‘Stache wood Bow Tie o’ the Day is yet another handlebar mustache. The handlebar style tends to stand out bigly from other styles, and so it is often used to represent all mustaches. If you find a ‘stache decorating a product– coffee cups, t-shirts, etc.– it is most likely going to be a handlebar. And if I could grow a mustache, it would absolutely be a handlebar.
From the moment I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, it has never been difficult for me to say I’m bipolar. I do, however, have a heckuva difficult time saying I have a mental illness. For some reason, the term “mental illness” makes me uncomfortable. I’m not quite sure why, but I think it might have something to do with my idea of myself as an intelligent person.
To say there’s something “ill” about my “mental” self makes me worry that I’m not smart. The two I.Q. tests I’ve taken in my life say my intelligence is in “genius” territory. I dunno if I agree with that, but I have always prided myself on my ability to think well. I consider myself to be foremost a poet and an intellectual. It’s not boastful for me to say that: I simply know what my talents and strengths are. I don’t want to think I have an ill head.
I was prideful about my strengths and talents once, and it was a decade-long “once”: I thought my smart brain could out-think and defeat my mental illness. I thought my “genius” could save me. It didn’t, and it can’t.
20 TMS treatments down, 16 to go.