Is it my imagination or does it seem that every other person these days is suffering from ‘Bi-polar Disorder’? As I understand it, manic-depressive syndrome is an extremely rare condition, but almost everyone I speak to has a kid on lithium, or has a friend on it, or whatever. I seems as thought his condition has become the new ‘epidemic’.
It is certainly easier, and, I suspect, more profitable, to prescribe expensive drugs for an individual who was formerly known as ‘moody’. What is up with this, and does anyone know about the effects of lithium or related medicines on an individual who does not really need them?
:D:( 
There are certainly psychological problems that are over-diagnosed. Bi-polar, depression and attention deficit disorder seem to be among them. But because there are people who convince their docs to give them drugs they don’t need doesn’t mean that those conditions are any less valid or not real.
Gosh, I totally agree! You’re so right… just reading your post made me happy that someone thinks the same way I do, wow! I’m gonna write a 40-page thesis on what you’ve suggested! I’m starting right now!
Well… maybe I won’t. I’m not very good at writing essays. I suck at it, in fact. I’m totally worthless, and I know you hate me 'cause everyone hates me. Why should I bother writing an essay? I’ll just screw it up.
But then I’ll have the rest of the day free… all RIGHT! I can do all kinds of cool stuff! I’ll go shopping and buy all kinds of nice things! Then I’ll play some video games! And volunteer at the Humane Society! Woo hoo, this’ll be the best day EVER!
But… I’m allergic to cats. Oh, there you go, I’ve screwed up again. I can’t even help CATS, how can I help PEOPLE, like that time 17 years ago when Mom yelled at me for breaking a glass. She probably doesn’t love me. Why would anyone love me? I’m useless. I’m a turd. I’ll just give up hope now.
Turd… ha ha, that’s a funny word! Ha ha ha HA HA HAAAAA!
All right, all right, I get the idea. But my diagnosis still follows…you’re moody as hell!
I have a close family member who is bi-polar.
When this person is not on their meds, the behavior can be out of control. I have gone through DUI’s, attempted suicide, and rampant spending sprees with this individual.
So, yes, it does exist, and no, it’s not fun. The meds have to be monitored to make sure the levels are correct. Some meds have to be subsituted with others.
I have seen what happens when this person is off their meds. It is not fun.
So before you go blanketing everything with Overdiagnosing Syndrome, do a bit of research.
:mad: :mad: :mad:
or maybe
:smack: :smack: :smack:
:dubious:
If you knew what it was like to suffer from manic depression you wouldn’t be so quick to make light of it.
Your ignorance and cruelty astounds me.
Of course there are people who really do have this syndrome, but I do not think that my friend’s son, for instance , has it at all. He is spoiled, and that is why he has a fit if anything goes even mildly wrong in his life. If you had carefully read my post, you would see that I do not think that everyone who is diagnosed with this disorder is a malingerer, but rather that doctors are exploiting the illness.
Some information. There’s a lot out there on this, and sources agree that manic-depression is not rare by any means.
I second what witch posted. Turning references to any mental illness into just another reason to have a huge joke-fest, guys, is stupid and way beneath most of you. I’ve seen what this condition can do to wonderful, brilliant, talented people – it is no damn joke. :mad:
Ah, spoiled. Now there’s a valid diagnosis!
:dubious:
I have a good friend, whom I’ve known for more than 30 years, since we were in college.
Even in college, it was obvious something was wrong. I thought at the time she showed every sign of being manic-depressive. But she didn’t see a psychiatrist about it until she was in her late 20s.
But after that it took her more than 10 years to finally get the correct diagnosis of bipolar disorder. She finally got medication and is doing a lot better now.
Dunno what’s going on now, but I believe in the past bipolar disease was very much underdiagnosed.
And I agree, making fun of mental illness is in poor taste.
On behalf of my sister, aunt and several other close family members who have been through hell, I pray that you never have to find out first hand how awful manic depression and bi polar disorder can be.
I, too, have a good friend with bi-polar disorder, but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know SQUAT about it (except that my friend hated the Lithium–she said it made her entire personality disappear).
So while I might be inclined to agree that the OP does come off as a little too glib, there’s still an opportunity to educate people here.
So my question is, at what point, when you have bipolar disorder, do you say, “OK, so I’m going to be on meds for the rest of my life”, and at what point is it still a viable goal to function without the meds? I realize that it depends on the severity of the case, but it also seems like sheer determination is a factor here, too.
Thoughts?
auntie em…
a disorder becomes a disorder when it affects your day to day living. My sister had to drop out of college, because she’d wake up so depressed or enraged that she couldn’t even go to class. Or she’d be so manic that she’d go nuts on X and alcohol and stay out until five in the morning…She couldn’t concentrate, would go from not eating at all to binging…every time we talked to her it was a roll of the dice, would she be weeping and swearing, screaming at us, or chatty and happy to hear from us.
And DETERMINATION doesn’t cure you of diabetes, just as it can’t cure a chemical imbalance in your brain. My sister and I are both medicated for different imbalances and they’ve made an incredible change in both of our lives.
You said, quote,
As I said, I know of a close family member with it, and I strongly suspect another family member is undiagnosed.
Are you perhaps confusing ADHD with bi-polar disorder? Because I could agree with you there, that ADHD is overdiagnosed.
You say your friend’s son is spoiled. I doubt you will find a doctor who will prescribe lithium for a child unless they need it. It’s not like popping sugar pills, you know. We’re talking about medicine that alters the chemical balance in the brain.
I don’t know about bi-polar disorder, but I have OCD, and I make jokes about it all the time. It helps a lot.
We’re not talking about moods. We’re talking about a chemical imbalance in the brain that makes the person suffer wild mood swings.
It’s just like taking cholesterol medicine to regulate the levels in your blood.
And the insidious thing about this disease is that you feel bad, you take the pills, you feel better, you think you don’t need the pills anymore, you stop taking them, you feel bad…ad infinitum until it clicks in that you have to take the pills for the rest of your life.
I was diagnosed with mild Bi-polar affective disorder. I refused treatment. I have learned to live with it, so It cannot be that severe. However it does effect my life quite a bit- starting a project and thinking it is going to be the best thing ever in my life, and sometimes a day, or weeks later I drop it because I lose confidence and lack energy.
I don’t think it is something to laugh about either. Especially for those that have severe cases.
OP:
If you held me at gunpoint and said I had to take psychiatric drugs but I could choose which ones, I’d rather be on lithium than most psych drugs. It can be dangerous, even lethal, if you overshoot the “therapeutic” levels of lithium in your blood, but aside from that it doesn’t do permanent damage. It is also not physiologically addictive, although most of the folks I’ve known who’ve had to detox from it say that it’s psychologically addictive.
The body tends to confuse it with sodium under certain circumstances, so it effectively displaces sodium to an extent for those functions, and that, IIRC, is how it works.
I don’t mind taking my meds. 15 seconds of my day to be a fully functioning human being after way too many years of needless suffering because manic depression is UNDER DIAGNOSED? I Don’t mind at all.