what kind of treatment does a bipolar sufferer receive, and how are they diagnosed?
out of curiosity- does a person suffering with bipolar receive much help. Is it mandatory for somebody with a life adjusting mental disorder to stay off work, and do nothing or can they live and work normally. Also how long does the recovery take?
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A person with bipolar disorder does receive a lot of help.
They may need to take some time off work, but are encourage to live as normally as possible.
Recovery time depends on the person, the severity of the illness and luck. Some people may be recovered as soon as they’re put on medication. Others may never be symptom-free.
think they suffer from extreme highs and lows, drugs do control it, but I don’t think you recover from it . It is controlled with the drugs
im bipolar, and what happened with me was……..all of my life i knew something was wrong with me….even from a young age i was perpetually depressed and constantly sleeping…..finally when i was 20 yrs old i decided i couldn.t take the constant feeling of "i just wanna die"…so i made an appointment w/a psych doc…now i thought i was just severely depressed……he diagnosed me w/depression and anxiety as well…..it took almost a year for me to get the bipolar diagnosis (doc couldn.t exactly see my whole variation in moods in a half hour visit)…….it took a long time to get the right combination of medications and every once in a while they still have to get tweaked……there is no recovery, its an ongoing battle….most times now everything is fine but every now and then a wrench gets thrown in and i get all outta whack……i see my psych doc bout every 3-4 months (sooner if i need to), i take a few different meds, and i have to get bloodwork done every so often because the meds have to be at a certain level and some of them can be rough on the body…….
The treatment of bipolar depends on the symptoms and the severity of the mania and varies from person to person. Only a Psychiatrist can make that decision based upon observation and symptoms. It is not mandatory for someone to stay off work at time because of bipolar people do not work. Regardless if everything goes and okay and each does their part people with the disorder can live and work normally. Recovery takes a lifetime and is not cured and the main thing is proper medications and learning to live with the disease.
you would be assessed by a qualified professional and then spoken through your options! Unless you are a danger to yourself or others you will always have a choice. Generally you have a blood test done, then start on anti psychotic medication and see how that goes for you. there are lots of different medications so not a prob if one doeasnt suit you. You would hopefully be offered some counselling/ pschological intervention and you will be followed up as an out pateint if you are well and coping. It is treatable as in the fact that you need to continue treatment for life and take offers of support from the professionals. You can work and live a normal life. It may be up and down at times but then its only like a diabetic that may need extra help in the form of some insulin every now and then !!
It varies. Most are outpatients and can keep their jobs, but some must take disability and a few need to be hospitalized. Often they are in and out of work and sometimes in and out of prison. I’ve heard of one woman who is a nurse for a few months and then a patient for a few months at the same hospital. Abilify is one of the most common drugs used for bipolar. Many still use the older drug, lithium. Many are on more than one medication. Most get some kind of therapy. Recovery can take years or may not happen at all.
I have heard that many are wrongly diagnosed. It is a hard thing to diagnose. Diagnosis is usually based on the DSM-IV. That method of diagnosis is far from perfect.
Bipolar is grouped into two disorders Bipolar I and Bipolar II.
Bipolar I is diagnosed by an extreme and constant high, with horrible lows.
Bipolar II is diagnosed usually by experimentation. The patient will present with depression, and then the anti-depressent will trigger a manic high unlike anything the patient has ever felt. It’s literally like throwing kerosine on a fire. I was diagnosed like this.
Recovery is not possible, Bipolar is a genetic condition, it’s treatable but not cureable.
With treatment, the vast majority of patients can live a perfectly normal life. Medicine ranges from anti-psycotics to control the highs to anti-depressents to controlt he lows. However, Anti-depressents must be administered with an anti-psycotic.
It all depends On where they seek services .Some 1/2 azz care giver’s with just Look threw there Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV)and Give a person a diagnosis according to what there observations has been But a more affluent profession would have a neuropsychological assessment and follow the necessary recommendation from there have it be for meds therapy pharmacologist in or outpatient services social services community support services Department of mental services and so on.No its Not mandatory to stay off of work just the opposite there are programs to adjust a person to the workforce after Long periods of battling the disease.Live a Normal life I have only relapsed from recovery 2 times In 12 years I’m one of the Lucky one. with the right combination of meds and therapy i have been able to function on a daily Basis and be a wonderful Mom to a great teenage Boy
The gentleman is right its not curable but treatable and you can recover from the HELL you go threw.alcoholism isn’t curable is it a person is always an alcoholic but you in recovery RIGHT?
well, were not disabled or anyhting.
We have a problem with the brain…but it doesn’t mean it totally impairs us from doing activities people without BPD do….
I was diagnosed last year…been on the same medicine since then (lamictal is meant for long term use) and I’ve been fine. It took about 4 months for me to totally understand I need to change a few things about me…partially because my mania sometimes makes me so caught up in a natural high that I had poor judgement and well"verbally" cheated on the best thing that has ever happened to me last year….and the best thing about my girl is the fact tht she never gave up on me, of course she was really mad at me and I broke the trust, but she stayed with me and helped me change things…and now I’m undercontrol of my life since then.
It just sucks I’m only 17 and I’ve gone through too much a normal teenager should never have to go through…cause like, I’ve already become very mature at my age because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here today….
And yeah..when I wasn’t diagnosed for a good year (first year of high school till march of my soph year last year) I was a big liar cause I was always manic. And I lost so many people being like that, I even care around a 6 page letter in my wallet if I go somewhere that I know I have a chance of seeing the people I let down and hope to God I’d be strong enough to give it to them so it can explain everything and I wouldn’t have to regret that later in my life…
But anyways,
Were not killers or criminals, were hardly a danger to others physically…emotionally, yes. But its mostly a danger to ourselves when not stable. 20% of people with a formof BPD has a big chance of going through a psychotic break down (which I had a mild case of that last year when my mom decided to tell the psych I was just depressed and not bipolar…antidepressants make someone with bipolar disorder a lot worse) or become a statistic of the 15% suicide rate…
Were just like you, we just have to be on medication because the chemical balance that YOU have in your brain…is what we don’t have, we have a chemical inbalance….which causes depression and irritability…some say it can cause ADD/ADHD….and I have ADHD by the way..so the mania was worse back when I wasn’t okay.
Some go on the wrong medication and they sotp taking ot cause the pills make them feel funky..but I was very lucky. My medicine doesn’t make me have side effects..or weight gain..I’m still the kid that has a wacky sense of humor..I even made sure I didn’t change in a bad way…and I beat myself up when I let loose with my anger on the people I love.
I guess we have a higher sense of truly knowing life isn’t a dream…life isn’t always about having fun and finding outlets to not deal with pain…ever.
Mood stabilizers are what most take, I think that’s what I take.but all medication for BPD makes the chemical balance out and we have more middle moods like you do, its happiness and feeling content…
Rather than depressed or pissed.
Here’s two interesting facts!
1. MOST of the smartest people have a form of bipolar disorder…or ADHD (I got two pluses! Adhd and bipolar! Hah..)
Einstein’s parents thought he was mentally retarded when he was a kid, but later in life he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I know kurt cobain wasn’t recognized as a genious of science or anything like that…but he was a genious of music. ( I do not believe he killed himself…I think someone kiledhim, but we won’t get into that!) he was a creator of the grunge genre….he also had bipolar disorder.
2. There’s actually 42 forms of bipolar disorder, isn’t that crazy!
I don’t know, being bipolar doesn’t really get me down anymore. Actually, in a way, I’m kind of happy that I had to go through something like this because I’m very strong mentally now, I know my responsibilities and I know the difference between right and wrong. I’m not a druggie, stoner, smoker, or drunk…ill never do that crap. I’ve learned from being stable, cause all of those drugs and alcoholic drinks are depressants…and most are illegal…and going through all this just makes me realize its not okay and not good to waste my life with that crap.
I don’t know, all in all, I have a very strong spiritual belief and philosophy.
Remember, its never safe to let yourself fall into something that you know is bad…you’ll pay in the long run!
‘Help’ is limited (in my experience) to monitoring how the medication is working, rather than monitoring how the life if working.
I don’t have a problem with that, but anyone expecting oodles of counselling and guidance may be disappointed.
It is not mandatory _not_ to work. If all bipolar people stopped work tomorrow the country would be in trouble. Think of all those jobs Stephen Fry does!
There is no recovery, but hopefully there is a slow discovery of how to live well with it.