Mood Watch - 46

My mood continues to be good these days. Only caveat (and there always seems to be one) is that for the past couple of nights I have slept less than usual — maybe 3.5 hours/night. I was able to break that emerging pattern, though, by increasing my sleep medication to the maximum allowed by the prescription, and by working extra hard to maintain what is artfully known as “good sleep hygiene.”

As is so often the case, in recent weeks I’ve been in touch with three people, two of them undergraduates here at OSU, who sought me out because they have bipolar disorder and have felt they have know one in their lives who understands the disorder, or, at least, understands it from the inside. Talking with such people always makes me feel as if I’m doing something worthwhile, and I’m proud to have the chance.

Mood Watch - 45

I had a change of meds almost three months ago and by and large, it’s improved things greatly. My one caveat is that in early February I had a couple of anxiety attacks that initially presented as something like the flu, because the main thing I noticed was a lot of nausea — in fact at one point I actually vomited.

Once I caught on to what was really going on, however, I took 2 mg of clonazepam (the generic equivalent of klonopin), followed by 1 mg each day for the next couple of days. I was amazed by how promptly and completely that took care of things. Which just goes to underscore the fact that, despite the stigma that clings to it, this is a biochemical illness.