Being Bipolar

After five months of putting in posts every single day of the week I have decided to take a much deserved weekend off. Since you will be waiting a few days for an update, I’m going to tell you a hilarious story that will keep you laughing until I return. All of it is true—I swear!

I seriously have to wonder about the boys sometimes. By boys, I don’t mean my 17 and 10-year-old sons. I mean my husband and our 22 year old “adopted” son, Brian. At this point I realize that I am somewhat responsible for the incident. I should have never mentioned the ants in the mailbox while the two of them were together.

Honestly, I only mentioned it because they had been in there for over a week and it was now full of them. I assumed (wrongfully) that my husband would go out to the camper and get the ant spray and spray down the mailbox. They were walking out the door with a can of hairspray in hand and I just knew this was not going to have a good outcome.

I watched through the door (waiting to see who would need medical attention first) as they sprayed the box full of hairspray and tried to light it on fire. Fortunately, hair spray isn’t as flammable as you would think. I was relieved until they got out the can of spray paint. I pictured a flaming mailbox shooting over the roof. There was going to be no happy ending to this.

They sprayed the box full of paint and then lit it on fire and slammed the door. It, of course, blew the door back open. At least no one was hurt, right? Well, if they had walked away then it would have been fine. They looked into the mailbox and apparently they were not satisfied that the ants were dead. I saw several more flashes of light before I saw a very large whoosh followed by two boys running away from the mailbox in opposite directions.

At this point, I couldn’t watch anymore. It was only a few minutes before they walked into the door and I was overwhelmed by the smell of burning hair. Brian, who decided my husband would do the spraying and he would light the fumes, had stuck his arm into the mailbox and lit it. That was the big whoosh. It burned almost all of the hair off of his right arm and burned him in several spots. “Hey, the ants are dead!” they proclaimed. I just shook my head. I should have never mentioned the ants. What was I thinking?

Before you get too worried, we fixed poor Brian up with Solarcaine. In case you don’t know what that is, it is made to treat minor burns and sunburn. It has aloe vera and a numbing agent. It was getting late at that point so he decided to go on home and lick his wounds. Does it end there? Of course not.

About five minutes later, he texts and asks my husband to bring the Solarcaine to work the next day. I had tried to send it home with him but he wouldn’t hear of it. Twenty minutes later, he texts and says he couldn’t stand how one arm had hair and the other one didn’t. He shaved his other arm to match. All I could do was laugh.

I guess it could have been much worse. No one was seriously injured (thank goodness) and they didn’t blow the mailbox up. It will need a new paint job, though. Perhaps I will paint some flames down the side to commemorate the Great Ant Massacre of 2009.

Have a great weekend, and remember—don’t let your boys play with aerosol cans and a lighter.

I decided to take some time and search for bipolar blogs. The personal blogs I found in the first ten listings on Google have not been updated in some time. Hmmm. Bipolar blogs is not a keyword I have been using but perhaps I should. My blog is certainly more fitting to be on the front page for that search term than blogs whose last update was June or July of 2008. Right?

Then I searched for personal bipolar blogs and only found a few that had been updated quite recently. This is another term that I have not been using but again, perhaps I should be. I’m not sure how often these terms are searched but I think I will start focusing on using these terms and try to make it to the front page. It’s obvious to me that anyone who is searching for either bipolar blogs or personal bipolar blogs will not be able to find what they are looking for. Maybe I can help them out.

The reason why I was doing these searches is because I was actually trying to find other bloggers to network with but there seems to be very few who post on a regular basis. It’s actually quite sad. Anyone who is searching for a blog about bipolar disorder, maybe to read someone’s personal experiences with the disorder, will not be able to find anything recent or regularly updated. So now, I will be going after the front page of search results for the terms bipolar blogs and personal bipolar blogs. Wish me luck!

For those of you who do have a blog or website about bipolar disorder or mental health, would you be interested in exchanging links? Leave me a comment!

I have experienced firsthand the frustration of dealing with someone who has bipolar disorder and refuses to even try to do any better. I can honestly say that I now understand the other side of things and how annoying it can be.

This person, who shall remain nameless, won’t even try to achieve stabilization and it has resulted in quite a reckless lifestyle. I have tried my best to explain that drinking alcohol and taking your medication is pretty much useless. I have stressed over and over that you can’t get better unless you want to. You must put forth an effort.

Let me say this. I do have episodes. I try really hard to do the best I can. There are times when I do stupid things. I admit that I have moments where I cannot control myself, but I am not like that all of the time. Living your life like that every single day will never result in leading a productive life. You can never truly be happy with your life like that.

I certainly understand how hard it really is. Believe me when I say I have been there and back. Listen to me when I tell you it doesn’t have to be like that every day. You are choosing to be that way and it is frustrating to everyone around you. You can’t help someone who won’t help themself.

Dealing with this has only provided me with a greater desire to do the best I can to remain stable. After all, the best I can do is all anyone can ask of me, right? I see now how aggravating it can be when you know someone can do better and they simply choose not to because it’s easier to blame everything on their condition. I promise I will do everything I possibly can.

I would like to say to everyone that must deal with someone with bipolar disorder who does not even try to be better—I’m sorry. I swear to my family and friends that I will not give up or give in. I will keep on pushing to do better.