Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

One of the more perplexing and deceptive aspects of being bi-polar is the "manic" part of what used to be (and, in my not so f**king humble opinion, still should be) called "manic-depression."

In other words, a manic-depressive is often unaware that she is experiencing a relapse in her "condition"...

(disease? Do I really have to call it a disease? Or even a "disorder?" Don't I have ENOUGH diseases and disorders, what with the alcoholism and fibromyalgia and obsessive-compulsive disorder and body-dysmorphic disorder... attention-deficit disorder and... and... Fuuuuck.)

... until the "manic" phase ends and she begins an often precipitous drop into the depressive phase.

What I'm trying to say, here, is that until this morning, I didn't realise that the new medication to which my new doctor had me switch is not only not working, it is exacerbating my condition.

How, you may ask, did I "suddenly" become aware of the fact that I am in full-on depression mode, coming off a manic streak?

I looked in the mirror.

Not clear enough for you? I bet there are a few Medical Doctors and Manic Depressives out there who know exactly what I saw when I looked in the mirror this morning:

A horrifying example of our broken health care system gone wrong took place in Yelm, Washington recently. A man on Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, attacked and nearly killed his wife of 60 years after being diagnosed for depression and being placed on Wellbutrin. This is one more example of our health care system gone horribly wrong and a graphic example of how the Bush administration places a price on human life. This forces me to rethink my support of laws against the so-called hard drugs like meth and cocaine.

In what would be a horrifying nightmare for anybody in this community, Eric Attwood, in the middle of the night, took a knife and tried to stab his wife. He stabbed her once, but then she got away and got help. Now, Attwood and his wife are separated by court order and he is charged with attempted first-degree murder.