Christmas Carols For the Psychiatrically Challenged

I don't normally volunteer this information, but I have been on anti-depressants since 1995.... I truly have been to hell and back the last 10 years, almost drowning in Lake Erie, my girlfriend getting pregnant behind my back, multiple deaths in the family all in a short period of time, I even lived in a house full of schizophrenics and I'm here to tell you that was no picnic! I was also a inpatient in the psychiatric unit of my local hospital.

My diagnosis is clincal depression....

My father is in the final stages Alzheimer's disease. When he was first diagnosed 10 years ago, our family was very depressed and we really didn't know how to cope with it. We lived like this for a few years. Finally, we decided to join an Alzheimer's support group, where we met other families like us and learned many ways to cope with this disease.

I spent many years crying over my dad's illness and the Alzheimer's support group taught us that it is OK to have a sense of humor. Having a sense of humor does not mean that you are cruel and have no compassion. My dad's nurses are some of the funniest people I know. My dad responds to laughter with a smile, he responds to sadness with tears. When we visit dad, we joke, laugh, and sing—anything that will bring a smile to his face. Before this disease he loved to joke around, too… he was a very funny man.

Also, I started taking an antidepressant this year and I must admit I feel fantastic. Once I started feeling the effects, I wondered why I didn't start taking them years ago. I feel so much happier and easy going. I actually wake up feeling joy for a change. I would much rather feel this way than ride the "depression roller coaster." Life is too short.

I am sorry is I offended anyone with my sense of humor. It is how I cope from time to time. Just know that I do take mental illness seriously, heck I am a patient, too.

I thought they were hilarious. Most humor pokes fun at someone. I don't believe (in fact, knowing Kim, I know) these weren't posting in a mean-spirited vein.

Originally posted by Deb25
I thought they were hilarious. Most humor pokes fun at someone. I don't believe (in fact, knowing Kim, I know) these weren't posting in a mean-spirited vein.

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Thank you Deb, I appreciate that.

A friend of mine and I have both been patients: between the 2 of us we have OCD, BPD, Bipolar, and have been involved with men with NPD and ALL OF THOSE TITLES FIT!!! I think they're funny.

I had a father-in-law who suffered from Alzheimers and the only way he was able to deal with it was humor. You could tell he got extremely frustrated, but he also did so many jokes that half the time you couldn't tell if it was him or the Alzheimers and that's how he wanted it. I loved the man dearly and laughed everyday with him.

I've seen the down side of mental disorders (street drugs, homeless, jobless, etc.) and I lived in fear of going there. I've been homeless and have done street drugs trying to "fix" myself. Fortunately I've never been jobless.

I still find these funny.

To all of your psychiatrically-challenged folks: isn't it nice to have someone TELL you when you should be insulted? After all, in your conditions, how ELSE would you know?

I have a schizophrenic sister-in-law, a manic-depressive cousin (whom I'm going to send these to, because I know she'll find them funny, not mean-spirited - you should hear some of the stuff she says), had a clinically depressed student who killed himself on Christmas Eve 7 years ago, another who managed to wash most of the skin off of his hands and could only turn the pages of his books after pulling his sleeves down over his hands, and recorded everything because he couldn't pick up a pen or hold down paper (and that was after about 2 years of therapy), and currently have a manic-depressive student who is really struggling to get well, because she has a young son. So I have some idea of how difficult life is for many people, but I still find this stuff funny, if not exactly pc.

LOL!!!

Yes, I'd have no idea I was supposed to be offended by this stuff. Heck, we joke at work every day about putting Lithium or Prozac in the water because our clients say our customer support people are so good (I'm one of them). Our company has actually lost 3 employees to psychiatric hospitals because customer support is not an easy job.

I'm actually far more insulted by the iron crosses people are putting on their cars advertising the different motocycle shops around the country because the Nazis used to give out the iron cross as one of its top honors. I just remind myself most of these people have no clue that's what it meant so I take a deep breath and relax.

At work one of our people had a swastika on a wristband and they told him to remove it until I piped up and explained that because the worker was Indian (from India) the swastika actually had a good meaning and was not related to the Nazis. It was small enough most people never even noticed he had it on.

So it really is subjective I guess.

There's also a little ditty called the "Thorazine Shuffle" that makes fun of the movement Thorazine causes in people (it makes people move about like they're bored or impatient and most don't even realize they're doing it).

I remember the "Thorazine Shuffle". Actually, when I was in high school, Thorazine made me so hyper, that I used to swim dozens of laps, to work it off. Best weight-control program, that I ever was on!

No one is saying it was posted to be offensive but the fact is i do find it offensive. I'm not asking others to agree or disagree with me i'm saying how i truly feel about this thread.

Originally posted by TTMom
I'm actually far more insulted by the iron crosses people are putting on their cars advertising the different motocycle shops around the country because the Nazis used to give out the iron cross as one of its top honors. I just remind myself most of these people have no clue that's what it meant so I take a deep breath and relax.

At work one of our people had a swastika on a wristband and they told him to remove it until I piped up and explained that because the worker was Indian (from India) the swastika actually had a good meaning and was not related to the Nazis. It was small enough most people never even noticed he had it on.

So it really is subjective I guess.

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I'm not 100% certain, but I believe iron crosses predate Hitler, i.e. were awarded by Kaiser Wilhelm in WWI, and maybe even before that.
Swastikas are illegal here in Germany, as are the Nazi salute and neo-Nazi literature. I agree that many people either have no clue, or are simply thoughtless or don't notice things. I had a great-uncle who served under Patton in WWII and then was stationed in Berlin during the Occupation. He brought back souvenirs for the family, including a linen tablecloth for my grandmother. She "saved" it, and apparently never used it. In the early eighties, she gave my mom the tablecloth, after the latter mentioned that she needed a new tablecloth for special occasions. My grandmother washed, starched and ironed the tablecloth and brought it over. My mom put it on the table and was in the process of setting the table for Thanksgiving when my German (actually Danube Swabian - his family was in Hungary for many generations and didn't "return" to Germany until Hungary kicked out people of German descent after WWII) husband and I arrived, luckily before my sister and my Jewish brother-in-law. We took one look at the tablecloth and were like, "Where did you get that? You can't use it!" Neither she nor my grandmother had noticed that the woven design around the border consisted of swastikas! They were horrified - they'd just noticed a "geometric design".

I just did a little bit of checking - the iron cross does predate Hitler. In fact, there was a German film of that name by a Jewish director that was released in 1914: http://www.goethe.de/su/ned/film/oswald.htm
I also vaguely recall a James Coburn film called "The Iron Cross" - didn't that deal with WWI?

Those are so funny Kim!!! I like the Histrionic Personality Disorder. It makes me want to sing it out loud...

"You better watch out, I'm gonna cry,
I'm gonna pout, maybe I'll tell you why..."

LOL!!!

That's part of the reason I don't usually complain about things. I didn't know the iron cross image itself predated the Nazis (the stickers also incorporate the old Germanic print--the one where the estet looks like a sword or an f). Almost anything we use today predates our usage and knowledge of it.

This thread makes me giggle! Thanks for the smiles Kim!

I just want to say, Kim...anyone who knows you would know you would never mean to offend anyone and I personally found your jokes to be hilarious!!!! And anyone who doesn't needs to either stop reading the thread or get a sense of humor. (by the way...could you PM me with the name of the anti-depressant you said you are taking that has helped you so much? I think I need something like that, but I have tried a couple different ones in the past and nothing seemed to work...I couldn't even tell any difference so I just gave up on them.)

Originally posted by Debby
I just want to say, Kim...anyone who knows you would know you would never mean to offend anyone and I personally found your jokes to be hilarious!!!! And anyone who doesn't needs to either stop reading the thread or get a sense of humor.

(by the way...could you PM me with the name of the anti-depressant you said you are taking that has helped you so much? I think I need something like that, but I have tried a couple different ones in the past and nothing seemed to work...I couldn't even tell any difference so I just gave up on them.)

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lmao too funny