Replies to 'How I Got Help'

wow, you think I'm smart? Thank you sooo much!! Normally I get told I'm dumb b/c in school I invent my own theories from primary materials instead of just copying the old one's used in canonical literary studies so people just think I can't do research...I'm in literature right now which makes people say I'm dumber.... But hey! Even though everyone thinks it's weird that I keep the DSM-IV-TR under my bed and look up meds in pharmaceutical catalogues, I encourage everyone who's ever been diagnosed with or put on ANYTHING to do it! It's very empowering to understand exactly what the doctors are saying to you, what it means, the biophysiology behind it, the pharmocology they treat it with. It's great because if you speak their language they respect you, and you have the tools to challenge what they say, suggest alternatives, maybe come up with your own theories - like a link btwn BPD and cylothymia, maybe. I find it makes me feel more active in understanding the complex things that make me how I am. Plus, who knows more about what it'a like to live your life than you, right? Maybe this is a chance to see something I didn't want to and face it, like how you hurt myself; maybe it's a chance for me to not passively accept what people say about me as true, and now I have clinical evidence as to why that is. And trust me, it's not 'cause I'm smarter than anyone: it's intimidating when you first look at this stuff, but you take little steps and the internet makes it sooo much easier for laypeople like me to grasp it.