What would my life be without social media sites? I would feel a lot less connected. Through MySpace, I found a bunch of old friends from Berry College that I had lost touch with and it felt wonderful to see them again. It still does. MySpace let me reconnect with my best friend from Berry College and that surely is a blessing. We had both needed to take a break from each other for a while as we sorted out and healed from our own pain and it is a joy to have her back in my life again. We are both much happier people now and even though we live several hours away, we try to see each at least several times a year. In fact, we are going to get together in about a month for my birthday celebration. Through Facebook, I have continued to keep in touch with old friends and I have even made some new ones that even though I have never met them face to face, they are people who are still very dear to me. Like I talked about in my last post, seeing different people being vocal in supporting LGBTQI rights or mental health rights - I belong to several mental health groups on FB - even if it's just in posting a rainbow, an equality sign or the NAMI logo, helps me feel more empowered and less alone.
Now if I could design an app that would help me keep track of my condition? I have a great idea and if anyone reads of my idea and then wants to make it, be sure to send some of the money my way! I would like a medication tracker app, where you could list all the medication that you've previously taken, why you took them, and why you don't take them anymore. And then when you're put on a new medication, you log in the dosage and the reason for taking it. Your app would put the info on a chart and there would be space to write down if you think the medication is actually working in the way that it should and what kind of side effects you are experiencing. (Each time you would enter in a medication's name, the app would automatically link it to a page that would list all the possible side effects and their probabilities, as well as the medication's purpose.) This would be a great tool for the consumer to share with their doctor. By tracking your medication's impact on a regular basis, you would have a much more accurate picture of whether the medication is actually beneficial or not. Using an app like this would have really helped me communicate with my doctors better and it would have prevented so much grief. There have been several times where I have forgotten why I stopped taking a certain med a few years ago, only to rediscover why when I try it again and then experience unbearable side effects. This app would be great for anyone who has a condition that requires multiple medications, but especially for those with mental illness, because so often finding the right psychotropic medication is trial and error. Many people with mental illness have tried dozens of different kinds of meds before figuring out what really works-I know I have! Of course, I could just make my own chart, but it would be so much easier and fun to use if there was an app that I could download to my smartphone.
Here is a crude example:
Week of 4/21/13
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Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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Cymbalta
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Headache
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n/a
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migraine
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Less depressed, but had a headache
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|||
Zyprexa
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Gained .5lb
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||||||
Inderal
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Lethargic
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Dizzy
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|||||
Recommended Links:
There is adversity aplenty just moving
from one day to another. The idea that the best work can come out of adversity
is tantamount to telling me not to take my meds or advising someone who needs
oxygen to leave their tank at home.
You Are Not Alone
In this culture you are not a person with an illness, when
it comes to mental illness, you are the illness. Do you ever hear anyone
say “that cancer person”? But you do hear “that mentally ill person.”
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