Today’s article is another in the series on inpatient treatment facilities. These questions have been answered by the staff at Timberline Knolls – the Bipolar Burble blog’s new sponsor. These questions were submitted by readers and cover bipolar treatments, length of stay, mental illness life skills, and use of discipline.
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Tomorrow I’m flying off to see some family I don’t know at all. Oh, and my dying father. I won’t get into the specifics but suffice it to say I’m scared of family in general and my father is in a very bad way.
So at the moment, I’m being eaten up with fear and anxiety.
My mother says to me: “But I know you know how to handle that sort of thing.” And I say, “Yes, it’s a wonderful drug called lorazepam.”
I was only half joking.
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Today marks the start of a few articles I’ll be writing about private inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities. This is thanks to our new sponsor, Timberline Knolls. The highly-trained staff at their facility have agreed to answer my, and your, questions about inpatient treatment facilities. Today we’ll be talking about the basics of inpatient treatment facilities including services offered, intake, what professionals are there and what it’s like to stay in a residential treatment facility.
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Don’t get me wrong, most of the feedback I receive for writing the Bipolar Burble blog and elsewhere is positive. People, mostly, appreciate what I do and how I do it.
Nevertheless, some people, not so much. Today I received this regarding my writing:
I hope this individual kills herself for writing this bullshit.
Go fuck yourself you ugly bitch.
This comment never made it online, for obvious reasons, but as I’m the moderator, I see it nonetheless.
This comment was in regards to this post I wrote on the intelligence of people with bipolar disorder.
In the post, I point out that people with bipolar disorder are not, in fact, more intelligent than the average person and, actually, exhibit cognitive deficits. You can go read the post for details, but basically, people with bipolar disorder suffer from a variety of cognitive deficits which may factor into your definition of intelligence. (You’ll note that, in the article, each cognitive deficit contains a link to the source for the information. You’ll also note that I never said anything about creativity. It may be the case that people with bipolar disorder do show more creativity.)
And boy, do people take offence to that fact. There is this prevalent myth out there that people with bipolar disorder are somehow brilliant and that’s a good part of having bipolar disorder.
Um, no.
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Today’s guest post on the Bipolar Burble blog is by Marion Gibson, author of “Unfaithful Mind “– a tale of what it’s like to love someone who has a paranoid disorder. To win a FREE copy of her book, leave a comment here.
I am married to a man with a mental illness. High school sweethearts, we travelled the world and grew a family. We were just like any other couple. And then two years ago my husband woke up and believed I wanted him dead.
He thought I had no use for him anymore and I was going to poison him. He stopped eating food in the house and started drinking only store bought water from our emergency supply. He wrote a note and hid it in his chair explaining that I had poisoned him. He also believed I had been unfaithful in our marriage right from the beginning. He thought I had a way about me that I could convince men to sleep with me whenever and wherever I wanted. He wanted paternity tests on all three of our children.
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Out there, in the world, we must be asked how we are 20 times a day. People ask it on the phone, in line at the grocery store, face-to-face and pretty much anywhere two humans intersect with each other. And, of course, the answer to the question as to how you are is, “I’m fine.” And there’s nothing wrong with that as an answer, really. The person who asked the question likely doesn’t want to know how you really are anyway.
But what about when you tell your friends and family that you’re fine when really you’re anything but? What about when you lie your heart out, tacitly or no, showing and saying that everything is “normal” and peachy-keen? What about when you are a big, fat liar to those that you love?
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I have written before that you can sort of, a little bit, manage bipolar disorder without medication. There are a few proven treatment strategies that do work to manage bipolar disorder and keep you out of the prescription line at the pharmacy.
Nevertheless, I’m still a big believer in medication. I believe that if your life is out-of-control because of bipolar disorder, then medication is probably the best thing for you. I believe that if you’re in pain because of bipolar disorder, then you should be seeing a psychiatrist. I believe that if your functionality is compromised by a disordered brain, then you should be looking at a medical solution.
But does this mean that people with uncontrolled bipolar disorder should be forced to take medication?
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It’s common for people with bipolar disorder to feel isolated. Isolation comes from the person with bipolar choosing to isolate themselves and those around them walking away and forcing isolation on them.
So I commonly tell people with bipolar disorder to reach out. It’s important to reach out to people who will be supportive – because these people do exist. And it’s important to reach out to professionals and support groups so you don’t feel so alone with, what is undoubtedly, a very scary diagnosis.
But even when a person takes that advice, even when a person gets it all together, even when a person with bipolar does find supports, it’s still lonely.
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Hi all.
Today I need to ask for your help. I’ve been asked to participate in another documentary – and I’m honored to do this. The documentarian is from CB Films and is working with Channel 4 in the UK.
The thing is, he’s looking for a person suffering from a manic episode who’s in the UK. Now, obviously, this is a big ask. In my experience it’s difficult to anticipate mania and once hypomania or mania rears its ugly head, it needs to be dealt with promptly and not allowed to continue.
All that being said, the documentarion is searching for someone suffering from a manic episode who is willing to be filmed during their episode.
Yup, that’s a toughie.
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