Your Mind Matters EP 4
Bipolar
What is Bipolar?
Bipolar disorder is a condition that affects your moods, which are known to swing from one extreme to another. There are two parts to bipolar, depression as we spoke about in the last episode, which is the feeling low, sad, stressed, suicidal, miserable and like life isn’t worthwhile. Meanwhile mania is feeling high, overactive and having lots of energy, these two alternate sides make up bipolar. 1-5 percent of the world population and over 1 million people in the UK have bipolar (1), it also increases the risk of suicide by 20 times (2). Misdiagnosis is can happen on average of three and a half times, and it can take 9.5 years to get a diagnosis.
The stigma surrounding most if not all of mental health conditions hold us back from treating people as they are already on the back foot, when conditions like bipolar are thrown around in conversation “you may never recover or your crazy, you should snap out of it, man up and people have it much worse than you” it reinforces the stigma. People with bipolar can live normal lives depending on what cycle they are in and how long it lasts. Mania behaviour may include spending sprees, decreased need for sleep, being more reckless or risky, increased self-confidence, sort of super power or invincible feeling and rapid ideas, thoughts and speech. Bipolar can have a serious effect on your work, home life, in personal relationships, disrupting normal life and potentially hospitalisation. If you’re experiencing some of those feelings or concerned about yours moods, please see your GP or speak to a family member.
As always we’d like to share experiences from people going through these topics, so you can get a feel for what it’s really like.
Here’s “Laura’s story”
Diagnosed with a form of bipolar at 18, she struggled to be happy and endured mental health discrimination that no one should have to go through.
"For as long as I can remember, I’ve always known I’m different to my sisters and other people. Being happy in life felt so easy coming from other people than I felt I could find it. I always remember my mum telling me the hurt she felt, that her little baby girl was never happy on the inside. Nothing she did could make me happy, my childhood was hard and teenage years even harder. I had been diagnosed with so many different versions of mental health illness's over the years, never really sure which diagnosis was right, till finally at the age of 18 I was told I had a form of bipolar. I was told my brain had a chemical imbalance. It was so hard to be told you must take this medication in order to be able to function a bit more “normal”. I hated my life, I hated my brain and I hated everything about me. A day of life in my head was fighting 100 demon’s in order to just go the shops or to see my family. I used to be horrible and just use my condition as an excuse, Something I have to live with forever but now know was something that was so wrong to do. Needless to say I gave the medication a good go and things did start to turn around for me. Then I fell pregnant with my son, I came off all of the meditation due to risks it could cause to my baby. I spent my pregnancy “head messed” as I called it. Days I spent depressed or angry, over time I started to get a control over it for my son without my medication, I wouldn’t be the person I am today without him, he saved me and I need him just as much as he needs me. I know there’s a strong chance of needing the medication again and I’m okay with that. I worry about the possibility of my son having the same illness as me, this is why more than ever I need to control it, so I can one day show my son how to. Unfortunately we do still live in a world where it’s looked down upon, I myself was discriminated against just because of my illness and in front of my son! He doesn’t understand the meaning of these words. Regardless though I still want to show him how to deal with this happening. So I called the council and police to report the matter, I was then told it’s not discrimination when it comes to mental health. I was so shocked and hurt. I mean if she had made a comment about my skin colour or religion then that would be discrimination so why wouldn’t this be the same? Saying something about something I was born with and can’t change isn’t discrimination, it made me see the world differently. My purpose for writing all this is, I hope if it gets through to just one person that mental health isn’t something to joke about, something to be scared of. We all have our own versions of normal, and we all cope with things differently."
References 1. Merikangas KR, Peters TL, Update on the Epidemiology of Bipolar Disorder. In Yatham LN, Maj M “Bipolar Disorder Clinical and Neurobiological Foundations”, Chapter 6, page 52-61. Wiley-Blackwell UK, 2010. & Lam, D.; Wright, K.; Smith, N. (2004). "Dysfunctional assumptions in bipolar disorder". Journal of Affective Disorders 79. https://www.bipolaruk.org/faqs/bipolar-the-facts
2. https://www.bipolaruk.org/faqs/bipolar-the-facts
3. S. Nassir Ghaemi (2001). ‘Bipolar Disorder: How long does it usually take for someone to be diagnosed for bipolar disorder?’. Archived from the original on December 7, 2006. Retrieved February 20, 2007. https://www.bipolaruk.org/faqs/bipolar-the-facts