Lou-quacious Yarns
Just a quick one this half-hour to say hi to some people doing the ‘thon – you should go and visit:
As I said the other day, I’m not only going to be talking about bipolar, but also about the knittng and spinning that I’m doing. I’m even hoping to get some spinning done during the event (because if I sit on this computer chair for 24 hours straight, I may never get up. It also occured to me that today might be a good day to do some finishing: sewing up and blocking of some of my knits that only need that doing for them to be finished. Sewing at the computer is probably easier than knitting at the computer, right? Although I could try that too. I know last time that didn’t work out terrible well, since I need two hands to knit and two hand to type… and don’t have four hands (dammit).
In preparation for doing spinning, the current view directly to my right looks like this:
And the view directly behind me looks like this:
Before I start talking about the various bipolar related topics, I just wanted to give a summary of my “qualifications”. An outline of my experience with the illness. Something like that.
I was diagnosed with bipolar in June 2002, but I didn’t really accept the diagnosis until some time in 2003 – I didn’t want to be bipolar. Depression I was reasonably OK with the idea of, since that could be circumstantial and therefore go away once whatever the circumstances were had been fixed or dealt with in therapy. But bipolar was a bit more permenant, so it took me some time to come to terms with that. I’ll talk more about this when I write the post about experiences with diagnosis. So, that’s 7 years now that I’ve been diagnosed and on various medication, some of which has worked better than others. Again, I’ll go into more detail on that later.
Previous to that, I can now recognise manic and depressed episodes from my late teens onwards – which once again I’ll talk about more later. I’ve had therapy of various kinds, I’m currently being treated by the local Community Mental Health team – I see a psychiatrist every three months or so, depending on how I’m doing. Right now I’m doing pretty well, but I’m not technically “stable” because I still go up and down a few times a year. I occasionally go to a local drop-in centre and take part in some of the things they run, or just have lunch and a natter with some of the other members.
Any questions you’d like to ask? Just leave a comment.
Well, here I go… the blogathon has begun! And of course I’ve suddenly realised I’m disorganised: I’d meant to make a links list of some fellow ‘thoners, and praise my sponsors in the sidebar, and all that. So I’d better go and do that in a minute! Although while I’m here I shall start by sending out much love and appreciation to my wonderful sponsors-so-far:
Thank you guys! :-D
Afternoon all – the Blogathon starts in just under an hour. I think I’m ready! Sponsorships are accepted right through til 48 hours after the event ends, by the way, so if you’re still thinking about it, you still have time!
See you at 2pm!
As I said yesterday, one of the things I’m planning to do during the Blogathon is to talk about some of my experiences with being bipolar, and I was hoping that people would ask me any questions they have about the subject so that I could have a go at answering and maybe make some things clearer. I’ve thought of some possible topics to start with, so here’s a handy poll:
[poll id=”2″]
Or do you have any other questions or related topics you’d like me to expound upon? Is there anything specific that you’ve heard about bipolar, or gathered from the media, that you want to know about? Or do you want to know about stupid things I’ve done while manic? Or what knitting has to do with it? Feel free to ask absolutely anything (er, about bipolar / being bipolar) even if you think it’s a bit personal – if I feel it’s not something I want to talk about then I’ll say so, but I’m going to try to be as open and thorough as possible with this. Anyway, leave any other questions in the comments. Thank you!!
And as well as that whole topic, I’m planning to post about:
I think that should keep me going!
So, rather later than I’d originally intended (July, where did you go?!), I have signed up for this year’s Blogathon. Which is this coming Saturday and Sunday, 25th-26th July. What does that actually mean? Well, I’ll be blogging an entry every half hour (or thereabouts) for 24 hours, starting from 2pm Saturday. It’s for charity, and like the last time I did this two years ago, I’m blogging for MDF the Bipolar Organisation. They are a marvellous organisation which I’ve been a member of for a few years now, and as their mission statement says, they work “to enable people affected by bipolar disorder / manic depression to take control of their lives”. That includes supporting and funding self-help groups around the country, running courses, providing information and advice services, increasing awareness of bipolar, and much much more. In short, a really worthwhile charity.
Now comes the begging part: I need sponsors! The way the Blogathon works is, if you’d like to sponsor me, please please click through and make a pledge on the Blogathon site (you can either click that link, or the banner above and then look me up on the Blog List). You can either sponsor me for a lump sum for completing the ‘thon, or for every hour. Once I’ve completed then ‘thon, you’ll get an email from the Blogathon site letting you know, and giving you the link to make a direct donation to MDF. Easy-peasy! MDF doesn’t have a minimum donation amount, and even a pound or two goes towards providing important services. Donations are handled via Paypal, and even if you don’t have an account you can use your credit or debit card.
I know this is a little late in the day, but hopefully someone will be able to chip in. The Blogathon people did a Charity Spotlight on Medical, Health and Awareness charities, listing the blogs who don’t yet have $10 sponsorship. I’m one of them! (Thank you for the publicity Blogathon people – now I’m doing my bit!) I would rather like to break that ceiling if I can, at the very least.
Anyway, let me know if you happen to be Blogathoning too, or if for any bizarre reason you’re going to be up all night Saturday – I’ll be signed on to every chat thingy I have. And look out for a new site design: I’m just in the process of putting one together and it should be up before the ‘thon starts. Which might be famous last words, of course. I’m also intending to come back tomorrow and tell you what I’m going to be blogging about – this is another thing I’m leaving way too late, but I wanted to ask for questions about bipolar that I could answer during the ‘thon. Mainly because I was thinking that rather than writing one enormous long post about it that takes too long (I have to post every half hour, remember!), doing a question or topic at a time would break it down better. And I can do other stuff in between. But that’s for tomorrow! Which is now technically later today. Good night!
