Hi,<\/p>\n
Today I want to talk to you about bipolar disorder and how it takes time and history to diagnose it. Many, many people have written or talked to me about how it took them a long time to get diagnosed with bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n
Even though the mental health professionals (psychiatrists, etc.) and even the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which is the “Bible” that psychiatrists go by to diagnose bipolar disorder will tell you that it’s between ages 17-21 that you first get diagnosed with bipolar disorder, most people are NOT diagnosed between those ages. It usually takes more time than that to be diagnosed with the disorder, as most of you will attest.<\/p>\n
Most people tell me it wasn’t until their thirties or forties that they were finally diagnosed. They tell me (most of them) that they pretty much knew that something was wrong with them long before that \u2013 usually they say that they knew it their whole lives, even.<\/p>\n
So firstly, it takes time to be diagnosed.<\/p>\n
Mostly because people who have the disorder usually don’t come to the doctor\/psychiatrist when they are younger, because either they are scared, or they don’t want to hear the diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Michele, who works for me wasn’t diagnosed until she was 45, but then she realized her son<\/p>\n
was showing the same symptoms and got him diagnosed when he was 12 years old.<\/p>\n
However, she has a 25-year-old son who secretly admitted to his girlfriend that he has bipolar disorder, but he will not go to a psychiatrist, because he doesn’t want the diagnosis confirmed.<\/p>\n
Maybe because he’s scared, maybe because he’s seen what his mom has gone through, maybe because he knows if he goes to the doctor\/psychiatrist, it will become real for him. Maybe because he knows if he gets diagnosed, he’ll be put on medication that he’ll have to take for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n
This is called denial, and when these people who have been in denial finally do seek help, one of the things the doctor\/psychiatrist will use to determine the diagnosis will be the person’s history.<\/p>\n
The doctor\/psychiatrist will not only ask for a medical history, but will want a family history as well, because research done on bipolar disorder does show a hereditary element to it, usually passed down the female side of the family, from mother to child.<\/p>\n
So, like in Michele’s case, it was passed from her to her two sons. Even though one of them is still in denial, he will eventually have to face the truth.<\/p>\n
So there is a time element to being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and there is also a history<\/p>\n
element.<\/p>\n
But what happens AFTER you’re diagnosed?<\/p>\n
The first thing is that you have to develop a treatment plan, because without it, you will have no direction to the management of the disorder \u2013 and if you ever want to manage it (and it CAN be managed, even if there is no cure \u2013 believe me, because that’s what a lot of my advice to people is about), you must have a treatment plan.<\/p>\n
A treatment plan usually consists of medication and therapy. Medication is SO important. Without it, there can be no stability at all. Medication helps to normalize the extremes in mood that bipolar disorder consists of. Although it may take some time to find the right medications and in the right dosages.<\/p>\n
The treatment plan will usually consist of therapy as well \u2013 especially in the beginning, because<\/p>\n
finding out that you have bipolar disorder may now interfere with what your life was like before.<\/p>\n
You may even go through a “grieving process” over your past life.<\/p>\n
So you will need therapy for all the issues that the disorder will bring into your life.<\/p>\n
Here’s where the supporter will be such a help to you.<\/p>\n
Supporters help their loved ones in so many ways \u2013 they will encourage you, help you learn to take your medications, go to doctor and therapist appointments, learn to de-stress your life, and help manage your disorder.<\/p>\n
It may take time and effort to find the right treatment plan for you, but that’s also another way a supporter can help.<\/p>\n
Most of all, a supporter can help someone with bipolar disorder to realize that they are still loved and cared for in spite of having a disorder that might otherwise cause them to feel isolated and alone.<\/p>\n
Well, I have to go!<\/p>\n
Your Friend,<\/p>\n
Dave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi,<\/p>\n
Today I want to talk to you about bipolar disorder and how it takes time and history to diagnose it. Many, many people have written or talked to me about how it took them a long time to get diagnosed with bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n
Even though the mental health professionals (psychiatrists, etc.) and even the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which is the “Bible” that psychiatrists go by to diagnose bipolar disorder will tell you that it’s between ages 17-21 that you first get diagnosed with bipolar disorder,<\/p>\n