[sugahorse1]

Spin-off from another thread:

I often feel that our T's or pdocs just don't quite get us. They can learn from journals, or previous patients, but how many of them really know what we are going through?
When we cry out for help - is it VERY serious, or a kind of "Crying wolf"? At what stage is their patient's condition enough to truely worry, or is it a case of the patient just needing to hang in there and let the episode pass.

The book - An Unquiet Mind - hits the nail on the head. The author is BP, studies to be a psychiatrist and REALLY understands her patients. I wonder if there is an organisation or Forum for professionals where we can ask psychiatrists who are BP to come forward and let us know - I'm sure they'd pick up a LOT of patients!

I would feel a lot more comfortable, and not feel like i am being palmed off as not being a serious enough problem. I'd like to have to just say the minimum, and my T understands exactly.

In this light, I'm not even sure how much benefit T has for me - I suffer from depression and I'm not sure ANY amount of talking can get me out of it. And if my T doesn't understand and continuously asks me to consider that even "normal" people suffer from The Blues... I really question the value of it all.

I think we also have the problem that most of us have an above average IQ - our logical minds and the illness are continuously in conflict. This frustration just manifests itself and makes things even worse for us.

[lotusflames]

i think your last point is the important one!

I'm lucky. My pdoc (and old ones) have understood that my mind works well, despite being "ill" and that if they give me something i wanna know what it does, how and what the side effects are. most people dont care, they'll just take it. i think it frustrates drs / therapists when they ahve a patient who's read up about things and knows things, they dont quite know what to do with us.

[sugahorse1]

I've made it VERY clear to bith my professionals that I do my own research too.

What I was trying to explain with my last comment was - when we get depressed, or logical brain may tell us to just ride out the episode (It will pass) while the illness makes us believe this is the most terrible part of our life, our life is not worth living, we'll never get past this... And thisis where we get anxious and frustrated with ourselves - we just don't know what to believe, and even battle to rationalise.
And if we begin to rationalise, we can even begin to overshadow the seriousness of where we are at!

[katertot]

I have BP and Schizoaffective and I'm studying to be a psychiatrist! I agree with you that people can read all they want about it, but if they've never experienced it, they don't really understand us.

[madisgram]

i was incredibly lucky when i got dx'ed. both my T and pdoc had a unique ability to deal with my bipolar. they helped me immensely for 11 years. sadly tho when i moved, 3 times, i have never had the same experience since.
recently after 20 years of relative stability, i took a nose dive last week. i contacted my pdoc's office since i was fearful of going under the bus. i was told he was booked for 3 months! i've never experienced this lack of professionalism before. so i am on my own dealing with these dreadful feelings of despair, doom and gloom, etc.
i know it's my chemical imbalance but having no support or a change in meds is scary. once i feel better i plan to switch my pdoc. in the meantime my only other choice i suppose is the emergency room and that won't fix anything, so why bother?

[laur88]

This is why I wan to be a psychology major and hopefully move on to be a therapist - I imagine it's hard for non-BP people to understand how we feel. The most problematic thing is that when we meet with them, the often don't realize that in the life of a bipolar person, they are only seeing one side of us - one day we are fantastic and another we are horrible. I think that's why I wasn't able to figure out what I had for the longest time because either I was depressed when I went in or I was "fine" (aka manic)

[Medicated]

I have a friend who is a psychiatrist and who is also bipolar. He's fantastic and hilarious. Unfortunately, he's not MY psychiatrist, but I think very highly of him. He's encouraged me to go into psychiatry, but I'm not so sure I could handle that as a career. Heck, I can barely handle it as is...

[sugahorse1]

I'm very tempted to study psychology.
I finish my BCom degree end of the year, and I'm sure I'll get some credits and not have to start from scratch

[Anneinside]

Kay Jamison Redfield is a psychologist and wrote a great book. I read An Unquiet Mind many years ago. I'll have to read it again soon. There are also a couple of YouTube lectures that are both informative and interesting. Just search her name.

[lonegael]

Strange thing is that there are a fair number of people with pipolar disoder in the healthprofessions in general. I suppose we get weeded out from mental health as the training proces goes. Kind of odd, since the number of docotrs i see here with physical problems is really pretty high, all things considering...

[BlackPup]

I got lucky with my pdoc and T
pdoc specialises in BP can read my moods really well...
my T gets inside my head... he just gets me
neither have BP or other psychiatric illness but both have had their own struggles.

[Gus1234U]

haveing been to college in the masters level for both Counseling and Psychology, i can tell you that most people who get that degree are searching for the answers to their own messed up lives. Then they have to pay back the student loans, so they become therapists,,, well that is my experience, anyway,,, those programs don't cure their students, and those students don't know how to help us to recovery, or even to coping most of the time,,, my humble opinion

[laur88]

Originally Posted by Gus1234U

haveing been to college in the masters level for both Counseling and Psychology, i can tell you that most people who get that degree are searching for the answers to their own messed up lives. Then they have to pay back the student loans, so they become therapists,,, well that is my experience, anyway,,, those programs don't cure their students, and those students don't know how to help us to recovery, or even to coping most of the time,,, my humble opinion

Yeah, that's not the way to do it. If you're gonna go to school to get into Counseling and Psychology, it shouldn't be about fixing yourself. It's got to be about going out there are helping other people! Perhaps you will learn some things about yourself along the way but that most definitely should not be your primary motivation.

It's really too bad that the majority of people in your program have such wrong expectations...

My psych professional (a NMHNP... seriously, I wish there were a shorter name, but I previously thought of them as PNPs and it turns out that's pediatric. I'm a LONG way from that! LOL.) is not BP, as far as I know. However, she is very open about the fact that she finds people with diagnoses more interesting than odd or...considering them "broken". For sure they're not boring! It's all about getting things to a good point without losing one's uniqueness. Just the last session, I'd made reference to "normal" and she said, "what is normal?" I said, "well, you know, "normal" with quotation marks..." She seems on the verge of dx-ing me with 2 other things (1 for sure) and I don't feel threatened or judged by this. She's got "something" herself it seems, just haven't quite put my finger on it yet (pressed for an answer I'd guess ADHD). So... BP specifically? That would be interesting for sure... at least you'd know they really "get" it, but a sympathy/empathy for "differentness" goes a long way too. That we're not just some "specimens" to observe, you know? But that in fact there are unique advantages to such a mind, even if it is not as much appreciated in modern culture (well, you know and the pain of it part... not denying THAT in the least. And that, obviously, can be MAJOR.) But the way our minds can put together the most diverse and seemingly unrelated things that can result in astonishing uniqueness and downright groundbreaking new things. Never forget this, for it it true.
So yeah, long and short. A non-judgemental, and even appreciative attitude goes a long way, even if they aren't BP specifically. (Though that would be cool! )

[sugahorse1]

Thanks for your input. I think both my pdoc and T seem to get me; with my T I sometimes wish she'd be a bit harder on me, but I guess we're still getting to know each other, and she is learning what my boundaries are and what buttons to press.