So appreciate you keeping us updated on your health and struggles. You ( and Marc) touch so many of us with your life stories. They help bring understanding on the unspoken issues of addiction and mental illness. Hope and prayers for better sleep.
I feel like I had a victory this week. I flushed all of my panic attack medicine down the toilet rather than taking an overdose. Now I have no safety net but so far so good. Ever since I first became suicidal, I turned my life into an open book so everyone around me can help encourage me to follow my treatment plan. Keep fighting the good fight!☺️
That is definitely a victory❤️!!!I recently had my first mental illness attack. I was an absolute mess and making my struggle known to my family and friends, was the best thing I could have done. I was surprised at the amount of mental illness my family had experienced. Yet, kept in quiet because of the stigma. Putting my self into an open book, like you did, saved my life and made me realize how normal mental illness is. My friends and family whom suffered from it themselves, were my biggest comfort. I felt like a complete failure of a human being because I was useless to them during their struggle.I didn’t understand their issues or know how to help when they were going through them. I had the mentality that it was like a cold and will pass soon 🙄
@@tracylee451 yes, it's like so many things. Impossible to imagine how it operates and makes a person feel and think until you've been there yourself. Unfortunately at my worst point all my friends and family were clueless and blase, except for a few who admitted they were clueless but asked me how they could help.
@@Jen-cc9xk right!! That is why people who do speak out after their struggles are so important! I am so sorry that you had to navigate your struggles alone. Especially, in such unknown territory. I am so happy that you are still here to work on it . I am still working on mine as well. It’s nice to have a place to relate to others in the same struggles. Thank you so much for sharing ❤️
I’m glad you’re so aware of what you may or may not need to change and have different opinions to listen to as well, I’m sure it took a while to get there but I’m glad you stay on top of it and actually want to figure it out and feel better that way. 💕 💕 💕
I'm stressed this week, we have just started the autism diagnosis for my youngest, did it 14 years ago for our eldest, it's a lot to process. Onwards and upwards Steve and anyone else who is struggling.xx
Thanks for sharing, Steve. I guess I have it all together, just old and..... old! lol Like I tell my Doctor - I don't know, I've never been this age before.
I don’t do TikTok. I’m way too old (early 40s). I will never have TikTok. I hope you start feeling better very soon! I’ve enjoyed discovering you guys’ channel so much!
Managing is good--that is true! My trials are more physical than mental, but it all kind of goes together. My recent cardiology checkup was really good, and it felt great to hear something positive & not leave there thinking that I have one foot in the grave! That feeling lasted a couple of days. Now, I'm like, if I'm doing so much better, how come I still feel kind of crappy?? But I am also am managing, taking the good with the bad, and not dying (yet)!
I just think you two are wonderful. You are so open and truthful about your mental health/addiction issues. But what's really impressive is how on top of it you are, how close attention you pay to it and how you are actually managing it by making changes when something stops working. I hope you don't have to change your anti-psychotic meds!!! Fingers crossed. Regarding not being able to get to sleep, may I suggest the tried and true home remedy of drinking a cup of hot chocolate before bedtime? It's always worked for me. Whaddya got to lose?
I feel like this week just sucked. I don't know if I'm the only one, but it just seemed like an snowballing of stresses. I always look forward to September because it's spring where I'm from and my seasonal affective mood lifts. This week I can't point to one stressor because it felt like everything that could go wrong did. I hope everyone else had a better week. If not, hope it gets better 🌻
This week was my first full week after a year and a half of either virtual or hybrid teaching. I am also having a fibromyalgia flare up where the two most horrific symptoms for me are in full effect. 💙💛 Sending a hug.
I love this video so hard, Steve. We have sooo much in common, as you know. I had your channel on in the background.. on pause .. as I uploaded, and realized afterwards we were both doing a mental health/ recovery check in. (I threw a couple poems in, however) I got my intoxilock off today!! I def consider our videos a sort of psa!! Love to you and dear Marc ❤
We're going through the rigamarole of office visits, referrals, waiting, etc right now for my oldest to figure out what her "big girl" diagnosis is now that she's aging out of preschool services. I love her pediatrician but the whole process is drawn out (unnecessarily in my opinion) and super expensive. It's 6 months to a year for the developmental pediatrician who we have to see before we can get a psychiatry referral. It's so frustrating.
I’m so worried that I will need steroids at some point, and it will be really bad for my bipolar disorder and ocd! I get blessed with mixed episodes most of the time 🙄 it gets bad, but I haven’t been inpatient for like 5 years!
I am having a struggling week. I started a new mental health med a couple weeks ago which has been going well. I halved my maintenance steroid level so I have the fun steroids lower mess. Every other dr I’ve gone to has added new tests and meds the past few weeks. And I became frustrated with I can’t get a surgery because it requires an overnight stay and Covid numbers are too high. Then yesterday I got my third Covid shot because I’m immunocompromised and I had a crying break down at like 3 this morning. I know it will all be fine and work itself out but it’s frustrating in the meantime.
So sorry 😢 I am currently in the middle of finding out, which meds at what doses works for my mental health issues. It’s definitely not a one doctor visit thing, like the movies portray. It’s actually really scary unknown ground. Medication works completely different for everyone. So, you have no idea if it will help or harm your current mental health situation. That’s such a scary chance to take when you are already in a very dark place. My prayers have you in them. I hope that you will feel a bit better and have a wonderful day tomorrow ❤️
I'm struggling at the moment. I'm in Canberra Australia, we've been in lockdown for 5 weeks. I've left my house 4 times in the last month. I have a 7 year old daughter who is on school holidays for the next two weeks in lockdown, then remote learning for at least the first 4 weeks of next term. I work in online learning from home so I'm totally slammed, working nights when everything else is quiet. Some days I don't get out of bed. My sleep is messed up, my daughter and I are staying up all night and sleeping all day because time doesn't matter any more. I'm the sole income earner in my house, so that pressure weighs on me. I have a lot of chronic health conditions that limit the amount I can do. I totally understand the dry mouth thing, I have sjogrens and my meds make it worse. I almost choked on sushi last night and spent ten minutes making myself vomit up everything stuck in my throat. I've had to stop watching Chantal so much, she is bad for my mental health but Nader really puts me on edge. I can recognise an unhealthy relationship when I see it, and that one looks toxic.
I agree about Chantal and Nader. I've had to take a step back because they're mentally draining. I'm sorry about the lockdown. I know it can feel very confining to have to stay at home day in and day out. And I hope you are feeling better with your health. Take care 💕
@@cabelocab2008 thank you for the kind words. Lockdown is hard, but getting sick and dying from the virus is much harder. I'm lucky that my state government take covid very seriously, we went into lockdown the day they discovered the first case in my state. Many people do not have the luxuries that Australian's have, I feel more sorry for communities that have a high rate of transmission and infection. Take care, I hope life gets better for everyone soon.
I am having a hard day. I have been missing my mom and my mother-in-law, both of whom we lost this year. My husband is out of town, and I feel lonlier than I usually do when he's gone.
Loneliness can be such an awful feeling. It’s also difficult to talk about. I hope you feel better soon. Try to enjoy the time alone if you can. Watch a tv show he hates, and eat stinky food. Sing into a hairbrush.
Hope u feel better. They may not be with you physically, but they are with u in spirit. Cherish and celebrate their lives as opposed to mourning their death. And it's okay to grieve and feeling lonely can be very hard. Be good to yourself and take care 💕
I admire how focused you are knowing what you have to go through to get to the end game. Its a healthy way to think. I hope to do the same but familiar procedures from last year are the currant theme for this referral doctor. Starts out with an A plan the goes on to a B plan now its a C plan which will be the so I am preparing myself I guess. I am little annoyed with ppl who get the vaccine and develop a health issue after blame it on the vaccine. Im not going to blame the vaccine on what is going on after the fact. I cant wrap my head around that. lol Have a great weekend !!
I have ALL the anxieties. I also suffer from depression. But the depression came on when I had something bad going on in my life. I called it situational depression. But my anxiety got very bad last November, along with my depression. And I wasn’t going through a crisis. I’ve put off therapy because it never seemed to help and any medication I take, I react opposite to it. So depression meds make my anxiety worse. I’ve tried meds for 20 years. But the depression/anxiety are worse than ever, so I’ve got to do something. Is someone more susceptible to addiction if they suffer mental illness?
@@SmokeySteveAndMarc Dealing with both of them is so hard. Talk therapy is not working. I’ve lived with my parents for the last ten years, after an ex thru my out. I’ve had 3 back surgeries since then, so I haven’t worked much. I’m 54. I’m saying all this because I’ve felt like a burden to them, and it would be easier if I wasn’t needed. Then I start feeling like I don’t belong ‘here’. All this is to say that talk therapy is not working.
Just compare how Steve talks about his struggles and how Amber does, I barely believe she has all she says she has and doesn't experience side effects with the multiple medications she takes. Also, the way she talks about her medication "this is supposed to help with _X_ ", so you feel it doesn't? Steve, when you feel a medication doesn't work, do you talk to your psychiatrist or you let the problem snowball?
I'm hoping for some experience you may have regarding the lifetime course of bipolar disorder. It's my understanding that episodes often become closer together and get worse in intensity as we age. From what you've seen, is this generally/statistically what happens? (and yep - I know you aren't a doctor) Thanks!
You worry about side effects and what could happen until "you" make them come true. The pandemic is the new normal until it isn't. Factor is not worth the money. Get a hobby Steve. These are just my blunt opinions. You are always looking back and saying, well last year at this time I went off the rails, so here it is that time again, so I guess I better go off the rails. That is how this video came off to me. Good luck and dont become a self fulfilling prophecy.
I can’t explain why, but listening to you always calms me down and makes me feel like everything’s going to be okay.
He's got that vibe, they both do.
So appreciate you keeping us updated on your health and struggles. You ( and Marc) touch so many of us with your life stories. They help bring understanding on the unspoken issues of addiction and mental illness. Hope and prayers for better sleep.
Thank you for opening up a space for us! It may seem small but I imagine for many people, myself included, means a lot 💕
Hi Steve 💐 Hi Marc💐. I have been busy all week amd now I am binging on the videos I missed from you and Marc. I am having a good day.
I feel like I had a victory this week. I flushed all of my panic attack medicine down the toilet rather than taking an overdose. Now I have no safety net but so far so good. Ever since I first became suicidal, I turned my life into an open book so everyone around me can help encourage me to follow my treatment plan. Keep fighting the good fight!☺️
That is definitely a victory❤️!!!I recently had my first mental illness attack. I was an absolute mess and making my struggle known to my family and friends, was the best thing I could have done. I was surprised at the amount of mental illness my family had experienced. Yet, kept in quiet because of the stigma. Putting my self into an open book, like you did, saved my life and made me realize how normal mental illness is. My friends and family whom suffered from it themselves, were my biggest comfort. I felt like a complete failure of a human being because I was useless to them during their struggle.I didn’t understand their issues or know how to help when they were going through them. I had the mentality that it was like a cold and will pass soon 🙄
@@tracylee451 yes, it's like so many things. Impossible to imagine how it operates and makes a person feel and think until you've been there yourself. Unfortunately at my worst point all my friends and family were clueless and blase, except for a few who admitted they were clueless but asked me how they could help.
@@Jen-cc9xk right!! That is why people who do speak out after their struggles are so important! I am so sorry that you had to navigate your struggles alone. Especially, in such unknown territory. I am so happy that you are still here to work on it . I am still working on mine as well. It’s nice to have a place to relate to others in the same struggles. Thank you so much for sharing ❤️
Sending you Love Steve❤️
I hope you realize how much people who are going through similar struggles! Just listening to you is calming!
I’m glad you’re so aware of what you may or may not need to change and have different opinions to listen to as well, I’m sure it took a while to get there but I’m glad you stay on top of it and actually want to figure it out and feel better that way. 💕 💕 💕
I'm not having a great time lately and listening to these videos helps. Just want to say thanks for posting. I really hope you get some sleep soon.
I'm stressed this week, we have just started the autism diagnosis for my youngest, did it 14 years ago for our eldest, it's a lot to process. Onwards and upwards Steve and anyone else who is struggling.xx
Thanks for sharing, Steve. I guess I have it all together, just old and..... old! lol Like I tell my Doctor - I don't know, I've never been this age before.
Not doing so well mentally or physically right now. Steve I hope you are able to get some sleep soon💕
I don’t do TikTok. I’m way too old (early 40s). I will never have TikTok. I hope you start feeling better very soon! I’ve enjoyed discovering you guys’ channel so much!
Sorry things have been so rough lately for you Steve, hope changing up the mealtimes isn't too much of a pain.
Managing is good--that is true! My trials are more physical than mental, but it all kind of goes together. My recent cardiology checkup was really good, and it felt great to hear something positive & not leave there thinking that I have one foot in the grave! That feeling lasted a couple of days. Now, I'm like, if I'm doing so much better, how come I still feel kind of crappy?? But I am also am managing, taking the good with the bad, and not dying (yet)!
I just think you two are wonderful. You are so open and truthful about your mental health/addiction issues. But what's really impressive is how on top of it you are, how close attention you pay to it and how you are actually managing it by making changes when something stops working. I hope you don't have to change your anti-psychotic meds!!! Fingers crossed.
Regarding not being able to get to sleep, may I suggest the tried and true home remedy of drinking a cup of hot chocolate before bedtime? It's always worked for me. Whaddya got to lose?
I feel like this week just sucked. I don't know if I'm the only one, but it just seemed like an snowballing of stresses. I always look forward to September because it's spring where I'm from and my seasonal affective mood lifts. This week I can't point to one stressor because it felt like everything that could go wrong did.
I hope everyone else had a better week. If not, hope it gets better 🌻
The change of the seasons i hear really screws up mental health 🙏
Same here. Hope u keep well 💕
This week was my first full week after a year and a half of either virtual or hybrid teaching. I am also having a fibromyalgia flare up where the two most horrific symptoms for me are in full effect. 💙💛 Sending a hug.
I am fine thanks,just getting on with it even though it’s difficult sometimes,I have some one to talk too as I am on medication
I can so relate to what you’re going through w meds illness budgeting so my love & prayers to you Steve
I relate to you so totally Steve. My Love & wishes for your happiness I send ❤️🩹
My takeaway from this video. Managing is succeeding. Good is good ✨✨
I love this video so hard, Steve. We have sooo much in common, as you know. I had your channel on in the background.. on pause .. as I uploaded, and realized afterwards we were both doing a mental health/ recovery check in. (I threw a couple poems in, however) I got my intoxilock off today!! I def consider our videos a sort of psa!! Love to you and dear Marc ❤
We're going through the rigamarole of office visits, referrals, waiting, etc right now for my oldest to figure out what her "big girl" diagnosis is now that she's aging out of preschool services. I love her pediatrician but the whole process is drawn out (unnecessarily in my opinion) and super expensive. It's 6 months to a year for the developmental pediatrician who we have to see before we can get a psychiatry referral. It's so frustrating.
I’m so worried that I will need steroids at some point, and it will be really bad for my bipolar disorder and ocd! I get blessed with mixed episodes most of the time 🙄 it gets bad, but I haven’t been inpatient for like 5 years!
I am having a struggling week. I started a new mental health med a couple weeks ago which has been going well. I halved my maintenance steroid level so I have the fun steroids lower mess. Every other dr I’ve gone to has added new tests and meds the past few weeks. And I became frustrated with I can’t get a surgery because it requires an overnight stay and Covid numbers are too high. Then yesterday I got my third Covid shot because I’m immunocompromised and I had a crying break down at like 3 this morning. I know it will all be fine and work itself out but it’s frustrating in the meantime.
So sorry 😢 I am currently in the middle of finding out, which meds at what doses works for my mental health issues. It’s definitely not a one doctor visit thing, like the movies portray. It’s actually really scary unknown ground. Medication works completely different for everyone. So, you have no idea if it will help or harm your current mental health situation. That’s such a scary chance to take when you are already in a very dark place. My prayers have you in them. I hope that you will feel a bit better and have a wonderful day tomorrow ❤️
Hugs, prayers, and positive love your way❤️
I'm struggling at the moment. I'm in Canberra Australia, we've been in lockdown for 5 weeks. I've left my house 4 times in the last month. I have a 7 year old daughter who is on school holidays for the next two weeks in lockdown, then remote learning for at least the first 4 weeks of next term. I work in online learning from home so I'm totally slammed, working nights when everything else is quiet. Some days I don't get out of bed. My sleep is messed up, my daughter and I are staying up all night and sleeping all day because time doesn't matter any more. I'm the sole income earner in my house, so that pressure weighs on me. I have a lot of chronic health conditions that limit the amount I can do. I totally understand the dry mouth thing, I have sjogrens and my meds make it worse. I almost choked on sushi last night and spent ten minutes making myself vomit up everything stuck in my throat. I've had to stop watching Chantal so much, she is bad for my mental health but Nader really puts me on edge. I can recognise an unhealthy relationship when I see it, and that one looks toxic.
I agree about Chantal and Nader. I've had to take a step back because they're mentally draining. I'm sorry about the lockdown. I know it can feel very confining to have to stay at home day in and day out. And I hope you are feeling better with your health. Take care 💕
@@cabelocab2008 thank you for the kind words. Lockdown is hard, but getting sick and dying from the virus is much harder. I'm lucky that my state government take covid very seriously, we went into lockdown the day they discovered the first case in my state. Many people do not have the luxuries that Australian's have, I feel more sorry for communities that have a high rate of transmission and infection. Take care, I hope life gets better for everyone soon.
I am having a hard day. I have been missing my mom and my mother-in-law, both of whom we lost this year. My husband is out of town, and I feel lonlier than I usually do when he's gone.
Loneliness can be such an awful feeling. It’s also difficult to talk about. I hope you feel better soon. Try to enjoy the time alone if you can. Watch a tv show he hates, and eat stinky food. Sing into a hairbrush.
Hope u feel better. They may not be with you physically, but they are with u in spirit. Cherish and celebrate their lives as opposed to mourning their death. And it's okay to grieve and feeling lonely can be very hard. Be good to yourself and take care 💕
I admire how focused you are knowing what you have to go through to get to the end game. Its a healthy way to think. I hope to do the same but familiar procedures from last year are the currant theme for this referral doctor. Starts out with an A plan the goes on to a B plan now its a C plan which will be the so I am preparing myself I guess. I am little annoyed with ppl who get the vaccine and develop a health issue after blame it on the vaccine. Im not going to blame the vaccine on what is going on after the fact. I cant wrap my head around that. lol Have a great weekend !!
When I take steroids for my asthma I can't sleep and I feel depressed, it's horrible, but they are effective. My face gets all red as well 🤦♀️
I have ALL the anxieties. I also suffer from depression. But the depression came on when I had something bad going on in my life. I called it situational depression. But my anxiety got very bad last November, along with my depression. And I wasn’t going through a crisis. I’ve put off therapy because it never seemed to help and any medication I take, I react opposite to it. So depression meds make my anxiety worse. I’ve tried meds for 20 years. But the depression/anxiety are worse than ever, so I’ve got to do something. Is someone more susceptible to addiction if they suffer mental illness?
It is a risk factor yes. In my case I was dealing with both, but not all individuals do.
@@SmokeySteveAndMarc Dealing with both of them is so hard. Talk therapy is not working. I’ve lived with my parents for the last ten years, after an ex thru my out. I’ve had 3 back surgeries since then, so I haven’t worked much. I’m 54. I’m saying all this because I’ve felt like a burden to them, and it would be easier if I wasn’t needed. Then I start feeling like I don’t belong ‘here’. All this is to say that talk therapy is not working.
Just compare how Steve talks about his struggles and how Amber does, I barely believe she has all she says she has and doesn't experience side effects with the multiple medications she takes. Also, the way she talks about her medication "this is supposed to help with _X_ ", so you feel it doesn't? Steve, when you feel a medication doesn't work, do you talk to your psychiatrist or you let the problem snowball?
I'm hoping for some experience you may have regarding the lifetime course of bipolar disorder. It's my understanding that episodes often become closer together and get worse in intensity as we age. From what you've seen, is this generally/statistically what happens?
(and yep - I know you aren't a doctor) Thanks!
Oh honey, I hope you get some good sleep.
Hi sweetheart, steroids make me as mean as a snake
You worry about side effects and what could happen until "you" make them come true. The pandemic is the new normal until it isn't. Factor is not worth the money. Get a hobby Steve. These are just my blunt opinions. You are always looking back and saying, well last year at this time I went off the rails, so here it is that time again, so I guess I better go off the rails. That is how this video came off to me. Good luck and dont become a self fulfilling prophecy.