h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Willem, I'm Ellen. Nice to meet you. I think the work y'all are doing with the Collective is very noble. I also have to deal with a mental illness and medication, only in my case it is for manic depression. I have a very nice doctor and a nice therapist, luckily. I'm still pretty new to h2g2, and I'm enjoying it alot. See ya later - JEllenJ42 Oh, by the way, why do you have two researcher numbers and names? I wasn't sure which one to post to.

Howdy Ellen! I'll take a look at your page sometime! I'm hoping we achieve something useful with this project - even if only making the Guide a bit friendlier for as many people as we can reach!

Why do I have two researcher number and names? Well actually I have more! I have two names for my computer here at home, because I use two web browsers simultaneously: Opera 5 and Internet Explorer. The reason is that this allows me to work faster - sometimes the one browser works faster, other times the other browser works faster. If I have both together I have all bases covered. The name that Opera remembers is 'The Return of the Unmentionable Marauding Pillowcase' while the name that IE remembers is 'Einauni Muznobotti'. I also have another account, 'Peet and Willem' on my father's computer at the University of the North. Then I have an old account, dating before the BBC takeover, that I am still unable to reactivate. You can send messages to any of these accounts - I monitor them all!

yowza!

Hey, I didn't even know you were online! Hi!

Musta just missed you. We'll talk later then I guess. Do you like movies? What's your favorite movie?

Howdy Ellen! Well yes, I do like movies. I cannot single out any one movie that was my all-time favourite, but right now I'm thinking of the movie 'All That Jazz', with Roy Scheider, 1979. Don't know if you've seen it!

I've seen lots of clips from All That Jazz, but I don't think I've ever actually sat down and watched it. I just finished watching Run of the Country, but I didn't like it very much. The previews made it look like a lighthearted comedy, but the movie itself got very serious and even grim. Very misleading. At least I didn't pay for a new release; it's an older flick.

So, do you like comedies?

Yes, I like comedies. I like dramas too, I just don't like them to be misrepresented as comedies in their ads. My favorite comedy lately would have to be The Imposters. It stars Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt as stowaways on a cruise ship. It is a wonderfully silly movie. As far a comedies go, I think the sillier the better. Another recent comedy I liked was Bedazzled, where Brendan Fraser sells his soul to the devil (Elizabeth Hurley).

I haven't seen a good comedy in a long while. I cannot even really remember when last I saw one!

Hmmm. Sounds like you are ready for a new comedy to me!

Which comedies are showing over there? It will take a few weeks or maybe even months before they show here!

Shallow Hal is getting ready to open here. That's the only current comedy I can think of. Bedazzled opened several months ago, so you might be able to see that one now.

Bedazzled already showed here a while ago - I missed it! The last funny film I saw was 'Shrek'!

Shrek was a lot of fun. It just came out on video here, and every single copy was checked out this week. My favorite thing in it was the gingerbread man on crutches. The were a lot of clever bits in it, I liked the whole rescue, where the princess is telling Shrek he's not doing it right. I'm wondering if Monsters,Inc. will be any good. That's just coming out here.

I've heard that it is good!

Over here at the moment only a bunch of rubbish movies are showing. I hope something better comes along this friday!

Happy Thanksgiving! I saw Monsters Inc. and really loved it. It was a lot of fun.

Over here we don't have thanksgiving, but thanks, anyways!

It's been a long time since any watchable movie has shown here.

Hey, Ellen! How are you? We haven't talked in a while. I read a bit of your mental health problems, that you wrote to Chris about. Has no psychiatrist ever diagnosed schizophrenia, or schizotypal personality disorder, or schizoaffective disorder, in you? That episode you described where you became manic and delusional sounds in some ways similar to my own first psychotic break. The delusions, especially, suggest schizophrenia to me ... but I know it *is* possible that people can be delusional, but not schizophrenic. But what interests me is that you have PTS as a result of that episode. Much of my own PTS also comes from my first serious break. It was very traumatising for me, and I am triggered into reliving that particular trauma on occasion. There have been other, earlier, traumas as well, though, and also many subsequent traumas. My current PTS is related therefore to quite a large amount of different stuff.

How's your mindset nowadays?

I'll be looking at your page and some of your postings a bit more, to get a better idea of your problems and the way you cope.

- Willem

When I was first admitted to the hospital in 1993, I was so delusional that my doctor was leaning toward a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, I heard a lecture about manic depression while at the hospital, and recognized many of the symptoms in myself, especially the racing thoughts. So, on closer examination, the doctor diagnosed me as manic depressive. I've switched doctors since then, and my new doctor has written "schizoaffective" on some of my lab slips before, but we have never discussed a change in diagnosis, so I still consider myself manic depressive. It is not typical, in that I do not have to be particularly manic or depressed to experience psychotic symptoms.

I was on lithium for quite a few years. Prozac was added after I had a very severe depression. I tried a different mood stabilizer a couple of years ago, can't remember the name, may have been Depakote, but it hurt my joints. Then I started having thyroid problems, because of the litium, so I switched to Zyprexa. It has been ok, but it was very hard to get used to. It made me feel very spacey for a while, and it is still hard for me to concentrate, especially to read. So that's what I'm on now, Prozac and Zyprexa.

PTSD has been a real problem, but it gets a little easier every year. The suicide attempt I mentioned to Chris took place in a church, so churches are a terrible trigger to me. I was complaining about my trauma symptoms one time in a support group, and a man unwittingly said that I should go to church and pray about it. I didn't mean to, but I laughed in his face. I tried going to a church one time, with disastorous results. This was several months after my hospitalization. I wound up leaving during the sermon, alternately sobbing and laughing with hysteria. So churches are one of the worst triggers, but there are many others as well. It would take a book to document them all. As I said, every year makes it a little easier, so that is a good thing.

Feel free to read my posts and chime in if you've a notion. - Ellen