Saturday, March 19, 2011

Back from the Hospital, Hanging By a Thread

I just returned from a 45-day stay at the UCSF mental ward, where they tried maximum medications and finally 12 bilateral ECT treatments to treat my acute depression with little success.  As they had done all they could do, I opted to come home, where I have a little more freedom and familiarity with my surroundings, and above all, a loving wife in Kathleen whom I desperately missed in the hospital. 

I wish I could report that I'm well but I'm not.  I'm still very sick and suffer from predictable weeping spells, suicidal ideation, anhedonia, sleep disturbance--in a word, all the symptoms of a severe depression.  Naturally this comes on the heels of a mania, recorded in these pages, which I did not correctly perceive for what it was as I was so happy just to be delivered from depression for a time.  But I'm paying for it now.

I ask for your prayers and encouragement.  There are times when I am so overcome by hopelessness I really don't know what to do.  I become paralyzed, the proverbial deer in the headlight.  The smallest tasks overwhelm me.

I ask forgiveness for any I may have offended in my manic phase; I said and wrote some cruel things when I was so sure that my judgment was divine and not just the product of a diseased mind, which it turned out to be, for the most part.  Naturally I am embarrassed and ashamed.  But I did not choose this illness, it chose me.  It is not my fault but it is my responsibility, and a terrible responsibility that is.  Someday I would like to feel like a useful member of the human race again but that day is not near.  Now I am barely functional, just doing my best not to give into suicidal fantasies.  Pray for me.  I hang by a thread, truly.

Namaste in any case,

Craig Erick

6 comments:

  1. HI C.E.,

    Get better.

    Namaste! /////namaskar\\\\\

    Rus

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:44 AM PDT

    Thanks for posting. I've been wondering how you've been fairing, and I'm sorry to hear you're not fairing well. You are in my prayers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mike Lane12:41 PM PDT

    Craig,

    please hang in there. There is a better day coming. No doubt about it. You have much to offer this world, THAT you cannot doubt.

    Take care,
    Mike Lane

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2:26 PM PDT

    Thank you for posting in spite of so much trouble. May all be well. May the light of our nearest star warm you and pierce the darkness.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, all, it is good to have friends in the ether.

    CE

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5:13 PM PDT

    My thoughts and prayers are with you and Kathleen. Hopefully you will be tearing out toilets in Lucy's laundramat soon. Love you both !!!

    Jen

    ReplyDelete

Please share your opinion!

Unexpected Light

Unexpected Light
Selected Poems and Love Poems 1998-2008 ON SALE NOW!