Thank you for this video. I have schizoaffective disorder and I am currently in the phase which requires me to keep my world very controlled and small. I am happy but if I do too much or let too many different energies into my life at once I become very overwhelmed and find myself in a dark room under the covers recovering for days (or weeks). I wish I had more stamina. Even if I go for coffee with a very trusted friend I find I have to take the next day to decompress. I just can't handle a complex life right now. This effects my ability to get a job, keep my house clean, manage my washing and personal items. I feel very stuck at the moment and have been trying to take little steps to a more dynamic life. Joining this Patreon is one of the steps towards health that I am taking.
2022-07-08 03:46:04 +0000 UTC
Thank you for addressing one of the major obstacles facing people with mental illness, as well as their loved ones. As the mother of a child who suffers from mental illness, I have struggled to accept that a return to "normal" may not be possible, primarily because it feels like I am letting my child down by "giving up" on the idea of complete recovery. But I am coming to realize that the best support I can give is to help my child view recovery as a lifelong journey, one that will likely include many periods of the kind of ups and downs you described, Lauren. Thank you for helping me come to grips with this.
2022-07-03 17:54:34 +0000 UTC
I feel like it's hard for my husband to accept that recovery is never going to be 100%, but he just doesn't talk about it so it's very hard for me to understand. I know there will always be relapses, but I just don't understand why he makes some of the decisions he does and he won't talk to me about them, so I feel at the mercy of his whims, and with him being the sole provider of our family at the moment...very unstable. We do have great disability insurance, so if this is the end of his career...we'll be fine, and I know he is having a hard time as well, but I just wish it was something we could go through together. I wish he would get over his own stigmas about his condition and just talk with me. Because I'm here, I want to understand, I want to support him, but his go to has always been to carry his troubles alone and only tell me after the fact. Meanwhile, I am left to do everything else alone...I feel like if he would at least open up to me that I would be able to carry everything well, but feeling like I'm constantly on the outside trying to piece things back together with what little information I have is...not sustainable, and I don't see there is anything else that I can do besides come to terms with that. So...maybe that's my own recovery thing I need to accept...that there will just be times like now, that I have to do all the things on my own without the support I am used to getting from him...that is also a hard pill to swallow.
