Trying to understand bi-pola

General Discussion
1

It seems to me that Bi-pola is a n illeness which is current, increasing and not understood.


About 2 years ago an old school friend developed symptoms which have been diagnosed as "border-line" Bi-Pola. NOT sure how boder line she is or if the NHS are extending their helping hand but she


has other health problems too which do not seem to be addressed.


During the UP time she is like a child who wants to eat all the sweets in the shop and goes on E bay buying all sorts of things that she does not need and booking holidays and theatre tickets....many, of which she is unable to attend as when she reaches a down she is,âpparently unable to get out of bed and lacks every basic motivation. So on a downer she pays no attention to the well being of the house or herself....and hides from the world.

The house is, apparently in a mess. She can not find her driving liscence or her passport and about a


week ago she had a car crash. The other driver is fine, she was vertually unmarked but the car was


a right off. Apparently she drove herself to the hospital for a blood test....having not eaten for 12 hours or longer...she is diabetic...she drove off to buy a toaster and fell asleep at the wheel.


She was, for the 4th time trying to visit us this week but without a passport and moving into


a down mode it did not materialise.


Now the doctors...oh yes the doctors ...they say she needs to help herself?


Some of us seem to manage through all sorts?


Are we stronger?


Are the doctors and social services doing enough?


Are the family doing their bit?


Are we going to loose the live's of friends and family through nonchalonce?


We all have friends buzzing around when we are the life and soul of the party


but when the light goes out....WHERE is everyon?



2

Yes so that is the way it is.

Everyone for themselves.

I too have just one family member back in UK

and a long lost cousin in Lincolnshire but no one close enough to

want to help.

So like you I have always taken care of me.

And not relied on others ..

Through serious illness and the added probs which arise after the event
It is impossible to survive without some depression especially when

the hospital and doctors failed so badly with their "BED SIDE manner"

But the teaching is about administering pills, surgery and hoping that sticking

plasters peform miracles.

3

Barbara, I coped alone when I was 20. But I had the support of my college at university and people the medics were afraid of. I had no family help, because I simply kept them out of it, but a few friends who kept an eye on me because I asked them to. The NHS is underfunded, overstretched and it is difficult to expect too much from them. They are happy to take a chance, prescribe some pills, pass it back to the GP to renew the prescriptions and end of story. When they get it wrong there's nothing much you can do about it, not a nice picture but friends in the NHS I've known most of my life describe it that way. Social services depend on the NHS to diagnose things first, so back to square one.

As for family in the UK, a sister and that's for me. Rest gone or who knows where. Lots of people are similar by middle age/late middle age, so never depend on family.

4

Brian I agree.

With what you have written.

One of the reason why I posted here is to make people more aware of this huge problem.

I belive that people need to open up their eyes to the whole situation of getting their ailments

properly diagnosed.

I have begged my friend to " GO PRIVATE" to look further into her health problems but she is

being masked by the idea of not spending the money and leaving it up to the NHS.

The NHS does not seem willing...OR maybe aible to cope...

By leading a truely...unhappy existance she is now unable to do the work which she once enjoyed and

constantly lets people down in her whimsical way.

I do not go in for the ahs....WE must get past them.

But if family are not interested who is their left to take care of people who are

unable to take care of themselves.

Social services....on occassion.

Many of us have family in UK?

5

Firstly, you should use the bipolarity group for this one, secondly it is so easy to tell somebody they are bi-polar when they are not, since she is diabetic she needs that properly looked at. My ex (2nd) OH is a type one, insulin dependant diabetic. She and I still work together a bit, indeed we were on Skype to each other an hour ago and talking about her health. When she was first diagnosed it was as type two and had to change diet, etc. Later she was getting as batty as hell, ups and downs and forgetting meetings and other work, etc. It was one of the things that made her decide to live in another country and we divorced amicably so that we had the freedom to do things as individuals and she could get sorted. Friends and family did very little but make lots of mock sympathy 'aahhs' and I suspect that is quite common.

So get your friend to get checked THOROUGHLY before psychiatry takes over and helps her diabetes kill her. If she is bi-polar then there are lots of things from the pills I have always refused, via meditation groups, psycho-therapy without drugs, etc, etc. But get her to get a proper diagnosis from more than one person who knows what they are talking about first. It is too easy for medics to say 'X' then that is it, it is not!