Other recovered alcoholics take little jabs at us.

“I never chewed my beer.”

“I have managed to stay sober without the big bottle or little bottle.”

“…and I have not taken any mood altering substances in my xx years of sobriety.”

My response: “Well, good for you.”  But in my head I am thinking, “Maybe you should have.”

There persists – despite decades of peer-reviewed research, anecdotal proof and the admission of LSD use by AA founder Bill Wilson – ignorance in the recovery community about the use of antidepressants and mood stabilizers. They backhand us with their belief that we are not clean and sober because we take psychotropic medications for other mental illnesses.

For the first time ever, someone told me to go to the gym. I haven’t gained any weight but I have not been working out.

I have an exercise addiction – which my therapist says is anorexia – and I am restricted to working out four times a week. (We fight over whether scuba diving is exercise. She insists it is. I insist it is just floating at the bottom of the ocean.)

I am dual-diagnosed. I have bipolar disorder coupled with substance abuse. My favorite substance to abuse is alcohol but over the years I have also been addicted to marijuana, exercise and work. I have been in recovery for nearly 12 years but I have one addiction that I can’t seem to shake: Oil.

Every time I hear President Obama or Thomas Friedman or some other pundit or politician tell me that I am addicted to oil, I think of my other addictions. How did I recover from them? Prayer. 12-step program. Therapy. Friends. Medications. A lot of humble pie.

What I did not do – ever – was blame my dealer/supplier. It wasn’t his fault. I am the addict.

Did someone scribble my phone number on the bathroom walls at university engineering departments? I have people calling me with the solution. I have blueprints of contraptions that will allegedly stop the flow of oil coming from a hole in the ocean floor. I have people wanting me to pass along their idea to BP. I have people wanting me to write a story about their invention.

People, I am a newspaper reporter, not Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I have a short fuse and I cannot tell if it is attached to my mania or my stress. Whatever it is attached to, I am afraid it could blow and I am not sure my blowout preventer is working right now.

When I get manic I get righteous and sarcastic. I want to raise my eyebrows, cock my head  and say: “When my clone gets in I will  have her give Tony Hayward a jingle and check on that.”  ”If I knew when they were going to plug it I would be planning my summer vacation, now wouldn’t I?” “Everything I know about dead fish I learned from a worm.” “Do I look like I know where the Loop Current is going to be next week?”

If there is one thing you can say about actress Glenn Close, it’s that she has a very cool sister. And her sister, Jessie Close, has a couple of great kids and laid-back service pup named Snitz.

The Close family wants everyone to know that mental illness is a family disease. It can destroy, bankrupt and embarrass families. Or — as in the case with the Close family — it can bring them together to fight the illness and the stigma, which can cause as much suffering as the illness.

So, there they were last Friday night on a stage in Boston – Glenn, Jessie, Jessie’s daughter, Mattie Close-Davis, Jessie’s son, Calen Pick and  and Snitz, being honored  by the prestigious McLean Hospital — a Harvard affiliate chock-full of renown psychiatrists, therapists and researchers. They looked like any happy family — except Glenn is a movie star, Jessie is an alcoholic with bipolar, her son has schizo-affective disorder and her daughter is a healthy young lady who thoroughly supports her family.

There is something really liberating about being “out” about my mental illnesses. I gave a lot of thought before I went public four years ago. One friend pointed to television journalist Jane Pauley: “Look what happened to her after she went public.” I was putting my career on the line, others reminded me — not to mention any hope of ever getting a date.

I mulled it over. I had been in my career for about 25 years and was successful and was well-established. My parents had both died of cancer and unfortunately, I had become estranged from my brother and sister. My father was an only child and our family had moved away from my mother’s brothers and sisters when I was a child. I hadn’t seen or talked to aunts, uncles and cousins in decades.

I have very good friends who I knew would have my back. I was not married or in a relationship. Most people who had known me for any length of time — especially those who drank with me — knew I am an alcoholic and had been sober for years.

My biggest concern was my daughter.  I talked with her about my going public. She was 14 years old at the time but wise beyond her years. She did not mind me writing about my depression and bipolar disorder but she was not comfortable with me disclosing my alcoholism. About three years later, she changed her mind, and I went public with my alcoholism.

When I weigh the advantages and disadvantages of going public — and wonder what my life would be like today had I kept my mental illnesses secret — I know I made the right decision … for me. I cannot count the number of people whose paths I would not have crossed had I not gone public. I have made so many friends and deepened so many friendships because I am open about my depression, bipolar disorder and alcoholism.

Going public is NOT something I recommend. For many, going public could be disastrous, not only for their relationships and careers but for their own mental health. I share my …

I am going to start keeping track of local crime stories that involve someone with a mental illness. Is it me or am I just hyper-aware of any mention of mental illness in a crime story? It’s been driving me crazy lately. Seems more and more stories are mentioning the mental illness of the perp or victim of a crime. Usually it is thrown in at the end of a story … but it IS there.

Here is what I mean: Today — exactly one year after Tina Lurie vanished — local police detectives held a press conference. They said Lurie’s boyfriend — an ex-con who served time for extortion, drug sales and purchase, trafficking in stolen property, burglary and robbery — is a “person of interest.”

Near the end of the story we also learn this: “Police said Tina suffers from bipolar disorder and did not have her medication with her when she left home. She also had a history of alcohol abuse.”