Hi,

How’s it going? Hope you are doing late. I
am a little behind schedule today so I
have to kind of make this short.

I’ve recently gotten several hundred emails
from people asking questions like

How do you get a proper diagnosis for bipolar disorder
How do you know which medication you need for bipolar disorder
What medication is your mom taking
Which medications don’t work for bipolar disorder
What do I do when my loved one is going into an episode
Etc.

I get these and wonder, how come people don’t know the
answer. The answer is simple. You contact the or a
qualified doctor who is generally a psychiatrist.

These are the people that handle these questions.
In my opinion, the key to success with bipolar disorder
is with the doctor.

First as I look back, my mom had many bad doctors. Many
had no clue. But then there were some that were made
into bad doctors by us (my family), I will send more
about this tomorrow. There’s a way a good doctor
can be made to look like a bad doctor, when they
aren’t.

Secondly, my parents never really thought a good
or great doctor was important. I asked my dad if
they ever shopped for a doctor or ever went all
out like I did for my mom in 2005, to find a good one.

Thirdly, I have seen that a good doctor can accomplish
what many think is impossible with someone. For
example, with my mom, she went into that huge bipolar
disorder episode starting in 2004. No doctor
she worked with could help her.

Look at this. She first was in the psychiatrist
hospital for almost 2 weeks. NOBODY could help.
Then she was kicked out of that and put into
an outpatient program. She saw doctor after
doctor. She never got any better. She was
yelling, screaming, not stable, etc.

I would call the people that ran the out patient
program and ask things like:

So how much longer until she is better
What are you guys doing?
What’s the outlook?
Have there been people you can’t help, if so how many?
Do you have any doctors in the program that are for the really
difficult cases?
Etc.

I was worried that my mom would get out before she was
better. I started to think at this point that she
might not get better. I thought and you are going
to think this is strange that she COULD, and I repeat
COULD be almost broken and unable to be repaired.

I know this sounds strange because it sounds like
I am referring to some thing not my mom but at this
point, I didn’t have a philosophy, strategy, techniques
or anyone to ask. I was figuring it out as I went.

The supporter groups were no help either. They offered
no practical how to information.

Anyway, my worst fear did come true. My mom was told
the program is over because her insurance would not
pay for it any more.

When I heard this, I got really, really worried.
So then I started to change me thinking. Maybe
lots of doctors are bad (I don’t think this today),
and I have to find the one out of many that is
good.

So I put together a doctor finding system which
thousands of people have learned over the last two
years and it works great.

The strange thing was, as you may know, I found
my mom a new doctor and she got my mom 70% stable
in a week. I was amazed.

Then with a month she was almost back to normal.
To this day I am amazed. I have tried to ask her
over and over again what makes her a good or
better doctor than other ones. She is really
modest and downplays what she did.

BUT it’s not just her, people tell me all over
the country the same story. They used a bunch
of people with no clue and then found someone
really good.

In my courses/and systems, there are several
of these type of stories:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.survivebipolar.net

I will leave you with this last thought.
I have long been amazed how some doctors
are good and some are bad. Some doctors
can help the most difficult cases. Some
can’t.

Then I got to thinking about cars. Some
people are really good at cars. They can
look at a car and know exactly what’s wrong
and then fix it. People like me, are not
good at cars. They can’t even change an
oil the tires or figure out how to
do anything other than drive it.

You would never want someone like me
to fix your car. I am obviously not a
bad person just not good with cars. There
are doctors like this as well. They are
good people but you don’t want them to
work with you or your loved one.

Your goal is to filter, sift and sort
to find who is bad and who is good.
There are just some people like the
car fixing people that have a gift
on working with patients with a mental
illness and they do great work. There
are others and many this is not the
case with.

Hey I have to run. Have a good day and
catch you tomorrow.

Your Friend,

Dave

P.S. Check out my F.ree blog with copies of emails
that I have sent in the past and lots of great
information for you:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/supporterblog/

P.P.S Check out my F.ree podcast. Hear me give
mini seminars designed to teach you information
you can’t learn anywhere else.
http://bipolarcentral.libsyn.com