Why an elite few can manage bipolar without medication? Why is there not one medication fits all? Why is medication so varied? Why was mood disorders labels changed?
I’m one of the majority that requires medication to stabilise my mood; anti-consultant, anti-psychotics, benzodiazepine. You wonder how the field of psychiatry found out those aforementioned medications would help? During the 1900’s (can’t remember exact year) manic depression and personality disorder was changed to bipolar disorder/affective disorder and cyclothymia. Why did this occur?
Was there a paradigm shift where instead of a label given - the new status quo would be a discriptor of ‘moods’ along a continuum, and depending on the varied sides of this continuum is where you shall be treated as apposed to a ‘label’. Yes labels can be discriminatory and once place in your medical file, can have an affect on the rest of your life.
For instance, your career, where a occupational health meeting is normally the status quo - for you to prove your sanity aka cognitive competence. In regards to driving, your assessed as to again prove your sanity and stability of medication (if your on them) to drive. Your financial affairs, banks want to know if your bipolar due to the old description - ‘spending spree’ being associated with bipolar.
Yes the disability deacrimination act, can help in your protection of being descriminated. Only however if your educated in knowing about what the act covers exactly. I used it in my work, to adjust my work station with a chair and allowed 15 minutes layaways In the morning entering work - those simple changes didn’t go down well with my managers, and they attempted to extend my probation period, but DDA was used, I’d already passed it!
Back to medications - I’ve noticed among forums that the ‘undiagnosed ‘strive the label and medication, yeah it can be a relief to finally make sense of your behaviour, but a select few, bipolar is the new fashion! It takes years; a long winded journey of monitoring behaviour, being aware, unaware, therapy, referral to psychiatry, and nowadays psychiatry don’t like providing a label. Next medication, 15 years of trialing ssri’s, to no avail or worse affecting/bringing in mania.
Then mood stabilisers trials., anti psychotics (old/new), anti histamines, benzodiazepines, etc and study’s have indicated that lithium, the old as it were in the treatment of bipolar is the most affective treatment in comparison with mood stabilisers. What In affect, are these cocktail of medications doing to our brain and body? Side affects to begin and for some continue.
In sum, the complexity of mood disorders can be difficult to define, treat, after care, therapy and manage. Then is is nature, or nurture or an amalgamation of the two? Let’s just remain positive in that research will continue and reveal positive findings in the care and treatment of mood disorders.
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