Bipolar Disorder
MENTAL ILLNESS DOES NOT DEFINE ME
I refuse to be defined as mentally ill. It is not my vocation. I am someone who has a mental illness, but that doesn’t define who I am. It is a condition of who I am. I am an artist, an architect, and an author, and I have dealt with my bipolar disorder for most […]
23Dec2022 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
Vraylar Vagaries & Verities
A great pile of aluminum foil-wrapped sandwiches surrounds the manic mother who stands at her kitchen counter atop a pyramid of playing cards in beautiful suburbia. Bipolar I Disorder could topple her reality, perhaps smothering her in ham sandwiches, but there is a solution in Vraylar, a drug from Forest Laboratories Holdings Ltd, an Allergan […]
24Aug2018 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
D.A.A.D. Dilemma
Depression, Anger, AND Destruction Depression beginning in anger plagues my life and leads to thoughts of self-destruction. I battle with these three issues everyday. Being bi-polar, depression is a common feeling. Over the past months, as I struggle with physical ailments, the sense of loss and meaningless often overwhelmed me. On August 9, 2017, I […]
23Aug2017 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
Closure Blooms
Closure Blooms I have added a link to my article written in the spring of 2016 that is published in a specially edited version for inclusion on the website for the new documentary “The S Word,” soon to be released by filmmaker Lisa Klein with her husband, producer, Doug Blush. The documentary is about suicide and the […]
30Nov2016 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
Closure Blooms
I tried to kill myself at Yale University when I was a student there 51 years ago. Returning to the 50th Reunion of the class of 1966, the class I didn’t graduate with, I sought closure to what has always been a painful experience. A friend from those undergraduate years invited me to come. I […]
16Jun2016 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
I am a Suicide Survivor
Livethroughthis.org is the website project and future mobile exhibition created by Dese’Rae Stage, her self a suicide survivor. Carlton Davis edited Dese’Rae’s interview. To see the unedited story and stories and portraits of other suicide survivors see: http.//www.livethroughtthis.org. Suicide is the 10th highest cause of death in the United States. The mental illness that leads […]
12Sep2014 | carlton | 2 comments | Continued
IBBBSS
Irritable Bariatric Bipolar Bowel Suicide Syndrome Think of Ibis, the sacred bird that wades the life-sustaining waters of the Nile. Its long beak penetrates the surface for sustenance. Think of the Egyptian god, Thoth, whose human body carried the head of the Ibis. Thoth was the author of all knowledge. Say “ai”, elongate the […]
11Sep2014 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
BYE, BYE, BLACKBIRD
No one gets through life without being hurt. To be human is to be hurt. All men and women have people or places that have negative associations. An offhand remark by a stranger or an acquaintance can resonate in our mind long after, years even, the unpleasant comment. A deed by a friend, a relative, […]
2Jul2014 | carlton | 1 comment | Continued
Depression Day, June 6, 2014
Frustration Followed By Anger Becomes Depression I should have seen it coming, but I didn’t. The indicators were all there. It begins with the clumsiness, and lack of coordination. I began to drop things: pens, books, and the plastic container of Pellegrino mixed with pomegranate and grape juice. The bottle top wasn’t screwed on properly […]
6Jun2014 | carlton | 1 comment | Continued
Love and Isolation
“8 Habits of Love” is a book by the Reverend Ed Bacon, rector of All Saints Church, Pasadena, California, where I am a member. I don’t consider myself a total Christian, since I have not accepted the divinity of Christ. I like what he preached, and I am a committed Vipassana Buddhist, but I find […]
18Nov2013 | carlton | 13 comments | Continued
The Final Breathe
Breathing is fundamental. No breath, no life! For the past year I have been afflicted with a respiratory ailment, which has grown worse as the year has progressed. At first I was just huffing and puffing a little, then by May 2013 I couldn’t cross a room or climb stars and not be totally winded. […]
19Aug2013 | carlton | 7 comments | Continued
OF TWO MINDS, The Conversation Starter
I am one of the four featured persons in the film OF TWO MINDS. I feel very honored to be in this film by Doug Blush and Lisa Klein. The honor comes from the fact that as Alice Boyce Ph.D. says in her blog review of the film on Psychology Today (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-practice/201208/two-minds-new-documentary-film-explores-life-bipolar-disorder) the film is […]
29Aug2012 | carlton | 3 comments | Continued
THE PAIN IN MY BRAIN
A woman with the bipolar condition asked me if I got migraine headaches. At first I said no. Migraine headaches weren’t something I experienced. Then I thought about pain in my brain and how often I experienced it. I feel a severe and deep ache in my head when a massive depression is coming. I […]
13May2012 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
“OF TWO MINDS” premiered at the Cleveland Film Festival
Can I who am featured in the film“OF TWO MINDS” write a review of the film? I can’t write a typical review because my viewpoint is colored by my closeness with the film. My plan is not to so much to rate the film –although I believe it to be extraordinary-, but to speak of […]
24Apr2012 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
Unhinged by the Epidemic of Mental Illness
“The central question of what variables drive the pathophysiology of mood disorders remains unanswered……….It is therefore no surprise that we know almost nothing definitive about the pathophysiology of mental illness — the surprise is that we know anything at all.” From Unhinged, The Trouble with Psychiatry — A Doctor’s Revelations about a Profession in Crisis, […]
2Nov2011 | carlton | 1 comment | Continued
Mad Sisyphus – New Thoughts on an Old Book
“Madness,” by Marya Hornbacher, was published in 2008. It was a New York Times best seller at the time, but now it has faded to 300,000 in book sales on Amazon. It’s only 100,000 higher in sales than my own book, “Bipolar Bare,” which as a self-published work did not have the backing of a […]
20Apr2011 | carlton | 3 comments | Continued
Crazy making Dyslexia
Dyslexia is not a mental illness according to most definitions although 30 years ago dyslexic people were often cared for by psychiatrists. Today we call dyslexia a learning disability. I see dyslexia not as a learning disability but a condition I deal with daily and I think it is related to mental illness. The – […]
28Mar2011 | carlton | 4 comments | Continued
Let me shoot you I’m mentally ill
The Tucson shooter is giving mental illness a bad name. He joins the list of killers who are identified as mentally ill: the shooter at Virginia Tech, the kid gunmen at Columbine, the targeter who nicked President Reagan, and a whole host of others going all the way back to the Texas Tower marksman, and […]
15Jan2011 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
Magic Mental Meds Make Me Mad
Psycho-medication is so confusing; it is enough to drive you crazy. Some of these meds can actually cause you to become nuts. For example, Effexor (venlafaxine) by Pfizer can bring on mania in a bipolar person and Abilify (aripiprazole) by Bristol-Myers-Squibb can give you suicidal thoughts. These are just a few of the possible side […]
23Dec2010 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
Cross-dressing, sex, and bipolar disorder
After I spoke at the University of Wyoming this year on my experiences with Bipolar Disorder, the college newspaper ran a headline “Ex-professor exposed drag experiences.” The reporter focused on my recounting of my cross-dressing escapades when I was ill. Dan Socall PhD, the director of the University Counseling Center, responded to this article with […]
28Nov2010 | carlton | 4 comments | Continued
On Tom Wootton and Bipolar in Order
09/26/10 Tom Wootton is an engaging and provocative author and public speaker on the issue of Bipolar Disorder. I listened to him speak in Pasadena, California on September 15, 2010. I found myself totally engaged by the theory he puts forward that Bipolar Disorder can be converted into “Bipolar –In- Order.” This is a state, […]
28Sep2010 | carlton | 3 comments | Continued
Seesawing on the Bipolar Coaster
Seesawing on the Bipolar Coaster- Riding the Edge of Madness with Two Minds Imagine a Teeter-totter with a person on both ends and combine it with a roller coaster. This is the experience of bipolar people. They ride up the escalator and plunge down the descent seesawing back and forth. At the summit they rise […]
17Sep2010 | carlton | 4 comments | Continued
Driving Crazy
09/5/10 I listened in rapt fascination and horror as he explained how he drove. This bipolar young man with the fresh face and red hair sat up right in his chair at the meeting and with a giddy smile on his face spoke about how he bore down on slower moving vehicles. He liked to […]
6Sep2010 | carlton | 26 comments | Continued
I think I am better than I am
Grandiosity is a symptom of Bipolar Disorder. When manic I get very grandiose. I think I am better than I am. I liken myself to the great Leonardo Da Vinci. He like me was a writer, artist, and architect; and some say he was bipolar also. Maybe that is why he was so slow in […]
1Apr2010 | carlton | 3 comments | Continued
Interview with David Oliver of Bipolar Central
Carl Bipolar Success Story 3-11-10 On February 26th, Carlton Davis was interviewed by David Oliver. The interview is attached.
11Mar2010 | carlton | 0 comments | Continued
