new パソコン, who this? Kidding 🤣 I bought a Windows tablet! I have no idea how well it will work, but the on screen keyboard will take some time to learn my swiping style.
Forgotten Friday #182 - 白群ものは / Byakugun Monoha
Who is Monoha Byakugun?
Official art from Bank |
Previously on Beauty and the Puppy, Belle mysteriously collapsed at a fancy steak restaurant! Man, there is a fancy steak restaurant in Nashville that I'll never get to try now because, even if I wasn't vegan, red meat gives me food poisoning.
"Well!" A bubbly nurse walked into the examination room where Belle was sleeping on the hospital bed. Jonah looked up at her with concern in his eyes. "Thankfully, no drugs. No cancers or anything either!"
"Then what was it?" Jonah's concern became despair.
"It was her bipolar disorder," the nurse pouted slightly. "From what you told the admitting nurse, she was experiencing an extremely severe manic episode and is crashing down into depression." She could see how confused Jonah was, so she continued. "People tend to not understand bipolar disorder, even now. It's like a rollercoaster that lasts for your entire life. You go up, up, up for a few months into mania, and then crash down, down, down for a few months into depression. How high you climb is how low you go. And, well, she got really high and may just be catatonic for a bit. In the colloquial sense, of course."
"What do you mean?" Jonah looked over at Belle. Her breathing was deep but slow and only the slow rising of her back betrayed her life.
The nurse sat down across from Jonah in a rolling chair. "She's going to need a lot of rest. She was burning on both ends for the entire duration of her manic episode. Once she's healed up a bit, she will need to start working on sleep hygiene again…"
"Aren't there medicines?" Jonah looked back at the nurse.
"Yes and no," the nurse sighed. "While there are medications for her disorder and there are medicines for depression… she is not allowed to go back on medicine for depression, and the medicines she needs for her disorder will just make her more depressed." The nurse could see Jonah's jaw hanging slack. She knew he had questions, but didn't know how to ask them. "The main reason we tell teens to not take antidepressants is due to a specific kind of ideation. That wasn't her issue. She was misdiagnosed as only having depression and ended up having a horrific manic episode with psychosis that she never fully recovered from after the antidepressants."
"Wait," Jonah looked up, his eyes narrow. "Aren't there laws against you telling me all this?"
"Yes, and no," the nurse sighed again. "There are laws that would make this discussion illegal. However, her father has the legal power to allow me to speak freely with anyone who he chooses. He also gave you power to choose her path of treatment when she's unable to."
"How is that legal?!" Jonah wanted to shout in frustration, but he kept his voice to a reasonable volume.
The nurse looked down at her clipboard and flipped a few pages. She looked up at Jonah and sighed. "You didn't know that she was ruled mentally incompetent?"
"I…" he looked over at Belle. "Should have guessed."
"Look," the nurse closed her eyes. "She has begged and begged to not be put on medication." She opened her eyes. "It's not that there's a mental health stigma. I know it's not the case with her, but so many kids here refuse to take anything that will make studying more difficult or will stop them from doing as many extracurriculars as possible. 'It's hard to cram for finals when you need eight hours sleep.'" The nurse looked over at Belle. "Better to shine bright and extinguish than to never shine at all. But then you get… this." She looked back at Jonah. "You have the power to make this stop. Just give me the okay, and I will give her a shot. All you need to do is bring her back every month to get another one. Ideally, you will speak to a psychiatrist… but anyone can see she needs it."
"Do it."
Let me tell you, Seroquel is a miracle drug for those with severe bipolar disorder, but it will straight up destroy you if you don't have it. Belle isn't taking Seroquel though, because there should be something way better in the future! Tune in next time for an awkward conversation on Beauty and the Puppy!
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