Bipolar

[maxi2006]

I am new here.

I went to the doctor's yesterday and for he first time in my life, I didn't lie about how I felt, I didn't try and be the "other person" that my mind longs to be. No fake smiles, no "I'm fine". It frustrates me so much that I cant speak and say how I truly feel, the words just don't leave my mouth. I took a piece of paper in with scribbles of how I feel, how my mind works, things I've done, recent events etc. My mind is racing and I need to get it off my chest. He said I have bipolar disorder and hypomania. I've got to wait to hear from specialist now and i cant stop thinking about it.

[tofler]

Hello and welcome maxi2006. Well done for being so honest with your doctor about how you've been feeling. It's not easy to have to open up like that and I've written things down and given them to my doctor before when I've been struggling. I hope you don't have to wait a long time to see a specialist. Has your doc give you any coping strategies or medication to help you get through each day, until you see the specialist?

[snicolle54]

try not to worry to much ,and think about things keep your mind occupied and let the team do the work has my wife suffers from bipolar and she is on medication ,touch wood she is fine at the moment

[lin62-65ze]

Bipolar can manifest itself in varying degrees. I am glad you have been honest and sort help. I have suffered with it for over 20 years, few people are aware as I am on Lithium and have been well now for years, I kept my job, had my own business and now I am retired. Do t see this illness as the end of your life. You can and will be able to be normal, if you are young then you will achieve your goals and have fun, I am proof of this so stop getting anxious and tell yourself that you on on the road to recovery, you have taken the first crucial step. Let me know how you get on 😊😊

[jrcnpg]

A GP is not medically equipped to offer diagnoses such as those without knowing the patient very, very well, so that s/he has seen the patient both manic and depressed on presentation. That rarely happens and given the fact that the average consultation lasts only around ten minutes or so, taking into account variables such as how many patients are waiting to be seen, how easy or difficult those patients have been to treat, it would be amiss for the GP to find that label which would have to include some element of a protracted conversation. Sadly, these days with an NHS cruelly burdened by cuts in funding because of both the last and the present undemocractically elected governments seemingly endless preoccupation with restoring the nation's financial health, it is far easier for the GP to reassure the patient that all is well with a prescription. Consultants cost money as do psychiatric units and everything else associated with psychiatric issues and it is often the case that mental health services are the first to suffer from cuts.

Referals do take time unless, of course, the psychiatric police (the crisis team) are introduced for whatever reason, and it would take more than one session with a psychiatrist to come to a diagnosis of any kind, bi-polar, schizophrenic - any category of that condition- or any other or a combination of any number of diagnoses, and alongside that consideration of medications since there are always medications! The talking therapies such as CBT, CAT, group therapies and God alone knows how many others there are.......mindfulness has just sprung to mind.....help some people but not me I have to say.

Now is not the time to worry. The time to worry is when you actually sit down with a psychiatrist (and trainee psychiatrist and trainee social worker and a pharmacist and a trainee pharmacist.) and come away thinking (or knowing as it was in my case) that what you wanted to say has been left unsaid and your main concerns remaining your main concerns. If you are lucky enough, or ill enough, you will be offered a further appointment from which the psychiatrist will have come to a decision to prescribe, for a trial period initially, medications which will serve as a further diagnostic tool. In the past you would have been offered a place within the hospital during which time you would be seen more often by the psychiatrist and the overall unit staff but these days it is reckoned that a therapist costs considerably less money than a hospital admission.

I know this sound somewhat moribund but it is not intended to be. I sympathise and empathise with people like yourself because I have been in that very same situation and I wish you all the best of British.

John

[LoriMS61]

Well done for taking the first step. It's a huge deal that you've been braver enough. I don't have bipolar, but I also write down my thoughts when I go to see my GP. I have problems with my memory, so if I don't have a prompt I will forget. Also, like you said, sometimes it's too hard to say the words, but writing them down feels like silent communication.

I hope you are seen quickly, but in the meantime, distract yourself as much as you can. Try and reply to other posts here. Even if it's just something like what I've done-reaching out. I'm writing to you, so that you feel welcome, and so that I don't overthink.

Lori

Xxx