If Autism Isn’t a Mental Illness, What Is?
My name is Elliot. I’m an autistic psychologist with bipolar 1 disorder (and ADHD). I’ve been mentioned in passing [1] [2] in news articles about autistic autism researchers, but I prefer to keep on the science side of things. I usually only use Twitter for personal entertainment, sometimes biting my tongue as I weigh the…
1. Does loneliness warp the mind?
I’ve often experienced loneliness as a toxin. A chemical that corrodes, gnaws through my bones a chasm, a gaping wound in the depths of my ribcage. This characteristic feeling alerts me to the river tide drawing me in, the cosmic forces of mania & depression. It is a fundamental emptiness; it destroys everything, it leaves…
Bipolar Disorder vs. Manic Depression
If you’ve heard anything about the term “manic depression”, you might know that it is an older term for bipolar disorder. Here’s my unpopular opinion: “bipolar disorder” is a less accurate and more dehumanizing term than “manic depression”. Why? There are several reasons. The new name “bipolar disorder” was coined for the wrong reasons, and…
Communication Styles in Neurodivergent People
About two weeks ago, my cousin’s husband died from SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy). He showed no signs of having experienced a seizure (no biting his tongue, for example); he simply went to bed one night and never woke up. He is bereaved by his daughter, who turned 7 years old a few days…
Akathisia: an inability to rest caused by antipsychotics
Akathisia is a clinical term for extreme inner restlessness. People who are experiencing akathisia have great difficulty sitting still, or maybe even sitting at all. I first experienced akathisia on Abilify (which I ultimately discontinued because it gave me a facial dyskinesia), and it continued to plague me as I tried different antipsychotics, such as…
Pediatric-onset bipolar disorder
Traditionally, it has been thought that bipolar disorder emerges most typically in the early to mid 20s of a person’s life. It has been known since the time of Emil Kraepelin (circa 1921), however, that children can be affected by this illness. While adolescent onset (mid-to-late teens) is now recognized as common and similar to…
5 tips to living your best life with bipolar disorder
I’m medication resistant, meaning that meds don’t fully stabilize my cycling. I’ll never be the person who can say “nobody even knows I am bipolar”. In fact, I have to disclose my bipolar disorder to most of the people I work with, due to how it impacts my working hours. I’ve tried every atypical antipsychotic…
Everything Else
by Elliot Gavin Keenan, 11/29/16 Originally published in gravel magazine in 2017; as of 9/24/21, no longer available on their website. Mozart was crazy. Flat fucking crazy. Batshit, I hear. But his music’s not crazy; it’s balanced, it’s nimble, it’s crystalline clear. There’s harmony, logic. You listen to these, you don’t hear his doubts or…
How does lithium work?
Ah, lithium; it’s been our gold-standard treatment for bipolar disorder for many years, and can work for people who have failed other drug trials. It is also one of the only drugs known to decrease the risk of suicide1. But how does it work? It’s a bit more complicated to understand than, for example, an…
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