Life is a struggle but the outcome can be a surprise

By Peter J. Dorsen, M.D., LADC

The preliminary version of Up from the Ashes: One Doc’s Struggle with Drugs and Mental Illness is available on Amazon.com. Give a read. It is a revised version of Crazy Doctor: Mixing Drugs and Mental Illness.

I owe it to those I endeavor to help with the struggle dealing with the treatable bipolar disorder.  Here’s a flash. Luckily on Lamictal (lamotrigine), I noticed as the season is morphing into Fall, I felt myself slipping into depression. I was going down just as the Maples and ash were coloring beautifully yet dropping their treasures. Suddenly, I felt my discomfort stop. I realized that a frightening mood change had stopped.

So, for me, I describe the blessing of the correct medication. My story I recount in the new Up from the Ashes is the journey culminating is stability. I am during a bountiful relationship with a beautiful (inside and out) woman, but I am not blowing it.

We both face our challenges.  We share our individual struggles. The outcome is a mutual love now possible by facing our demons but not fearing losing our creativity or how we function with other life’s stressors.

I hope Up from the Ashes: One Doc’s Struggle with Drugs and Mental Illness may afford you the wherewithal to take such a journey from inner and outer pain to an all-new freedom. My updated message is get sound advice and accept medication that can eliminate self-medicating with alcohol or drugs. Take this journey with me in my new book.

'Dr. D' at Hoigaard’s Classic Marathon in 2017