holdmedownlaw

[holdmedownlaw]

I must admit it is difficult to memorize verbatim the 1987 Constitution. Memorizing it consumes a lot of my time and energy. I think i should take a step back and adapt a different strategy in studying political law. It is enough that i now memorized its first five articles and certain provisions in articles VI, VII and VIII.

[holdmedownlaw]

I now memorized:

Article I. The National Territory;

Article II. Declaration of Principles and State Policies;

3. Article III. The Bill of Rights;

4. Article IV. Citizenship; and

5. Article V. Suffrage

😊

[holdmedownlaw]

Today i start memorizing the the 1987 constitution.

[holdmedownlaw]

A policy that requires mental fitness check as additional requirement for admission to work especially in the government is reasonable but when it is designed based on erroneous public perception toward mental illness as driving factor of violence is discriminatory and just deepens the stigma that already permeates the life of individuals who have mental illnesses.

[holdmedownlaw]

I sleep to motivational speeches regularly.

[holdmedownlaw]

Studying after just 2 hours of sleep is just as hard as studying after 8 hours of sleep. Whenever i am blessed with a good night sleep i get sleepy the whole day and it is tremendously hard to resist. My health is in a weird tailspin.

[holdmedownlaw]

I have served as paralegal in two elections and i can say that moros are actually tired of having the same people occupy the important positions in the government. They know these people from prominent families who get elected time and time again have never accomplished anything for their communities nor do they intend sincerely to render public service. These people do not have sense of duty. They have been ruling for decades but they have done nothing good to improve the life of the moros. The truth is moros have been since deprived of freedom to choose their leaders that is because elections are controlled and manipulated by those holding power. This is why the state has to do more in terms of protecting not only the integrity of elections but also the guaranteed rights of the people to freely choose their leaders without fear of reprisal.

[holdmedownlaw]

Bar is just one year away and one year is not far off. I am always conscious about how i spend my time. I know everything i should be doing from now up to the bar should only be about preparation. I want to get off social media and everything that takes my energy and attention away from academics but is just so hard. Developing a habit takes a lot of self-discipline!

[holdmedownlaw]

The primary reason why i have this account is to exercise my english writing. After all, what else this account is for when i don't have any follower nor i follow anyone.

English is one my greatest weaknesses and becoming good at it is a massive challenge. However, i cling to the belief that once you put in enough work, you will achieve it. A person who refuses to give up will eventually be successful. I will do just like that!

I have seen many people turned their weakness into strength. I believe that i can also turn my greatest weakness into my greatest weapon. I believe i am unique and exceptional and has a lot of things to offer to this world.

I will harness my skills and squueze every once of potential out from my body. I will not tolerate mediocracy. I will dispise indolence and incompetence.

[holdmedownlaw]

So Frankie Pangilinan just tweeted about her notes on former CJ Corona's impeachment when she was eleven years old. She was eleven years old when she wrote the notes! Holy cow! I could not even write that well, not until i reached college!

[holdmedownlaw]

I have been wanting to be fluent in English and be able to express my thoughts easily and impressively.

While my desire to be great at English is so patent and strong, the constant challenge is not the lack of a clear guide to follow to be able to make it happen but the persistence of being under circumstances where you are hindered from moving towards the direction of achieving that goal.

I know that the only way to improve my English speaking and writing skills is to make it habit to speak and write English; to make it the primary means of expression, at this point in my life, that's easier said than done.

[holdmedownlaw]

We don't want that feeling of being surrounded by people who constantly challenge our weaknesses. That's one of the reasons why we don't grow.

[holdmedownlaw]

Back to work

Nothing in my lifetime was more ravaging on a global scale than the covid-19 pandemic. Government were forced to take drastic measures including locking up people at their homes and that was just awful. Just like many countries hit by the pandemic, Philippines followed suit in imposing lockdowns in many of its towns. It started mid of March and despite cases continue to rise the government nevertheless eased up lockdowns in June.

The pandemic also impelled the Supreme Court to defer the bar examinations until the situation becomes clear.

Knowing almost certainly that the bar exam will be rescheduled to a later date in 2021, finding a job crossed my mind. Luckily, just about before the lockdown in our town was lifted, i was offered a 3-month employment contract! It is not a high-paying job but it's perfect when it comes to timing. The pay is important but i find good reason by the fact that i can make use of my free time to experience other things outside home during this hiatus.

The job deals with data analysis. In other words, i am back to working as IT again. It's not my favorite job but since it's just a 3-month contract, so okay.

I am now in my second week at work and to be honest it has been the best first 2-week of work in my 3-year career life so far. My health is still not at 100%. Anxiety still swirling up my chest every once in a while but overall my medications really help. I've never felt so functional at work than i am now. I am so happy. I am doing my best to stay healthy.

[holdmedownlaw]

2019 – the year I hope could be the start of my renaissance.

Some people know I have chronic insomnia. I often talk about it with my family, friends and those others whom I think should know about it. But nobody really knows how difficult it is to be battling such illness. The suffering is unspeakable; much worse than I can ever describe it. Allah knows.

It started the night before my birthday in 2008. I couldn’t sleep not because the following day was my birthday but because it was my first day in College. I thought it was just that normal night when you don’t get to sleep “because tomorrow is a special and you are so excited about it.” So I went through my first day in college tired but I still had fun nevertheless.

I did not able to sleep again the following night. This time I was alarmed. What could be wrong why I couldn’t sleep? I went to school again the following day but this time I can hardly managed the exhaustion.

I was not able to sleep again on the third night. I started to feel my heart pounding so hard to the point that it made it more difficult even to just calm myself down. I tried not to lose myself. I’m going to a see a doctor tomorrow, I said to myself. But I didn’t. I am so worn out after that day. Maybe I can finally sleep tonight.  But still I had no luck. I started to feel incapable of sleeping. I was getting crazy. “God, I have not slept a single minute for four consecutive nights. I would trade everything to get my eyes shut for even just a few minutes,” I complained to God.

The morning came and I never felt so awful in my life. Later that day, Dad accompanied me to a doctor. I explained how I feel and how I struggled to get sleep. What the doctor did was just gave me a prescription. It was a sleeping pill. To be honest, I was cynical if it could help me get sleep. I believed deep down I needed more than just a pill. I took the pill and tried to sleep. It didn’t work! That time I knew I was screwed.

The torture continued for many, many days. My life was never the same again. As about my studies, I still continued to attend classes despite my deteriorating condition. I just took every class-break I got for rest. And what I mean by rest is that I just lay down and close my eyes and tried to get as much energy as I could get without sleeping to keep me going.

I was able to endure over a month of sleep deprivation. And then there came one night, I was talking to myself, “This is my fate. This is what Allah has ordained for me. I have to be strong and accept it.” I recalled stories of sacrifices of Prophets to keep my spirit alive. While expecting a long night, just like the other previous nights, I closed my eyes. The next time I opened them, I saw the morning light through the small window of my room! I finally get the much needed sleep! I’ve never been so grateful in my life! All praise is due to Allah!

Sleep came back to me but the fear of not being able to sleep didn’t leave me. Every time night falls, the chance of getting a good night sleep is like tossing a coin. And so it did not really last long before insomnia came back again. I was just like given a few nights to breathe and then get back to wrestling again. It has continued to be the case since night of June 13th of 2008.

And just when I thought insomnia could be my only health problem, there came anxiety. It was like that monster who wanted to hurt my almost lifeless body, mercilessly. I did not know what kind of anxiety disorder it really was. I didn’t consult a specialist. I didn’t want to. I just knew I have it.  I couldn’t maintain an eye contact when talking to people. Imagine how devastatingly awkward was that and its negative impact on my social life. I lost a lot of friends. My ordeal served like a filter machine that made me identify who my real true friends are.

Sometimes I sweat excessively even in cold weather. I could remember one time in class my seatmate touched my arms and she felt I was soaking in sweat in a fully air-conditioned room. Goodness!

Many years of my life since anxiety touched me were nightmares. It took a great toll in every aspect of my life – relationships, jobs, studies, etc.! Anxiety also made me become critical of myself – my actions and decisions – which I was not used to be before. And when a person sounded so harsh in criticizing himself in front of his friends or family, imagine how brutal he is to himself in the privacy of his head. Although there were many days I had thoughts of harming myself, I never attempted to. But my devastating health condition made me begged God many times to either cure me or just take me.

My family started to notice although I never told them about it. Sadly, the core of stigma covers our home. I tried to learn more about anxiety and discovered that one in every four persons has anxiety. I also sought inspiration from people who advocate mental illness. Indeed, it is true that when you see others fighting the same battle and more if they fight to voice out what the society has always neglected to address, you feel a little better.

Fast forward to year 2019. Its been already 11 years of seemingly endless struggle. Then, in the dark came a friend who has her own story of struggle with anxiety. She became my classmate in law school in my third year.  She said she was experiencing panic attacks. Honestly I felt glad there was someone in law school who can somehow relate with the situation I am in. From then, we talked frequently about mental illness until one day I opened up to her about planning to see a specialist. I never thought about seeing a Psychiatrist before. It was not in my options. My parents would not approve either. They’ll kill me for worrying so much about what people would say if they find out I am seeing a Psychiatrist. But I was already in my senior year in law school. I had to seek professional help to survive law school.

Then one day, that friend of mine discovered a Psychiatric clinic located near the school. I expressed my desire to make an appointment with the doctor and she enthusiastically offered to do it for me because she said she personally knew the doctor’s secretary. I accepted. I didn’t ask but I speculated she was also planning to get checked but it turned out later that she engaged the services of another Psychiatrist. Maybe she just wanted to know if the Psychiatrist she referred to me is preferable to her. Kinda weird but I didn’t really mind given the fact that people like us who have anxieties really do things weird.

But before I got to have a meeting with the Psychiatrist, I had to go through my parents first and convince them to let me get professional help. My father was strongly against it. He said people would mock our family because one of its members is mentally ill. Nonetheless, I insistently convinced them to be more open to talking about mental illness and overcome the stigma until they finally permitted me to consult a Psychiatrist. What happened with my meeting with the Psychiatrist was different than what I expected though. I thought that before the doctor issues the prescription, I get to share first the entire story of my struggle - how it started, how it has been affecting my life, how I have been trying to cope up, etc., – sort of a counseling. He did ask me how I felt but the questioning I thought was too fixed and limited. It seemed he did not want a long conversation. I could somehow understand because he still had a long line of clients to treat after me. He diagnosed me with General Anxiety Disorder coupled with panic attacks. Then he gave me four medical prescriptions. I have to take four medicines a day! That was the first time I have to take that many medicines a day and probably the most ever in my life.

The following night after my meeting with the doctor, I took the bedtime pill. I was glad with the result. I had like 3 to 4 hours of sleep. That was much better than not getting sleep at all. I didn’t feel perfectly rested but that was a great improvement!

I continued to follow the doctor’s advices religiously and I have been feeling better and better as time goes by. Although I have not really been satisfied with the consultation processes with my Psychiatrist because I think he has not been therapeutic in terms of our doctor-patient relationship, his professional advices have actually been effective so far. One problem I have with one of the prescriptions though, particularly the bedtime pill, is that it has made me extremely dependent on it. I fear that my drug dependency will become permanent but my doctor said he’ll eventually slowly reduce the prescription if I get in the right health condition.

Moving on with my health condition, I am now very happy, Alhamdulillah! I am slowly getting back my self-esteem and confidence. I can now look straight in the eyes making me enjoy communicating to people. The heavy-head feeling is gone. I still struggle falling asleep but at least I still able to get good enough sleep which provide me just the right amount of energy to accomplish my daily tasks. I think it is safe to say that the best decision I’ve made with regards to my health was getting professional help. It cannot be more true to me that sometimes what we are ashamed of to do (address mental illness) is what will actually make us better. By the way, I have been watching motivational videos which I’ve found greatly beneficial.

In Shaa Allah, I will continue to get better and get back the life I have been yearning for years. I have suffered so much damage and destruction in many parts of my life over the past decade. God-willing, I will have the time and health to fix them.

There are many lessons I’ve learned from my years of battle with insomnia and anxiety. I would have never learned the importance of addressing mental illness as a societal issue if I never went through it. The most important though is to keep up the faith in God and to never give up. When you feel pain; when you are tired; when you feel like giving up; when you feel like quitting; when you look around you and nowhere do you see anything remotely looks like success; when it’s all dark; just keep up the faith and believe that God has put you in that darkness for a reason and that after that darkness, you will come out stronger than ever befor

[holdmedownlaw]

all i wanted...

all i wanted is for you to keep watching over me.. to see me become the best of what i can be so that you will somehow acknowledge me :) :) but i just always end up showing the worst, the most un-cool side of me. what a sort of thing :(