Mental Health in the US - Monday, January 27th, 2025

Hello (again?) dear Reader, and welcome to this obscure American blog; I'm freshly-showered and dressed, drinking coffee. It's a bit after two a.m. in the Mountain Standard Time zone. 

An American citizen, born here in 1971 before Roe v. Wade (which is why I was born at all), I was first hospitalized in 1989 and (then) diagnosed as suffering from Bipolar I with psychotic features.

My life has since been a series of failed back to back to back (ad infinitum) employment attempts and innumerable trials with pretty much all of the so-called 'mood stabilizer' medications available here in the United States.

The last 'mood stabilizer' medication that I took ( from 2017 until May of 2019 - Vraylar) literally and undeniably caused me to become an insulin-dependent type-II diabetic for years until, finally, I was able to taper down to Metformin only to manage it. I will possibly have to take the Metformin for the rest of my life (thanks for nothing, 'medicine' - you are all a failed joke).

 

Other medications have caused massive weight gain and hair loss, suicidal and homicidal ideations, and some (other) literally life-threatening side-effects. Today, after Vraylar and the permanent damage done to me, I now take nothing to manage the bipolar as that's the literally only safe pathway forward.

So, even though I was diagnosed thirty-six years ago, in that entire span of more than three decades, the entire mental health industry in this nation has done literally nothing to offer any kind of real, effective help, at all. We (the gravely mentally ill) are reviled, maligned, and ignored by the rest of "humanity" - including, but not limited to, by our own federal government. In fact, if it weren't for my husband, I would be homeless or dead or worse right now, beyond any possibility of reasonable doubt. A (supposed) genius IQ means nothing in the absence of any and all emotional and psychological stability; I submit my entire life to you as substantiating evidence.

Through numerous, useless periodic hospitalizations as well as several failed suicide attempts, in the absolute absence of any true and or even modestly effective mental health care, I have been driven by desperation to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ - my other choice, of course, was death at my own hands.
But with God, His Word, and the loving saints that He's put in my life's path (such as the incredible, loving, wonderful entire staff of Fort Worth Teen Challenge women's ministry), I am alive today and must assume that He may still be able to use me in a productive way for others, somehow; I live for the promise of this and, as crazy as it is, retain an optimistic hope that someone someday will be able to ignore my abrasive personality in deference to excellence in all work product as well as my very unpopular and hated brutal honesty. (HA! You think I'm rude to you, you ought to hear the things that I tell myself! but, I digress). 

Anyway, it is my hope and prayer that we mentally ill people, some of the ones He calls "the least of these" - will somehow be remembered by God and treated like valuable human beings by our nation and its rulers. Modern medicine just shoves whatever new poison that's been 'approved' down our throats, all in the name of profit, while we die in droves, on the streets, or often in our own homes by our own hands.

When Duke University offered me a full four-year scholarship in 1984 based on the results of some standardized test that we all took there in 8th grade (in Texas), I turned them down for several reasons. 1) I had no idea what on earth to pursue as a career (and had zero help at home with that) and, probably the biggest reason here, 2) they made the mistake of telling me that it was an experimental effort, and 3) even at 13, I knew that my psyche needed the consistent exposure to my same-age peers in high-school due to my being not fully developed (physically and psychologically) at that age.

and not ONE DIME of it is well-spent - it's all a HUGE WASTE to enrich the already wealthy!!! 

😡

So, here I am - no job, dealing with food insecurity every day, struggling to make it from one day to the next, but still, I am grateful. The Lord has given me the ability to appreciate everything that He's given me; in fact, a favorite prayer (in the shower) is "thank You for the luxury of this clean hot water on demand, Lord" 💜
Anyway, if I ever find someone who's willing to ignore my personality in acceptance of the excellence I'm able to provide any employer, I'll never quit that job! Otherwise, making money online and in other (newer) ways just escapes me. Nobody's perfect.

Anyway, Reader, I want to raise awareness about the state of mental health care in this nation (if not globally). I pray that President Trump and Mr. Kennedy will revolutionize America's approach to this profound governmental waste and bring about changes to improve - and yes, to SAVE - American lives.