- Doctors/Psychiatrists
- Psychotherapists
- Psychiatric Units
- Self-Help For Depression
- About Mania
Doctors/Psychiatrists
If you are diagnosed with a mental health disorder then it is important to have a doctor or psychiatrist working with you, to determine how ill you are and what medications (if any) might be helpful to you. If you are not diagnosed but are having major emotional problems and as a result are not coping with life well, then you do need some kind of help. I would recommend visiting a doctor and/or psychiatrist to find out whether there is any medication available that might help (whether for a physical or mental problem).
Although he (I’ll say he but it may be “she”) is the “expert”, not you, you need to be as involved as possible in your treatment. You ought to look up the disorder they diagnose you with and check that it really fits your symptoms. If you are uncertain that what he has diagnosed you with is right, then discuss it with him; if he will not listen then go for a second opinion. Likewise, look up whatever drug(s) he has prescribed for you. If the side effects are troubling you ask if there is an alternative drug you can try (but remember the side effects often subside after a while – you do need to give the medication a chance). The doctor will have a general idea of what side effects are common but he has probably never experienced them first-hand so it’s up to you to tell him if the medication is bothering you. And if you are feeling better after a while and want to try a period without meds, then push for your right to do that (as long as you have a support system to help, should you have a relapse). You don’t take something indefinitely just because “the doctor says so”. The doctors don’t know everything; there are many unknowns when it comes to mental illness.
Psychotherapists
Often our attitudes and methods of coping with life and unresolved pain that we are carrying from difficult past experiences contribute to our mental disorders. Therapy can be very helpful in taking us through a process where we find and can heal from unresolved pain and we challenge and seek to change our unhealthy methods of coping with life.
Therapists have training and experience which theoretically makes them good at helping us through the healing process. Call me skeptical if you like, but I sometimes wonder whether a big reason why therapy works is that we have a supportive person listening to us; which would mean that anyone who is willing to listen to us and be supportive rather than judgemental will be of some value. I admit that my skepticism increased after my one experience with therapy so far, which was with a psychoanalyst, was disappointing. That experience left me thinking that psychoanalysis was focused too much on the past and not enough on problem solving in the present.
Since then, I’ve read a couple of books about cognitive therapy (Feeling Good by David Burns and Love Is Never Enough by Aaron Beck) and found that it makes a lot more sense to me than psychoanalysis. So maybe I was in the wrong type of therapy. It is good to be aware that there are different approaches out there; if you don’t seem to be making any progress in therapy maybe it’s time to try a different approach.
Psychiatric Units
I have been in one for one day only but that was enough; I was shocked at the way I was treated; I felt it was degrading and disrespectful. I hope I don’t need to go into the hospital again but if I do I will make sure I have a doctor I know and trust in charge of my treatment. For more about my hospital experience, read my poem about it or my letter of complaint to my doctor which I wrote a couple of months later (bearing in mind that I may have been somewhat ill, still, when I wrote it).
Self-Help For Depression
These are a few relatively simple things which may help you; they have helped me. I believe that in addition to therapy and medications it is important to take responsibility and fight for our own wellness, although I realize that that is hard when the pain is severe and seems like it will never end.
For further reading: there is an extensive self-help book on the Mental Health Net (12/10/06 edit: this is now called the Mental Help Net), which you may find helpful. I also like Coping With Depression, an essay based on Cognitive Therapy techniques with some good suggestions for dealing with depression. (Added 12/10/06: I like Mary Ellen Copeland’s self-help advice. Here’s an article by her: Developing a Wellness Toolbox.)
Live In The Present
Don’t live in the past; don’t dwell on your past failures, mistakes; the rest of your life begins now; today is a new day and it can be different. Don’t live in the future; don’t always be worrying about what’s going to happen; it might not.
So live in the present – concentrate on what you are doing and where you are; smell the flowers, enjoy the sunshine, hug your pets/children/friends. Relax and be aware of your surroundings – and enjoy them and be thankful for them.
Prioritize, Simplify, Set Goals
Write a to do list; make it reasonable, not overwhelming, and leave out the non-essentials. As you do things check them off and add stuff you did which wasn’t on the list. At the end of the day you will feel a little better seeing how much you got done.
Be careful Who You Tell
Protect yourself from people who are not likely to be supportive. Don’t tell them things that cause them to reply in ways that hurt you.
One Step At A Time
Take one day at a time (or one hour, or five minutes, if a whole day is too much). Break overwhelming tasks down into manageable steps and do one at a time.
Helping Others
You may feel that you have too many problems of your own to think about anyone else’s and certainly I wouldn’t recommend that you take on a burden you can’t handle right now. But I have found that helping others even in a small way takes my mind off my own problems and it is incredibly gratifying to be able to help someone else. And also, if I can encourage another person by listening to their problems and being able to say “I understand and I care” that makes me feel like some good is coming out of my own pain.
Take one day at a time (or one hour, or five minutes, if a whole day is too much). Break overwhelming tasks down into manageable steps and do one at a time.
Take A Break And Have Some Fun
Give your brain some time off 🙂 – call a supportive friend; watch a funny/happy movie (NOT a sad one!); go out with some fun people; get a babysitter and go do something just for you. It’s good to give your brain a break from all the sad thoughts! We get into habits of negative thinking and need to break out of those.
About Mania
I have been manic just once – last summer; that’s when I was diagnosed. I’m hoping that there are things I can do to reduce the likelihood of it happening again; I haven’t been able to find much written about this; the prevailing opinion among the professionals seems to be that drugs are essential for controlling recurrences. But at the risk of being thought in denial, I will continue to hope until recurrences prove that I need daily medication.
The problem with mania is that it is so deceptive; it feels great and the manic person loses judgement; so I cannot have any confidence that my current determination to do whatever I can to avoid becoming manic will continue if I begin to get ill and lose judgement.
It seems intuitive to me that the following things are helpful in keeping me further away from behavior which characterizes a person going into a manic episode:
Good Sleep Habits
I try to go to bed around the same time most nights and if I wake up early stay in bed for a while and try to go back to sleep. I’ve noticed that I do feel better and am more relaxed and more emotionally stable when I sleep well
Managing Stress
Too much stress makes it hard for me to sleep and emotionally “labile”, as the doctors put it 🙂
Wise Use Of Time
When I have an idea and want to try it out right away I ask myself, can this wait until later today? Until tomorrow? Sometimes I have to remind myself that I have other pressing, although less exciting, things that I must do first.
Also, when I get frustrated and want to “do something” about a situation, I ask myself whether I really have to respond, write, or whatever it is that I’m thinking of doing. If I decide to wait it’s often “blown” over and I’ve saved the time and effort that I would have put into something unnecessary. We don’t have to correct every thing that is wrong in the world!
Accepting Feedback From Other People
Other people who know me well and understand the symptoms of Bipolar are the best ones to judge my condition. They will notice if I start showing symptoms and if I refuse to listen to them when they express concern, that is further evidence that I might be getting manic. It is hard to accept that other people might have a better perception than we do of our own condition, but that is the nature of mania.
Delusions
When I was ill I had thoughts that scared me sometimes. One day I decided that I would simply stop and think about something else if a scary thought hit me. And if I needed to I could come back to that thought later; but usually by then I realized that the thought was silly, a delusion, etc.
For Further Information
If you have not been manic yourself but want to know more about what it is like from the patient’s point of view, a good book to read is “An Unquiet Mind” by Kay Redfield Jamison. The introduction to Sol Wachter’s book “After The Madness ” also has a good description of when he was manic (in his case it was due to an adverse reaction to inappropriate self-medication rather than a life long illness). For more information, “the” definitive textbook on Bipolar (manic-depression) is “Manic Depressive Illness” by F.K.Goodwin and K. R. Jamison, or there are several web sites you can visit; you can start at the Mental Health Net (12/10/06 note: I think this is now the Mental Help Net) which has information of its own and extensive links for further research.