What's it like to be bipolar?
Last week I went to Wodonga at the invitation of Dale Skinner, one of our wonderful Black Dog Institute volunteers, to speak at a community forum on bipolar disorder. The meeting was organised by a community group called Moodswingers, a group dedicated to working to get a better understanding of bipolar disorder in their community. Whilst the group have been having support meetings for some time this was their first “Forum” and it was a resounding success. It attracted about 120 community members, many of whom had lived experience of bipolar disorder.
What struck me about the meeting was how much it was needed. It seems we are not doing a good job as medical professionals in helping our patients understand and manage their bipolar disorder. They described confusion and isolation as they tried to manage their illness with conflicting advice from professionals, very little psychological support and very poor understanding of their medications and their treatment options generally. Worst of all was their pervasive sense of inadequacy as though having bipolar disorder was somehow their fault. I suspect greater understanding of their illness might lead to better compliance with medications and better lifestyle management. We need to work harder!
I wonder if some of the problem comes from our own lack of understanding of bipolar disorder and what it’s like to live with the condition?
I was disappointed to see that there were no GPs in the audience at the forum. Had there been they would have heard some very sad stories about stigma, discrimination and the inadequacy of medical care.
If you know you need to know more about bipolar disorder try some online learning as a first stop.
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Look at the bipolar section of the Black Dog Institute website http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/healthprofessionals/bipolardisorder/overview.cfm and listen to the personal stories of people with lived experience of the disorder http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/personalstories/index.cfm
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Look at the resources on the Sane Australia website https://www.sane.org/mental-health-and-illness/facts-and-guides/bipolar-disorder
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Look at some of the resources mentioned on the Beacon Portal https://beacon.anu.edu.au/service/website/browse/8/Bipolar_Disorder including the Moodswings program https://www.moodswings.net.au/ an online self-help tool for people with bipolar disorder
Gerhard is a full professor of Clinical Psychology at Linköping University, Sweden since 2003, an
d affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Professor Andersson is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of CBT delivered through information and communication technology, as well as the author of the book “The Internet and CBT: a clinical guide”.
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