Mental Health Support

and I'm not just talking about your stigma phobia. You seem to want everything resolved right now and you're freaking because it's not happening. There is no pill and no therapist that can make that happen. It will require time and work. You've been living a certain way for most of your life. It's hard to get outside of that and really see yourself, but that's one of the things you are after in therapy.

What the medicine does when it is working good for you is take care of the symptoms. It will knock down your mania and lift your depression. It will not take care of issues that you need to deal with, but it will put you in a better place mentally so you can do that. This is why most mental health patients need both medication and talk therapy.

So try to relax a little and see what this new treatment is starting to do for you. You might feel like shit for a little while longer, but hang in there. Try not to worry about appearances or what other people think so much. I know people who have more serious illnesses than you who are getting along in life just fine, including me. I'm not homeless. I've got a great life and nobody is going to take that away from me. They can't. I won't let them. Yes, I'm that strong and I think you can be, too. But it sounds to me at this point that you've spent much of your life riding in a car that someone else is driving. You just go wherever they take you with no input from yourself on where that might be, let alone actually getting behind the wheel. Well, it's time to steer.