Here’s an excellent article on the impact of mental health issues in the workplace.

It’s hard to focus on your work when your child is hallucinating.

I’ve experienced this so many times – “please come home, he’s very manic and throwing things around…”

This stigma extends beyond those directly stricken to family members. Parents of children with mental illness are often viewed as guilty by association, unfairly perceived as the cause of the illness—the source of harmful child-rearing practices—when the origin is mainly biological. Parents and other family members feel shame and a sense of failure.

Nobody knows this better than my wife and I. Having lost our adult son to issues associated with bipolar disorder, we tried everything, and heard every piece of advice when he was growing up.

This is a very real problem, but I don’t see any significant changes being made in attitude or workplace policies.

But the initial point of this post: When manic, sleep goes away. When sleep goes away the mind loses it’s ability to process as much. The less active mind is therapeutic for the mania. So once again, a reason for everything.

On this video he’s playing bass guitar with Weather Report in 1978, you can’t miss his flamboyancy. Check out the harmonics he’s playing. I chose this song, as it’s Weather Report’s biggest hit, even though it’s not Jaco’s best song.

From Wikipedia:

In his early career, Jaco avoided both alcohol and drugs, but he became increasingly involved in alcohol and other substance abuses during his time with Weather Report. Bipolar disorder and psychoactive substance abuse disorders have a highly prevalent comorbidity, with a mutually detrimental inter-relationship. Alcohol abuse ultimately exacerbated Jaco’s illness, leading to increasingly erratic and sometimes anti-social behavior.

He was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in late 1982 following the Word of Mouth tour of Japan in which his erratic behavior became an increasing source of concern for his band members. Drummer Peter Erskine’s father, Dr Fred Erskine, suggested that Jaco was showing signs of the illness and, on his return from the tour, Jaco’s wife, Ingrid, had Jaco committed to hospital under the Florida Mental Health Act, where he received the diagnosis and was prescribed lithium to stabilize his moods.

By 1986, Jaco’s health had further deteriorated. He had been evicted from his New York apartment and had begun living on the streets. In July 1986, following intervention by his brother Gregory and ex-wife Ingrid, Jaco was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in New York, where he was prescribed Tegretol in preference to Lithium. He moved back to Fort Lauderdale in December of that year, again living on the streets for weeks at a time.

After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert September 11, 1987, he was ejected from the premises, and he made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida. After reportedly kicking in a glass door after being refused entrance to the club, he was engaged in a violent confrontation with the club bouncer, Luc Havan. Pastorius was hospitalized for multiple facial fractures and damage to his right eye and right arm, and had sustained irreversible brain damage. He fell into a coma and was put on life support.

There were initially encouraging signs that he would come out of his coma and recover, but a massive brain hemorrhage a few days later pointed to brain death. Pastorius died on September 21, 1987, aged 35, at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.

In the wake of Pastorius’ death, Havan, a karate expert, was charged with manslaughter but later pled guilty to second degree murder. Because of having no priors and with time served while waiting for the verdict, he was sentenced to 22 months in jail and five years probation. He was released after four months in jail for good behavior. Pastorius was buried at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale.

Jaco, we miss you man. There are SO many ways bipolar disorder can kill you.

Justice to Stop Pursuit of Medical Marijuana Use – NYTimes.com.

I had to read the headline a few times before it sunk in – the Obama administration is not prosecuting federal medical marijuana offenses where it doesn’t break applicable state laws. I think that’s great. I wish it would have gone further, but you take what you can get.

Now, to get mental and mood disorders approved for medical marijuana use. But that’s the subject of another post.

• I don’t want to waste the time.
• There are other things I’d rather do.
• It’s stressful when I don’t fall asleep.
• I often require medication to sleep, and sometimes that medication makes me do some very strange things.
• I don’t want to tackle the new day.

I can get by on very little sleep, I can go for weeks with 3 to 4 hours a night. But I need SOME sleep each night, even if it’s only an hour or two. If I go too long with minimal sleep things start happening. For example, I start to see things, shadows at first, then they get more concrete as time goes on. It also impacts certain parts of my brain, for example, my creativity really suffers.

Last night I got over 8 hours, and it made a huge difference in the day. Motivation was good, frame of mind was good, I feel good. My irritation is still high, unfortunately. That scares me.

But the day’s keep coming, I can’t duck them forever.

See you tomorrow.