MARCH 21, 2025 MENTAL HEALTH Bipolar disorder and head injuries have made my life a disaster ANONYMOUS When did it start? Did the mental illness and trouble remembering begin when I fell down my parents’ basement steps and my forehead hit the brick wall giving me two black eyes at age six? Or did it begin when I fell off my bicycle at around age 13 and hit the back of my head on the curb which put a small crack in my skull? Or did it begin when I fainted in high school in the hallway and smashed my forehead and face into the cement floor giving me two black eyes again? Also, I once dove into a lake from what we called a jetty (a metal partition they put on the shores of the lake to help break up waves to stop flooding). Anyway when I dove into the water my head hit a rock, one of the many boulders put along the shore to also stop flooding. It was a miracle of God I came up out of the water with no visible injuries. I have heard of others breaking their necks doing the same thing and becoming paralyzed. All through grade school and high school I was a slow learner; it was embarrassing. I had trouble concentrating, paying attention, had trouble remembering and as a teenager started having angry outbursts. At around age 21 (I’m 76 now) I began to work in bars because it was an easy job where I didn’t have to use my brain much. After working in the bars a while I became extremely depressed. It was difficult for me to get motivated, which made me late for work most of the time. I lived in an apartment right next door to one of the bars and I was still at least ten minutes late every night. I was very sluggish and didn’t know why. Sometimes I laid in bed for weeks. I never smoked, was not a drinker of alcohol and not a user of drugs. I had so many things wrong with me that I didn’t want to make myself worse with substance abuse. However I was addicted to sugar which the Lord delivered me from at around age 35. Then came more head injuries. Driving home from work at night I fell asleep and hit a telephone pole. Fortunately I had been driving real slow and only shattered my nose and chipped my front tooth. Another accident I was in happened when trying to cross a very, very busy road from one driveway straight across the road into another driveway. This was just one of my thousands of destructive decisions. I was hit by a Volvo on my driver’s side. I woke up to the paramedics trying to get me out of my car. The whole top of my head was very sore for a while. I have heard of people dying or becoming paralyzed from less severe head injuries than all these. I believe God has saved my life numerous times. There is one head injury that happened to me at around age 50 that maybe did kill me but the Lord brought me back to life. Here is how it happened: a psychiatrist in South Carolina, who was a really good doctor, prescribed 5 mg of Abilify for me. Then I moved to Columbus, Ohio and went to a government funded medical clinic. The psychiatrist there asked me how I was doing at my check-up. I told him the truth — that I felt great on the 5 mg of Abilify. He then gave me prescriptions for three more pills. He increased the Abilify to 10 mg and added two more pills. I went back to my government H.U.D. housing, took the three pills and then my brain felt like it was shutting down. I passed out and fell forward and smashed my face on the hard wooden floor. I woke up on my back but it was obvious from my right cheekbone being so swollen that it was blocking my vision, and the fact that the right side of my face was bruised that I obviously fell forward. For about three months I kept asking the Lord how I ended up on my back. The impression I finally got from the Lord is that I fell forward and died but the Lord came down, turned me over and brought me back to life. I am ashamed and tormented by the fact that I have hurt so many people in my messed up, crazy life. I have over and over hurt my mother who I loved dearly. Mom was my idol but I would lash out at her and others that I loved. I could not control the anger, the hurtful words and doing and saying crazy things. I was like a big stone rolling over people, and was always moving from place to place. After moving the 30th time I lost count of how many times I moved. I’ve been in and out of homelessness most of my adult life and presently have been homeless almost nine years. I grieve, feel sorrow and deeply regret how I have hurt my mother, real father, and my dear sweet stepdad, my brothers (especially my favorite brother) and many others. Wish I could do my life over now that I’m much better and Jesus Christ has helped me to be a better person through His Word in the New Testament. After that doctor overdosed me, I didn’t trust psychiatrists anymore so I asked the Lord what I should do and the impression I got from Him was to stop eating sugar, eat only organic food, take antioxidants, eat an orange everyday, eat pycnogenol (which is rich in antioxidants) and rosemary herb (yuck) and walk 30 minutes every day. The Lord also told me not to eat in fast food restaurants and nothing with potentially toxic ingredients. My advice to anyone that has depression or any other mental illness is to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to help you and heal you and do not smoke or be in second-hand smoke, never use drugs, don’t drink alcohol and don’t eat sugar. There are so many toxins in foods and in the air that we must do our best to avoid as much poison as possible. Also if you should get sick or have a head injury you need to have a healthy brain and body so you can heal quickly. Please, people, take care of yourselves. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave. aadl.org. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, April 12 • 11am–5pm Downtown Library Stop by the Downtown Library for a pop-up record fair with vendors selling used records and gear! We’ll have DJs spinning tunes while you check out the vendors and add a vinyl–or two–to your collection. Visit aadl.org/ recordstoreday for more!
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