Tips and Tricks on How to Be Sic‪k‬ Eirenne

This month we’re going to talk about some heavy stuff that a lot of us experience, especially during the holiday season: we’re going to talk with musician Amy McNally about ways she copes with depression and suicidal ideation, both with formal medical and psychological treatment and in ways she deals with it apart from that. Musical excerpts copyright Amy McNally, used with permission.

Please see show website for a full transcript of this podcast and for resources on depression and suicidal thoughts.

In honor of Dysautonomia Awareness Month, we’re going to discuss dysautonomia and the ways it can present in different people, both on its own and in conjunction with other disorders.

What I would like to see is, at the same time that you’re going through rehab, that you’re getting constant reinforcement that it is OK to be a person with a disability or with an impairment.

It is not embarrassing to ask for help. You are not a burden if you need something, ever. And what disabled people need is not special. You don’t have special needs, you’re not a ‘special person’ - you are a person who has a specific need around your disability

We are going to be talking about mental health, why therapy could be helpful to anyone — mental health diagnosis or not — and ways to make therapy more accessible to people with disabilities. For this, the interview will be with a clinical psychologist who, in the interests of full disclosure, I will tell you now has been my closest friend for almost 25 years, Dr. Erica Essary, Psy.D.

This isn’t an episode of the podcast, not really. This is more of a side note and an apology for an unplanned three month hiatus.

In this episode, we are going to be talking about keeping it together; keeping up with all the little changes that happen when a new chronic illness diagnosis or disability happens.

You start with problem X, but that leads to new symptoms that could be problem Y. You go to a new specialist who sends you for new tests, or gives you a new meds to try. And then, the medication might have a side effect that you need to control, so that’s more doctors and maybe additional treatments — where does it end?