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    Odes to Lithium
    Odes to Lithium
    Odes to Lithium
    Ebook120 pages56 minutes

    Odes to Lithium

    By Shira Erlichman

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Captivating poems and visual art seek to bring comfort and solidarity to anyone living with Bipolar Disorder.

    In this remarkable debut, Shira Erlichman pens a love letter to Lithium, her medication for Bipolar Disorder. With inventiveness, compassion, and humor, she thrusts us into a world of unconventional praise. From an unexpected encounter with her grandmother’s ghost, to a bubble bath with Bjӧrk, to her plumber’s confession that he, too, has Bipolar, Erlichman buoyantly topples stigma against the mentally ill. These are necessary odes to self-acceptance, resilience, and the jagged path toward healing. With startling language, and accompanied by her bold drawings and collages, she gives us a sparkling, original view into what makes us human.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlice James Books
    Release dateSep 1, 2019
    ISBN9781948579599
    Odes to Lithium

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      Book preview

      Odes to Lithium - Shira Erlichman

      I

      KNIFE-FLOWER

      SNAKES IN YOUR ARMS

      You are in the neurologist’s office for the fifth time in two months. The tests came back normal, he says. You exhale. On a separate note, you have just spent four days in a psychiatric facility. You had been experiencing symptoms you could only describe as The Edge of Death. So you checked yourself in. You are twenty-five years old and responsible. You are taking medication. You are relieved to hear that your arms, which have been tingling inexplicably for months, check out fine. It’s not your spine, he says. And it’s not your neck. It all came back normal.

      Normal.

      OK, you say. Since he is your specialist, and you have trusted him, you say: I should let you know, since you’re my specialist, I was in a psychiatric ward last week. I thought I had Depression, but they say I have Bipolar Disorder. I hear that sometimes inexplicable pain arises with people that have Bipolar. Could that maybe have something to do with my tingling?

      That’s when he gets cold. His upper body freezes. He leans half-an-inch back in his blue chair. (He is handsome, only a few years older than you. When you changed into a gown and he saw your unshaved legs, you were embarrassed. In another circumstance, you might want to kiss him.) He has a buzz cut, barely-there stubble, and a degree in pain.

      He speaks slowly, with calculation, but there is still a softness there. Well, what do your arms feel like now? The young doctor asks.

      It feels— you pause, you want to get this right, you look for the right word to describe the sensation that has been haunting you, causing you to get test after test, plaguing your sleep. It’s like needles, but they move. How should you describe it? You only have twenty minutes with this man in his office on the other side of the city before you have to go back to Kit’s house and sleep on her couch before finding a new place to live before finding a new therapist before deciding how to live tonight, let alone the rest of your life.

      It feels like there are snakes in my arms. Electric snakes that move quickly, like little zaps, through my forearms and wrists. You are a poet and sometimes it helps you and sometimes it distances you from others.

      He leans in. Whispers: Do you really think that there are snakes in your arms?

      You feel tricked. Catch-the-crazy. Whack-a-mole. Burn the witch. You take a full seven seconds before you exhale. In this little white room, where he has hung his certifications up, where his tools to investigate pain gleam on their shelves, and his awards are multiple.

      Of course not, you say.

      He visibly relaxes. As if he has done his job.

      SIDE EFFECTS

      The side effect of Lithium (is dehydration & peeing more frequently. The side effect of dehydration & peeing more frequently is not wanting to drink water at all because you pee more frequently. The side effect of not wanting to is not doing. The side effect of not doing is a couch & three movies. The side effect of a couch & three movies is what have you been doing all day with a raised eyebrow. The side effect of a raised eyebrow is a sigh. The side effect of a sigh is plaque. The side effect of plaque is a dirt road but you’re bikeless. The side effect of bikeless is an unrelenting heartbeat with a passion for waves. The side effect of a passion for waves is dream upon dream where every object is as blue as the sea. The side effect of overwhelmingly blue dreams is a girlfriend who listens. The side effect of this particular girlfriend is black soap that sits staining the side of the tub. The side effect of stains is her name in your cheek like a cool marble. The side effect of her name is your

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