Bipolar Disorder

Q

QuickSilver

SF VIP
Location
Midwest
We had discussed mental illness and Schizophrenia in detail... but another mental disorder that has interested me is Bipolar disorder.. particularly the manic phase.., as I have several close friends as well as a close family member suffering from this. Here are the hallmarks.

Box 1: DSM IV-TR Criteria for a Manic Episode
A distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, lasting throughout at least 1 week (or any duration if hospitalization is necessary).

During the period of mood disturbance, three (or more) of the following symptoms have persisted (four if the mood is only irritable) and have been present to a significant degree:
  • Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
  • Decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
  • More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
  • Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
  • Distractibility (attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli)
  • Increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
  • Excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., unrestrained buying sprees, sexual
  • indiscretions, or foolish business investments)


 

Interesting. I’m hardly qualified to diagnose, but those traits match a former co-worker who (I learned later) was bi-polar.

Inability to focus for very long (very difficult to talk to……often interrupted a work-related discussion with comments about shoes or asking where we were going to lunch)
Talk, talk, talk…..interrupting with irrelevant “look at me” comments
Frequent sexual innuendo
Only slept for a few hours each night
Delusions of grandeur

Sometimes can be just laziness and rudeness, though. But boss and the rest of us had to constantly try to get the person back on track.
 
My bipolar friend holds a PHD in Social Work... and has been fired from every job she has ever held. She also tried self medicating with alcohol.. which many do. She still is not all that compliant with her meds, but had toned down her behavior drastically.
 

I happen to have a friend and a family member with the disorder, it's not always clear cut in some cases, unfortunately today, there are a lot of armchair psychiatrist who see symptoms and cases everywhere and want to put these type of labels on people they encounter for various reasons. It's a very serious illness, many of us have all types of illnesses and while labeling others miss seeing our own crazy often times or maybe sometimes we're just trying to bounce things off. But indeed all types of psych conditions are very interesting.

My above comments are not in reference to other postings, just a general assessment.
 
Yeah, and as I’m sure you know, when a person is fired they often will not be told the real reason. It’s a shame to put so much money and effort/work into getting a lot of degrees, then not be able to cut it in the work place. A pattern of firings/being “let go” from various jobs means something else is going on. Employers just don’t want to deal with the person anymore………..they’ll cover their butts to avoid a lawsuit, then hire someone who is a “better fit” OR eliminate/restructure the position.

Employee Assistance Programs can sometimes help, but ...again, many employers just don't want to deal with the person. They just want them gone.
 
That's very true... however, in my friend's case... she has a bonafide diagnosis from an MD, so I have not diagnosed her on my own.
 
Bipolar is very common, I have a friend with the disorder, successfully treated with medication. When she was in her 'manic' phase she was usually gung ho about a certain thing she is into, like her new obsession with tea or perfume or a certain activity, e.g. running. It was never been life destroying to begin with, and she has been lucky.
 
Unfortunately the medications are uncomfortable to most.. Lithium.. which is a heavy metal and can destroy kidneys.. or Depakote which can cause sedation and weight gain. I'm not familiar if newer more palatable medication has been successful in treating the disorder.
 
My dad was bi-polar. That list of the manic phase that you posted was him to a T. He wasn`t diagnosed until he was 55 years old and was put on Lithium. He was a different person and it was so nice for all of us-especially my mom (all but one of us kids was married and out of the house by then) But,he only took the med for a few weeks,then said it made him feel sick(was probably telling the truth) and flushed the meds. My mom divorced him after 38 years of marriage-she couldn`t deal with it anymore. She married him when he was 18 and says he was always a "wild and crazy" guy,but when he was in his early 20s she saw the mood swings really setting in. His mother was also bi-polar-as were two of his brothers and one of his sisters.
 
One of my foster girls has also been diagnosed as bi-polar but I really don`t see it. She does have mood swings-gets a little manic but not like my dad did. And no depression that I see at all-her "opposite" is ugly anger. Has not been on meds since she was 10 when she refused to continue taking them.
 
That's the problem with so many of the psych meds... they are not fun to be on because of their side effects. Manics suffer from something different... they actually ENJOY their mania.. It's empowering.. they can conquer the world... they feel fantastic... until that is they cycle down and crash.. Why would you want to take a med for something that you really, really like? So there's that added dimension to Bipolar.
 
My daughter had bipolar disorder. As with other things, it dangerous to generalize. She would go for months or even years and be level. Then, for some reason, the high or low would kick in. When the highs kicked in, she was on top of the world. When the lows would kick in, she would go inside her house, lock the door and not let anybody in but me. She would sit and cry and there was nothing I could do but sit and hold her. Every med had such bad side effects, she couldn't take them. Finally, just before her fatal accident, there was one that was working. At least I know she was happy that last few months.
 
My son-in-law is bi-polar. Brilliant academically and technically. But, irrational. His meds make him drowsy. I do not know how my daughter has dealt with him for 28 years. He is a "crazy maker", even medicated. A control freak...never wrong...always trying to force others to follow his manic ideations. Right now it is about his daughter getting married. Trying to force us to take sides. His irrational thinking is very hard to deal with.
 
AprilT said:
I happen to have a friend and a family member with the disorder, it's not always clear cut in some cases, unfortunately today, there are a lot of armchair psychiatrist who see symptoms and cases everywhere and want to put these type of labels on people they encounter for various reasons ...
Click to expand...

What's even scarier is when these labels are stuck on children who are only guilty of being children.

Most of us - I would even venture to say ALL of us - could sit down with the DSM and find at least a few afflictions whose symptoms seem to match our own. But what is truly disturbing is that even credentialed psychologists / psychiatrists have a dismal record when it comes to diagnosis and, in order to fill their quotas, merely listen with one ear to their patient's litany of woes while promptly reaching for their Rx pad. It's far quicker and easier to medicate than to employ more traditional therapeutic techniques these days, so that's what they run with.

Ever wonder why the old term "manic/depressive" was changed to "bipolar disorder"?
 
SifuPhil said:
What's even scarier is when these labels are stuck on children who are only guilty of being children.

Most of us - I would even venture to say ALL of us - could sit down with the DSM and find at least a few afflictions whose symptoms seem to match our own. But what is truly disturbing is that even credentialed psychologists / psychiatrists have a dismal record when it comes to diagnosis and, in order to fill their quotas, merely listen with one ear to their patient's litany of woes while promptly reaching for their Rx pad. It's far quicker and easier to medicate than to employ more traditional therapeutic techniques these days, so that's what they run with.

Ever wonder why the old term "manic/depressive" was changed to "bipolar disorder"?
Click to expand...

I agree with a lot of what you are saying, I come across quite a number of people who haven't any business in the field. People I know who run programs and write, scripts I've been sitting and conversing with and they have said some very flippant things about their patients, no personal details, but still. I'm sure their venting, but sometimes it's TMI and they should know better especially when out in public. There are of course terrific people in the profession and some local counties cut so much funding it does hinder and cause some milling effects.
 
As a therapist often dealing with clients suffering from severe PTSD, I have encountered many examples of misdiagnosis. Many of the symptoms of PTSD can mirror those of Bipolar Disorder. Even knowing their patient's traumatic history, some health care providers stick the BPD label on trauma victims, usually with disastrous results.
 
My second ex was bipolar and would not take medication until after we split. He seemed to be a very laid back guy when I met him but he became a total nightmare.
 
Annie, I sympathise. Untreated, BPD can manifest itself as Doctor Jekyll Mr. Hyde scenario from Hell. This is an illness of rage and arrogance if untreated, as well as other difficult symptoms, disastrous for mentally ill person and those around him or her.
 
"Tracy Kidder’s “A Truck Full of Money,” which traces English’s rocket rise during the Internet’s founding era while dealing for years with undiagnosed bipolar disease that sometimes made him soar and sometimes brought him low..."
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/bo...ssful-start/yEFDjSBq0GdGAc31JEdtsK/story.html

I learned a lot about bipolar disorder by reading that book. That helped me understand a relative who has bipolar disorder II because the book chronicles how having bipolar disorder affected Paul English's life. That, in turn, also gave me some assurance that my relative had not been misdiagnosed. It spurred an enlightening conversation with him in which he told me the details of what it is like when he has episodes of hypomania and depression.

Here is an article about the misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945875/

This subject interests me because I have a close friend who was diagnosed and treated for bipolar disorder for 15 years. She lived with my family for a few years, and I saw no signs of bipolar disorder. In the end, it turned out she had severe PTSD. She didn't know that because her therapist refused to discuss the precipitating events with her. She got a new therapist, a new diagnosis and treatment for PTSD, and her life has turned around. She works full-time now and has a wide circle of friends and a life she enjoys.

Often the misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder is the other way around, of course.
 
I think she does have Bi=polar because she been in eight mental hospitals in past 4 years and she's 65 years old. She has mood swings even when she on her medicine. She was married to her husband for 45 years before he died from Cancer. She like's to spend money and love to eat for some reason. She love's food so much she will eat at a resturant twice a day everyday. Her children told me she told them about every week she wanted to kill herself when they was young. Her husband never made her take her medicine for years and how did he live with her so long without driving him crazy.
 
I can't imagine living with a person with BPD who refused to take their meds. Soon I would be crazy also. One of my best friends has severe BPD 2. He takes his meds, but it is still challenging to be around him at times.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top