Hi,<\/p>\n
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Have you ever seen a ballet? Or a dance with great choreography in it? The reason they\u2019re so beautiful is that everyone knows the steps. And the steps are all synchronized. The dancers work together. They all do the footwork necessary to make the dance come off in harmony. And to the audience, they make it look so easy. That\u2019s the beauty of it. But the audience doesn\u2019t know how much time and practice actually went into it. They don\u2019t know what it took to actually do the<\/p>\n
footwork. That\u2019s what I want to talk to you about today: Doing the footwork. See\u2026I think that one of the reasons that many people who are trying to cope and deal with bipolar disorder don\u2019t succeed is that they\u2019re waiting for other people to do things for them that they could be doing for themselves.<\/p>\n
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Here\u2019s an example: I\u2019ve heard countless sad but true stories of people who didn\u2019t take medication for their bipolar disorder and just kept getting worse and worse and going from episode to episode and hospitalization to hospitalization (and sometimes even jail) because<\/p>\n
they said they just couldn\u2019t get their medication, usually because they couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n
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But let me tell you a couple instances of the opposite. True stories that involve Michele, who works for me, that happened to her and her mother, who also has bipolar disorder. Here\u2019s the first case: Michele\u2019s mom is on Seroquel, a very expensive bipolar medication. And she\u2019s on Social Security, so she can\u2019t afford the medication. Well, Michele helped her apply to Astra Zeneca, the drug manufacturer of Seroquel, who has a program called AZ and Me, that helps people who can\u2019t afford their medication. Michele\u2019s mom now gets her Seroquel for only<\/p>\n
$25 per month.<\/p>\n
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Now Michele\u2019s case: Michele is on Geodon, perhaps the most expensive bipolar medication on the market, so she definitely couldn\u2019t afford it, and her insurance wouldn\u2019t cover it. She applied to Pfizer (the drug manufacturer) who has a program called Connection to Care to help her get her Geodon. Now they send a 90-day supply at a time directly to her doctor for her and she doesn\u2019t have to pay anything for her medication.<\/p>\n
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In both these cases, these women could have claimed that they just couldn\u2019t afford their medication and not taken anything for their bipolar disorder. In which case they would have just gotten worse and worse, like I described before. But Michele did the footwork and contacted the drug manufacturers and found out about their Patient Assistant Programs and got the medications for both her and her mother, with little or no cost to themselves.<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s what happens when you do the footwork. But you just can\u2019t expect that it\u2019ll happen for you. You have to do it yourself. Just like your loved one won\u2019t get better by themselves either.<\/p>\n
They have to do the footwork. You may be able to help them get their medication, like Michele did for her mom. But they still have to take it every day. And they have to do all the other things that lead to their stability, too. Like following their treatment plan. You can\u2019t go to their appointments for them, for example. But if they do the footwork, they can get better.<\/p>\n
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Well, I have to go!<\/p>\n
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Your Friend,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dave<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Have you ever seen a ballet? Or a dance with great choreography in it? The reason they\u2019re so beautiful is that everyone knows the steps. And the steps are all synchronized. The dancers work together. They all do the footwork necessary to make the dance come off in harmony. And to the audience, they make it look so easy. That\u2019s the beauty of it. But the audience doesn\u2019t know how much time and practice actually went into it.<\/p>\n