Another Chance To Get It Right

Damn, Gina: This will be unpopular

sarahb:

I think following Charlie Sheen on Twitter is as nasty as keeping or following a hate blog. You’re seeking some cheap entertainment in someone else’s pain and problems. You realize this guy isn’t just an asshole, right? He’s an incredibly unwell asshole. I realize that waiting to see what over the…

I have bipolar disorder.  In 2006, my life splintered into a thousand pieces.  I was a version of myself that I don’t recognize now.  And when, for whatever reason, those pieces of me flash up again, I am terrified.  I haven’t at all been following the Charlie Sheen story — haven’t been watching the videos or reading the Twitter feeds.  He desperately needs help — just last week, I talked about how frustrated I was that CBS was aiding and abetting his Crazy because it made them money.  

This is the crux of it:

Is it making you feel better? Why? Because it’s so outside the realm of anything that could happen to you? What about your loved ones?

It’s not outside your realm of possibility.  My parents didn’t expect it from their high achieving, high school valedictorian, full scholarship daughter who’d always seemed so capable and sweet; they never thought they’d get to a point where they’d hear a gunshot outside their house and worry it was me, a bullet in my brain.  Joey never expected that his high school sweetheart, his fiancee, could willingly inflict so much pain, could do it so callously.  My friends never expected me to be a duplicitous, laughing manipulative liar.  We’re all so close to mental illness, and most people don’t even know it.  Except the ones who do.   

Source: sarahb