It's hard to talk about a topic when your the only person you know that cares that much about it and don't have any friends to go that deep into the mechanics and craft its self, that being said I have a lot of friends that play games, Some being part of the elitist P.C master race, others being your typical console monkey, but I don't feel I have that deep connection and personality to bounce thoughts and ideas off of.
This is why I'm doing what I'm doing, to find that personality and group of people that have a love affair with the topic on a whole and every aspect.
Then we have mental illness, another topic I feel incredibly strong about and opening peoples eyes up and educating them that just because you can't see the physical wound like a broken bone in a cast doesn't mean that it isn't actually there.
Now I touched on when I was sick, I've said I'm an open book on the matter at hand so I'm going to stop lying and tell the truth to the Internet, things I haven't told my friends or family, details that go missing when I'm sat in a sterile office with a stranger and expected to feel calm. The room looks like a fucking nut house, I don't feel comfortable, how am I suppose to open up about delicate things that have happened in my life when I feel like they could walk out of the room at any moment and that's me really being left inside a padded cell.
So I'll start at the beginning.
I'm 15 or 16 and I realise things aren't right inside my head. I'm conflicted and confused and I look up depression on the Internet. I try and educate myself on the matter at hand as I don't want to waste the doctors time if I can fix the problem myself. When your that age you feel like you have life completely sorted and everything is black and white, no one is going to tell you a thing you don't already know and I'm a fully formed adult, I was wrong.
I go to the doctors and say "Somethings up" I have dark thoughts, I feel I will be a nothing for my whole life, a number, an ant, I will march along with all the other ants doing the same thing day in day out and then I'll get stepped on. We are told to get a job, get a house, pay for everything you can't afford have a child and a dog, then pay for your box in the floor that gets eaten by worms.
I'm scared my days are up and those thoughts are so powerful that I'd rather end it now and save everyone the hassle of knowing me. I drop the words 'Bipolar' in to this conversation but I don't know how to articulate my point to this rather judgemental fellow and he hands me an A4 piece of paper he printed off the Internet about being sad and tells me I'm fine. Years later they'll all realise they where wrong.
Fast forward like 4-5 years and I'm still convinced I'm bipolar, the rapid changes in emotion that can be on a daily basis or last for days, weeks and even months with every oddity in-between that I hide and ignore. I think there must be a trigger that sets me off as most episodes are triggered by events and so on. So I break down my life into things that annoy me,
I can't drive, so I learn.
My girlfriend at the time is a complete fucking prick so Its ended, I throw a chair at a pub wall in pure anger and get barred.
I'm over weight, so I go to the gym and get abs and arm muscles. I hate myself even more.
My job is trash so I quit.
I live at home so I move into a crack house with some friends.
All big things in my life have been drastically changed but nothings worked.
A year later they put me on medication for social anxiety and depression, guess I've bugged them enough at this point that they just gave me them to shut me the fuck up.
I stop drinking as my addictive personality leads me into binges and losing all self control isn't something you want to do when you think you've got some kind of split personality.
This works well for 6 months until it's my friends 22nd birthday, this also means I'm 23 in the same week. I call my doctor up and say "Its my friends birthday so can I drink on my medication?" Now over this 6 month period I've haven't touch a single drop of booze. I know if I have one sip then that's it.
He tells me it's fine.
This is the start of a tail spin 6 months and a period of cocaine, alcohol, MDMA and sex. I'm arrogant, I think I'm handsome because I've lost weight and for the first time in my life I'm going into clubs when I'm single and I notice people looking at me. I've always been oblivious to attention as I just don't care that much about it, my one goal when I'm out is to consume enough alcohol to kill an adult and then keep on drinking, people can talk at me all the fuck they want, If I'm honest I'd rather they all just disappeared.
I wake up in a university room and have no clue what the fucks happened, that was the first day of what we refer to as 'Charlie Sheen meltdown week' I think £1100 is spent on booze in total, I don't go to work for a week as I change shifts and I lose myself in some kind of indulgent fantasy where I believe I can do anything I put my mind too. Thinking about it now I think I was having some kind of manic episode as I'm a complete fucking idiot. I sleep for around 6 hours over that week. I then wake up in a house in Northampton, I have to call my friend as I don't know where I am.
I start taking too much of my medication to see what it does, I give my medication to my friends to see if it gives them a buzz. I lose the ability to say no and I live for YES.
Life is loud, colours are bright, nothing has repercussions. I'm invincible, I can tell anyone anything and they will eat every word out of my hand like a cheeky fucking Nandos.
I have a problem, My body stops pacing at 3000 miles per hour and reality hits me like a wrecking ball, I've ruined my life, I've pissed off everyone I know, I'm probably going to lose my job, I'm a completely paranoid nervous wreck and it takes me 10 weeks to get over it. I'm never drinking again. I start taking class A drugs instead.
Cocaine, MDMA, Jack Daniels and Red wine. Just reading it spells disaster.
I stop drinking on the 6th of January 2013 after a 5 month suicide run.
It's been nearly 4 years now and I'm proud of that achievement, only you can stop it. No one else can, you have to make the decision to change your life style for the better as the person I became was a version of myself I never want to be again.
Mr Yes.
An Egotistical, an arrogant narcissist.
Completely self obsessed and careless, killing everything he touches and corrupting it, I'm completely ashamed of myself but I was ill, I had to make that change happen, when I felt down I took to booze, you hide that version of yourself that's weak and vulnerable to the world, you put on the mask, you become a phantom, a beautiful monster.
You want to be accepted, just not like that.
I tell the doctors they need to change my medication because it doesn't work, so bye bye Citalopram and hello Sertraline.
It's a new start.
I'm doing better at work as I'm not on a come down or a week long collective hangover and I'm eventually promoted to Assistant Manager, I'm proud, over joyed.
To the one woman that stood by me like a sister I never had, the woman that offered me the opportunity that 10 months in the past I'm pretty sure she wanted to sack. I'll forever be thankful to her and she knows that.
I have many episodes over the next 2 years.
I'm going to stop here so it's more manageable and bite sized, as this is where it gets rather bad.
God, I just read through that with my fiancé. It's horrible to read through bad times in my life when I know I'm not that person at all, but I had to do all that to become the person I am today.
Come show some love
My Twitter is @winslowbateman
My Instagram is www.instagram.com/fi5h5tick5/
also I have Twitch www.twitch.tv/fi5h5tick5/profile
Peace and love.
Caleb, FI5H5TICK5 and every name inbetween.
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