Before I start talking about the various bipolar related topics, I just wanted to give a summary of my “qualifications”. An outline of my experience with the illness. Something like that.
I was diagnosed with bipolar in June 2002, but I didn’t really accept the diagnosis until some time in 2003 – I didn’t want to be bipolar. Depression I was reasonably OK with the idea of, since that could be circumstantial and therefore go away once whatever the circumstances were had been fixed or dealt with in therapy. But bipolar was a bit more permenant, so it took me some time to come to terms with that. I’ll talk more about this when I write the post about experiences with diagnosis. So, that’s 7 years now that I’ve been diagnosed and on various medication, some of which has worked better than others. Again, I’ll go into more detail on that later.
Previous to that, I can now recognise manic and depressed episodes from my late teens onwards – which once again I’ll talk about more later. I’ve had therapy of various kinds, I’m currently being treated by the local Community Mental Health team – I see a psychiatrist every three months or so, depending on how I’m doing. Right now I’m doing pretty well, but I’m not technically “stable” because I still go up and down a few times a year. I occasionally go to a local drop-in centre and take part in some of the things they run, or just have lunch and a natter with some of the other members.
Any questions you’d like to ask? Just leave a comment.
I don’t have any questions at the moment, but being bipolar myself, I am looking forward to reading your posts about your experience. And I came by this blog recommended by a friend.
Hi – thank you! It’s taking me a bit longer than I’d thought to get those posts written, but I’m hoping I’ll catch up with myself really soon. If you have any comments when I get them out, whether you agree or disagree, I’d love to hear them :-)