The Outline
In case of medical emergencies, say after an accident or a stroke, the goal is to keep the person alive. They make sure the vital organs for survival are functioning at least to their minimum standards. When you are dealing with such emergencies you are aware that the most important thing is to keep the person alive so you may even use strong drugs or shocks of all sorts. At that particular moment you can not and must not be worried that piercing his throat to help him breathe may cause him pain or that it may bleed. Or what a shock on high charge may do to his other organs. I won’t go into other steps of treatment before the person is back to everyday life. When back home he may be given a much weaker drug but he is certainly not given the same treatment as he received in the emergency room. “Hey buddy let me give you a shot of Adrenaline and a few shocks just incase.”
Regular exercises (or physiotherapy) while watching what you eat or drink helps you back on a steady healthy life. Help your body to help itself in order to stand on its own feet.
Bipolar engages the brain both chemically and psychologically. In a Bipolar emergency case, demonstrated by over loaded full alertness or crippling deep depression, we are given strong drugs to put things right at least to their minimum functional standards so that for example we can at least communicate a little. So far so good!
How about after we are let go back to our everyday life? Should we use the same drugs for the rest of our life?
What should we do to the added psychological dilemmas caused by social stigmas?, which are not in themselves part of Bipolar but they are just uninvited guests.
Should we continue the drugs to the end of our lives? Should we visit a psychologist regularly to help us cope?
I once heard someone say “I am a bipolar. To relief the pain I choose to take strong meds that can numb my brain cells. I choose a confined way of life with as little social contacts as possible. And when things are too unbearable I close myself up and shout my brain out.”
That is the worst choice. And its only positive side is that it is so easy to achieve.
Couldn’t we use some sort of mind exercise or physiotherapy. Couldn’t we watch what comes in and goes out of our brain? Couldn’t we train ourselves so as to help our mind stand on its own feet in a world of socialization necessity? I think we can. And I think we can even become an athlete using the powers generated by Bipolar. Powers, many do not have and they only see it in outstanding personalities. Powers people wish or try to possess.
What makes individuals to be different in social life is their personality. And so that is the area we have to work on.
We start our project by understanding the ground (our self) as it is now. Then we outline the final structure (the goal), to be built on this ground. We choose the materials and appropriate tools to do the job. Some we have and some we have to obtain.
Let’s briefly look at some tools and materials.
- Psycho analyses: it is actually used by psychologists as an outside professional observer to draw a map of the maze like structure of the mind. It is not a D.I.Y. kit! And it is not a treatment. But it can be used in very limited cases WITH THE HELP OF A PROFESSIONAL.
- Meds: are useful in emergencies and at times when nothing else can work as a relief.
- Self confidence, self dignity, self esteem, pride and etc.: they should be real with concrete foundations (our abilities and our personality). A mocked disposable version can not do the job.
Regular exercises (or physiotherapy) while watching what you eat or drink helps you back on a steady healthy life. Help your body to help itself in order to stand on its own feet.
Bipolar engages the brain both chemically and psychologically. In a Bipolar emergency case, demonstrated by over loaded full alertness or crippling deep depression, we are given strong drugs to put things right at least to their minimum functional standards so that for example we can at least communicate a little. So far so good!
How about after we are let go back to our everyday life? Should we use the same drugs for the rest of our life?
What should we do to the added psychological dilemmas caused by social stigmas?, which are not in themselves part of Bipolar but they are just uninvited guests.
Should we continue the drugs to the end of our lives? Should we visit a psychologist regularly to help us cope?
I once heard someone say “I am a bipolar. To relief the pain I choose to take strong meds that can numb my brain cells. I choose a confined way of life with as little social contacts as possible. And when things are too unbearable I close myself up and shout my brain out.”
That is the worst choice. And its only positive side is that it is so easy to achieve.
Couldn’t we use some sort of mind exercise or physiotherapy. Couldn’t we watch what comes in and goes out of our brain? Couldn’t we train ourselves so as to help our mind stand on its own feet in a world of socialization necessity? I think we can. And I think we can even become an athlete using the powers generated by Bipolar. Powers, many do not have and they only see it in outstanding personalities. Powers people wish or try to possess.
What makes individuals to be different in social life is their personality. And so that is the area we have to work on.
We start our project by understanding the ground (our self) as it is now. Then we outline the final structure (the goal), to be built on this ground. We choose the materials and appropriate tools to do the job. Some we have and some we have to obtain.
Let’s briefly look at some tools and materials.
- Psycho analyses: it is actually used by psychologists as an outside professional observer to draw a map of the maze like structure of the mind. It is not a D.I.Y. kit! And it is not a treatment. But it can be used in very limited cases WITH THE HELP OF A PROFESSIONAL.
- Meds: are useful in emergencies and at times when nothing else can work as a relief.
- Self confidence, self dignity, self esteem, pride and etc.: they should be real with concrete foundations (our abilities and our personality). A mocked disposable version can not do the job.
posted by Radin | 9:52 PM
8 Comments:
Kind of a stereotypical view of psych meds, don't you think? Medication does very little to my "normal" periods, but without meds my peaks are higher, my valleys lower. Unmedicated I'm mean, and my family can't stand to be around me. I CHOOSE the higher quality of life myself and family get when I'm properly medicated.
Think of drug addicts and their viscous circle of drugs and getting high and or just normal in later stages. What I am against is dependency. We have to learn to cope and let the swing take its course. In case of depressions I think the drug must not equal or be higher than the depression itself.
I am not against meds, nor I believe in a totally meds free treatment. But rather the dosage and duration and timing are things to be considered when using drugs. As bipolars we sometimes are too sensitive to our even normal moods. Moods that other people may have swinged because of everyday ups and downs. Our reactions and or people around us is turn to meds, a quick relief.
once again- it depends on your situation. YOU can do without meds most of the time I suspect because you are as I am bi-polar 2. If you were bi-polar 1 and subject to hallucinations and psychosis it would be a totally different story hun. For them medications are total nessecity for them to function at all. I have friends who are bi-polar 1 who hallucinate and end up running down the street screaming because monsters are after them. These monsters are real to them. The medications make the monsters go away. Kinda hard to think logically and rationally about your illness and to work calmly when you are running away from monsters and giant spiders etc etc etc. Or when the person you are speaking too suddenly transforms into an alien lifeform. You see honey you are only understanding bi-polar disorder from your own experience and that is understandable. But if you want to tell people how to deal with THEIR illness then you have to understand THEIR experiences and theirs can be very very different. I think what you say here has value. IF you are not hallucinating and psychotic. Jon has a point to. Bi-polar rage is real and harmful. its easy to say "control it" not so easy for his family to deal with it. It can harm them emotionally and physically. he has to make his decisions on what is bestfor all of them Keep on writing hun. Just remember not every bi-polar is the same as you are
Dear Raine
You are right. I carefully read your comment and I apologized to Jon.
My friend I talk about considering not only the different forms of bipolar but also the very individual involved. If you read my posts with more care I explain that the professional categorization of bipolar disorder is too small and it does not cover all the different types. There are doctors who go further and try to understand every individual patient who had been diagnosed as bipolar and some who just prescribe the meds by the book and that is that. Now being it BD I or II.
Regarding medication I must say and have said before that I am in no way against meds and know about the chemical imbalance in our brain as bipolars which are put right by meds.
My point is that 1- we must choose a doctor who listens and helps in ways other than prescribing meds. 2- as bipolars we must not think all sociological problems we face is because of our disorder. And solve these non bipolar problems only by meds. We are bipolar as well as a person like any other and limit our meds to those for the disorder. 3- and I accept my disorder as being part of life but we have to become much stronger people in facing our problems as a person even more than a normal person 4- I do not believe in meds free treatment at all. 4- we need to build or rebuild our personality and recognize and improve our potential abilities because we face much tougher issues in living in this society. And all these of course are subject to variation with regards to the kind of BD we have.
Thought your readers may be interested in a mental health campaign I'm helping to start called everyminute.org that is fighting stigma in trying to organize a grassroots lobbying force to secure more research funding. We just launched our website last week at http://www.everyminute.org Please check it out if it sounds interesting to you. Thanks!
Radin,
Hi, I recently found your blog and wanted to reach out. I'm the blog coordinator for EverydayHealth.com. We're currently recruiting patients and experts to become featured bipolar disorder bloggers and I thought you might be interested.
Everyday Health has over 25 million monthly unique visitors to their website, and there is a lot of potential exposure and traffic to come from blogging with the market leader in online health information. It's also an excellent platform to promote awareness about bipolar disorder and any non-profits or other related entities.
Let me know if this is something that you're interested in and might like to talk more about.
Thanks so much!
Lee McAlilly
Blog Coordinator, Everydayhealth.com
lmcalilly (at) waterfrontmedia (dot) com
Thank author, fellow author.
I really enjoyed this article.
The author, I beseech you write more
Post a Comment
<< Home