Bipolar support thread

Sueinbirmingham

sh1305 wrote: »

In other words, they're burying their heads in the sand and claiming there's no mental health issues.



Which has I think, also lead to "well, they have bipolar and work, so why can't you?" I have a relative who works and has bipolar; but she's stable for now. Yet, I have a friend whose wife has been sectioned twice in about a year because of how unstable she is.

I agree.

I have met people who've had a single episode, been put on medication and got on with their life like before.

I have met others who simply can't function without an enormous amount of support, sometimes spending months at a time in hospital, year after year after year.

I have met people with bipolar who've recovered, gone back to work, relapsed, recovered, gone back to work, relapsed.... Some never seem to hold down a job for more than two or three months before ending up back in hospital. Except that there are fewer and fewer hospital places, so they're suffering in the community, struggling to get their benefits reinstated. I find this particularly true of people with a tendency towards mania especially if they experience a lot of self-delusion.

I don't know what the answer is to helping people like me to function optimally, but certainly the trends in benefits, social care and health care don't seem to be the way forward.

I don't want to spend my life in an institution, but I'd like a recognition that I'm disabled and I can't function without a lot of help.

The only thing in the current reforms that I see as positive is the possibility of the new universal credit making it easier to mix and match bits of paid work with benefits.

I wish I didn't feel so incredibly bleak about the direction in which things are moving. This isn't a new thing. I've been aware of mental health trends and politics for many years now and have seen which way the wind is blowing.

Sueinbirmingham

de1amo wrote: »

İf there arent the beds and this system goes ahead--i feel it wont be in the future an influx happens it will be pretty immediate. --what then, do we live in a society where very ill people are left to their own devices to hope for care at home or on the streets--will Britain then be a 3rd world society?

I think that there'll be a trickle effect. To begin with, people not getting ESA will in many cases either appeal - and some appeals are taking up to a year - or find another source of income. It will probably take some time for many cases of people on JSA that get sanctioned because they just can't get it together over jobsearching, plus more sanctions over non-participation in courses etc. as the new providers get more powers.

Meanwhile, we're not due to see the reforms to DLA for another two or three years, and then presumably there will be a transition period.

Initially, I think, mental health services will try to take up the slack as will charities, and I think that it will take many people some while to reach their most ill.

So I think there'll be a gradual build up over the next 4-5 years. There'll probably be a few high-profile cases where manic people do something dangerous or violent, and then the government can react by putting something in place, but probably very heavily controlled and restricted.

It could take a couple of generations to see anything as liberating as the IB/DLA/bus pass/respite unit/day facilities combination again.

de1amo

i wouldnt recommend it but i can see a fair few people finding this a good reason to stop taking meds so that these boards see what the reality of their condition is really like---DO NOT TAKE THİS AS A SENSİBLE COURSE OF ACTİON

de1amo

İm going to ramble because i am home from work and having a soothing drink(against what it says on my meds!!)--i am a manic and have been so endowed for about 13 years--its 10 years this january since i had my last episode and i play it straight by taking my meds and trying to live a stress free life.
Back in 2000 i was a mess and in the midst of a messy divorce but that was the best thing for me--divorce ended a bad marriage and left me free to settle down to being a manic and finding my own way.--i have since remarried and have a lovely step daughter who i love as my own. i dont live in the uk now and i work full time in a school i set up with my wife--i agree work is the way to beat dispondency but it must be on 'your' terms--manics are normal unless they are constantly cycling and can take their place in society as positive and 'bright' people but must be permitted to sleep in when sleep is hard to come by--i do meditate which helps me a lot with stress--i learnt transendental meditation and it really relaxes me and i escape to my office when i feel the stress is on--having the right partner is the real deal clincher--maics are wonderful people but need the right person to appreciate and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the condition

Sueinbirmingham

I hope this doesn't sound like hair-splitting, but do you think you're really manic all that time or are you more hypomanic? I tend to think of manic as being rather as it is in the DSM concept of the level at which you can no longer function effectively and need hospitalisation or at which you've become psychotic as well as high.

sunnyone

de1amo wrote: »

İm going to ramble because i am home from work and having a soothing drink(against what it says on my meds!!)--i am a manic and have been so endowed for about 13 years--its 10 years this january since i had my last episode and i play it straight by taking my meds and trying to live a stress free life.
Back in 2000 i was a mess and in the midst of a messy divorce but that was the best thing for me--divorce ended a bad marriage and left me free to settle down to being a manic and finding my own way.--i have since remarried and have a lovely step daughter who i love as my own. i dont live in the uk now and i work full time in a school i set up with my wife--i agree work is the way to beat dispondency but it must be on 'your' terms--manics are normal unless they are constantly cycling and can take their place in society as positive and 'bright' people but must be permitted to sleep in when sleep is hard to come by--i do meditate which helps me a lot with stress--i learnt transendental meditation and it really relaxes me and i escape to my office when i feel the stress is on--having the right partner is the real deal clincher--maics are wonderful people but need the right person to appreciate and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the condition

physically disabled people also need to do as you do so why is it MH claimants that feel they are been got at but physically (or most likely a combination of physically and mentally ill people) disabled people are going to be fine?

Sueinbirmingham

sunnyone wrote: »

physically disabled people also need to do as you do so why is it MH claimants that feel they are been got at but physically (or most likely a combination of physically and mentally ill people) disabled people are going to be fine?

I don't think that mentally ill people think that all physically disabled people are going to be fine, but I think that some will come out of this better than others. For example, those in residential homes are getting a very cruel deal out of the future cut to DLA mobility. Those who are able to "mobilise" in wheelchairs but who cannot walk look set to lose the DLA mobility that they may currently be using to pay for electric wheelchairs. So it's not just mentally ill people who will suffer.

However, it seems fairly clear that many mentally ill people will come off badly in the reforms, looking at it in the long term, taking not only the coalition's reforms, but what Labour before them did as well.

If you look at the new WCA descriptors due to come in in the spring (I can't remember whether it's March or April) that the Labour government initially proposed and approved but didn't enact, and which the coalition has run with, they effectively legislate away most mental illness. Whereas the physical descriptors have the "reliably and repeatedly" factor, the mental descriptors have more specific factors that don't take into account whether you can do something reliably or repeatedly. The mental descriptors seem to have been written to accommodate severe learning difficulties and acute psychotic crises, but not chronic cyclical problems.

There are all sorts of anomalies. For example, to get lots of points for social interaction, your problems have to be with people unfamiliar to you not people familiar to you. That's great until you go to work and can't cope with your colleagues (but can cope with the customers).

I don't think that to be concerned that there are enormous problems with the way that successive governments are treating mental illness is to belittle the needs of physically disabled people.

I have marched in combined physical and mental disabled people's demonstrations. I stand shoulder to shoulder with other disabled people. However, I think that it is perfectly reasonable for mentally ill people to express concerns about how mentally ill people are being treated without always having to say "and of course we know that physically disabled people are also having problems".

de1amo

sunnyone wrote: »

physically disabled people also need to do as you do so why is it MH claimants that feel they are been got at but physically (or most likely a combination of physically and mentally ill people) disabled people are going to be fine?

İ also have a diagnosis of cervical spondylosis which gives me a measure of pain and disablement-it was the original reason i was pensioned off from my job.
İ have been very fortunate that the mh drugs they gave me did the 'trick' all those years ago--i have run help groups for manics and many sufferers are not so lucky and life can be perpetual states of illness.--there are as many levels of unwellness as there are personalities--they want to be well and go to the group support but the chemistry just doesnt click.
i dont know other people's outlooks who have the illness but i see the manic stage and depression that follows as very distressing and destructive to my life and i never want to go there again.
When i first came to accept my illness and got on the right meds i set myself goals---the first was to stay well for 2years and during that time i attended all sorts of OT and help groups--i volunteered for psycho-therapy and it was a great help.--After 2 years i distanced myself from the MH system as much as i could--i always accepted that i had to stay on meds for life though.
Years have now turned into a decade and i see my condition as a part of me and just need to take my meds and watch for stress--my wife is my biggest remedy and she shelters me from stress.

decafmirth

I just discovered this thread. I wish I had seen it sooner. I summarised part of my story below (ETA: I've now deleted large sections and summarised the original post - see tl;dr - as it got too long). Some parts may trigger. I hope they don't. But I must warn you just in case.

tl;dr I have cyclothymia. I had a rough time when moving from one PCHT to another and stopped taking my medication (DON'T DO THIS!). Things were fine for a while until they weren't. Now I'm back on medication but slowly getting better.

My Full Original Post:
<backstory deleted; it's far too long and much too personal> In my mid-twenties I finally found a fairly decent GP who diagnosed me with cyclothymia, which he defined as being a 'mild' form of bipolar disorder... not that it felt mild to me. He tried me on various different meds which either had no effect or caused such wild swings that he eventually referred me to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist also experimented with meds but gave me a fortnightly appointment with a psychotherapist who really helped me learn more about myself and about some of the triggers to my mood shifts.

After two years and with a regular prescription for a combination of anti-depressants, mood stablisers, anti-anxiety pills, and sleeping pills, I was considered stable enough to move away from home and to finally attend university. Before I left my psychiatrist told me she had called the local PCHT and that little would change... my files would just be transferred and I would be seeing new faces.

Not so.

After registering with the new GP I had to wait for a new referral to the local mental health team who eventually made, then cancelled, two appointments. I never got to see them. They finally sent me a letter saying that they had determined I did not qualify for support by their team as I had access to counselling through the university.

I had been on the university counselling waiting list for three months at that point. And then my GP left the practice.

In retrospect it was a dangerously bad idea but my reaction to these things made sense in my dosed-up and unsupported state. I figured that if I did not qualify for support then I did not need to take the medication. I left the GP's practice and stopped the medication. No withdrawal. I just stopped. (EDIT: DO NOT DO THIS!)

It was very bad for a while, then better, and then I found that I could think again. I hadn't realised how restricted my mind was under the medication. (Looking back, I would not ever just stop taking medication again.)

For just over two years I flourished. It was very hard. I had to restrict my lifestyle to work around triggers and my mood swings, and I had to take extra care when building relationships (of any kind). I was obsessive about maintaining a balance and put my mental health at a higher priority than everything else. Despite that, my grades soared, I built a few deep friendships and even a loving relationship. And I paid off most of the £10k debt I'd accrued during an earlier prolonged hypomanic phase.

And then I let myself become too busy to maintain the obsessively balanced lifestyle. I took on too much and grew stressed. My moods began to swing wildly again. And then I slipped entirely.

I spent most of 2010 mired in depression though I refused to recognise how bad it had become. I started calling in sick to work, I wouldn't voluntarily socialise and was withdrawn when others visited me, I stopped crocheting (it might not sound much but it was a daily part of my life), <text deleted due to potential triggers>, and I even cancelled attendance at my graduation (where I was due to accept an award for graduating top of my class). Finally, my NOK gave me an ultimatum. I re-register with a GP and seek help or they would see me sectioned.

They were right. I was in a dangerous state. I still am, though less so now than I was.

My new GP is supportive and listens. Although I'm back on medication, he understands my history with the various medications and is determined it will be a short-term aid this time. And he has insisted that I phone the surgery any time I lose my grip, even out of hours. I have really appreciated that.

He did tell me something that disturbed me though. When I asked about support from the local community mental health team he told me that they do not accept bipolar as being a disorder that requires support. He said that he has been campaigning for the team to recognise his patients but has made little headway. He said that this is why he wanted me to phone him any time that I needed support... because the CMHT would reject the referral of any bipolar patient.

I'm not well yet but I'm getting better. I'm still signed off from my main (and very stressful) job but I'm not claiming sick pay or any benefits; I am lucky that I have a supportive partner and some freelance work I can do from home.

I went out for New Year last night (though I did wind up having to pop two valium - don't worry; no alcohol!) and I'm hoping to go to the local support group that is starting up the week after next.

Next goal: rediscover sleep!

Thank you all for reading this. I'm sorry that it wound up so long.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

Does anyone experience worsening of bi-polar symptoms around the time of their menstrual period?

My mood swings definatly worsen around this time & am wondering if anyone else is affected this way.