of us face. And there is so little (i.e. NOTHING) that family members can do. Standing by them is enormously important. But there should be more ways we can help.
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The consolation for us is that she was never homeless, and always had a refuge, unlike many who are mentally ill. It’s too bad about your sister. Embolisms are serious business.
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That is a big consolation, even though it might not sound like it to some. She was loved. And really, that’s all we all hope for.
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I’m so sorry you lost her.
Now I’m a little scared as Hubby is on Seroquel for anxiety. No one told us about this risk.
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He should talk to his doctor about it. It’s powerful stuff. Here’s a link to all of its many side-effects: http://www.drugs.com/sfx/seroquel-side-effects.html
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Why can’t meds just fix the issue without causing all sorts of worse issues? Sigh..
It makes him eat a lot but he can eat and eat and never gain a pound. He’s thin and has a high metabolism. It definitely knock him out at night but he has terrible insomnia so this allows him to actually get sleep. That aside it’s a pretty scary drug.
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All the psych medicines scare me. They all can cause some pretty dangerous side-effects. I guess the best thing is to watch out for problems and keep getting regular checkups.
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That’s what scares me. Hubby is male..that means getting him to go to the docs means heavily drugging him, and getting a neighbour to drag him into the car..LOL
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How is your candle business doing?
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Little by little it’s growing. I can’t remember if I told you that I go to the market every weekend now. I also have my first big craft show I’ll be going too this summer. Did you get my email?
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I just read your e-mail, and sent a reply. It’s a good thing you told me about it, because my email program is acting weird lately. It’s burying new emails in a bunch of old ones that I thought I’d already deleted. Computers can be so much fun.
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Oh I’ve had that problem when I used to have a contact page on the blog. Frustrating.
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