Search Results for: suicide

Mixed Bipolar Disorder – Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar 1

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 8, 2011

Ask a Bipolar – What is a mixed mood in bipolar disorder?

As one of the Burble’s commenters mentioned, there seems to be a lack of good information on mixed moods available. After some Googling, I would tend to agree. While mixed mood episodes are pretty common for us bipolar folk, few people seem to be discussing it.

This is the beginning of a four-part series on mixed moods in bipolar disorder:

Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar Type I
Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar Type II
Changes to Mixed Mood Episode Diagnosis in the Revision of the DSM
Treating Mixed Mood Episodes

Mood Tracking for Bipolar Disorder – How Do I Track My Mood? (2/2)

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jul 27, 2011

OK, you’ve sold me as to why I should track my mood (part 1); so just how do I track my mood?

Obviously, the simplest form of mood tracking is just recording depression and mania on a scale, say, of one-to-ten. You could use a “paper” and “pencil” (look it up on Wikipedia).

You might still notice mood trends but that type of mood tracking is not nearly as helpful as it could be. And the more complicated your case, the more you already know, the more subtle your shifts may be and the less you’ll see using simple methods.

There are far more useful, not to mention easier, options.

Ask a Bipolar – What Mental Health Topics Are You Interested In?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jul 22, 2011

If you’ve been around for the last couple of weeks either at the Burble or at Breaking Bipolar, you know it’s been pretty much all suicide all the time. And there will probably be more to come on suicide as it’s an awfully big topic.

But I do have a question for everyone:

What topics would you like to see on the Burble?

Why Aren’t Doctors More Honest With Patients in the Hospital?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jul 1, 2011

Inpatient Prescriptions of Antipsychotics

Yesterday I received this comment from Leah,

. . . At the mental health clinic [where] I stayed, they were really into prescribing low doses of Seroquel [quetiapine] for unipolar depression . . . after reading up on this stuff I became somewhat angry for the widely prescribed off-label use of these antipsychotics since side effects can be strong. Especially since I was not told. Do you maybe have any thoughts on this practice?

Thoughts? Yes. Far too many. Ask anyone.

I have, over and over, lamented about the lack of honesty and transparency in the doctor-patient relationship. Specifically, why is it doctors prescribe antipsychotics, often off label, without disclosing their risks? It’s happened to me many times. In the hospital may be a special case, however.

Antidepressants and Addiction, Dependence – Talkback

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jun 12, 2011

I recently received a couple of comments on the antidepressants and dependence / addiction post from Tabby. My response to her second comment ended up being so long I decided to put it in it’s own post.

Here is an excerpt from Tabby’s comments (edited for length). If you would like to read them in their entirety, please see here and here. (Symbol […] indicates removed text. Other ellipses are from the original text.)

Comment on Are Antidepressants Addictive?

I know of people who cannot go not 1 day without their medication and the medication not be a life saving med like a blood thinner but be a Anti-depressant. They become all anxiety ridden and panic filled because they just know that if they miss that 1 dose or those 2 doses for that 1 day […]

They can’t sleep and they get agitated and they get quite vile until they get that dose or doses. They resort to sobbing, they resort to melodrama of threatening suicide…

[…] I’m talking a cymbalta, or a lexapro. I work in a MH agency and we have patients call cause they’ve gone 1 day without their prescription. […]

I am also one with Bipolar and when your entire day, or entire life, is solely dependent on whether you took your pill or pills that 1 day… I dare to say, you have a dependence.

Now… you have blood clots and you miss 1 day of your blood thinner.. then we may have a major issue. You miss 1 day of your Seroquel, or your Cymbalta, or your Depakote… seriously, it will be okay… if not, use your psychotherapy techniques. Oh, that’s right… not too many actually do psychotherapy… it’s all the meds baby.

[…] I am well aware of the benefits of medication compared to no medication for those with Mental Illness. My point was – too many people seek out the comfort of the medication to handle their daily life’s issues […] than to try and work on figuring why they are having the problem in the first place.

Folks do not wake up, naturally, anxious. Something has to have occurred to trigger that emotion and anxiety is an emotion that triggers a physical response. Yet, too many run to the cabinet and down pills to “calm” the anxiety rather than try to do something else non-medicated that […] The first reaction is to kill the emotion/feeling… not to try and figure why it’s happening.

No therapy doesn’t work in all settings or all situations but if you never try, then it will certainly never work. In that your blogs are predominately med supporting… I could say that you mock those who try to use more psychotherapy than meds.

Seroquel and Depakote are not equivalent to Warfarin or some of the other medications needed for literal body functioning. Yet, if you have been on a med for a long period of time, for example Seroquel to put you to sleep every night.. and then suddenly you miss a dose or 2… YOU WILL HAVE SYMPTOMS. That’s med dependence and you’ll have a psychological dependence because you’ll become frantic wanting your med.

[…] Many folks suffer with their Bipolar symptoms, or any MI symptom, long before they ever take the 1st pill. So, the life-saving aspect is only a “feeling”.

I know the meds help but have they literally saved me? No. They take away the uncomfortable and the frightening… but they don’t keep me from dying. If they were the sole and only reason, then I’m a walking med cabinet.

Even folks that take a plethora of meds, every single day and swear on a stack of their most revered book… still kill themselves […]

Thanks Tabby for your response. I think your thoughts on the issue represent a perspective of many.

What you should be Reading in Mental Health

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jun 3, 2011

Busy. Crazy. Crazy busy. New antipsychotic. You know how it is.

Mental Illness Articles You Should Read

As per the usual, however, I plow through my own research materials like a crazy person possessed. So I do know of many excellent articles you should be reading.

Check out these articles from Breaking Bipolar and other great sources:

Schizophrenia Awareness Fights Fear and Stigma – This is a video embedded in a post at Breaking Bipolar and has been quite well-received. Please take a look at this short piece and learn something about a mental illness that most people irrationally fear.
Do Mental Illness Diagnoses Matter? – Sometimes people argue that diagnoses are too broad and overlap too much. I’ve even heard of doctors not wanting to tell their patients their diagnosis because they don’t want them “hung up on it.” But I argue that even if ill-fitting mental illness diagnoses do matter. (Also read a good piece about addiction terminology. Did you know “addiction” isn’t in the DSM?)
Doctors Asking Questions About Suicide – Sometimes it seems like the questions doctors ask about suicidal thought are useless, but I don’t think they are.
How to Handle the Common Symptoms of Schizophrenia – This is an amazing document by the British Columbia Schizophrenia Society. This is so clear and so useful that I think it’s a must-read for anyone that has or knows someone with any mental illness. It will not just tell you about schizophrenia and psychosis, but will tell you about mental illness thought processes in general. (Also, How Friends and Families can Handle Psychosis.)
Scientific and Consumer Models of Recovery in Schizophrenia: Concordance, Contrasts, and Implications – Interesting paper that discusses various treatments including medication and non-medication based. Yes, it’s long but there are some interesting bit in there.

Hope you enjoy, I’ll be back with fresh content next week.

Psych Meds Prevent Artistic and Creative Thought

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 27, 2011

Not infrequently, at the Bipolar Burble I get comments about how if famous artists with mental illnesses had of been medicated, we would have no art today. For some odd reason their go-to example is always Vincent Van Gogh. Without his untreated mental illness, they argue, Van Gogh wouldn’t have been the great artist we know him to be today.

Right then. Let’s all go off our meds and paint. And chop off our ears.

Control Over Bipolar Treatment – Learned Helplessness

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 6, 2011

One of the crazy things that will happen to you when you seek treatment for being crazy, is doctors will ask you what treatment you want. Usually your psychiatrist/doctor will give you two options: Would you like to try psych med A or psych med B? This provides the mirage of control over your mental illness and your mental illness treatment.

Frustration, thy name is bipolar.

Patients Choosing Psych Meds has an Air of Hilarity to It

This choice, of course, is ridiculous.* How should you know which medication to pick? They’re the doctor, the fancy psychiatrist, aren’t they supposed to know?

What criterion could you possibly use to pick a psychotropic medication that would conceivably compare to an actual doctor?