Posted by fires on February 28, 2005, at 16:56:57
In reply to Re: Bipolar II questions, posted by med_empowered on February 28, 2005, at 11:13:05
> If you don't have a BP II or other diagnosis to go on, work on that. BP III, as Dinah mentioned, is considered by some psychiatrists to represent a sort of antidepressant-induced or aggravated mood-disorder. Even if you're not BP I or II or even III, a mood-stabilizer can help even things out for people who have depression characterized by mood-swings, cyclothymia, or even treatment-resistant depression. As for going to a hospital...its really up to you, and you need to determine if your time and resources are best spent pursuing that. I will say this: I'm BP I-II (apparently, this depends on the shrink who treats me) and so are a number of my friends...all of us have made conscious efforts to avoid hospitalization whenever reasonably possible. Research shows that former psychiatric inpatients, even those who signed themselves in voluntarily, face a stigma and resulting discrimination not experienced by others, even those with more severe diagnoses who have managed to remain outpatients. As I said, its unfair, and it sucks, but it appears to be the reality.
I understand. When I was hospitalized for unipolar years ago, most of the other patients were BPs. The scariest part was that so many of them had to be hospitalized fairly often due to med changes/adjustments. I went to hospital for palpitations Sat. night, which I've never had like I did that night.Also, my Neuro. suggested I see a BP specialist.I have the names of 4 "big" psychopharmacologists(most, if not all, with Univ. links, but not necessarily BP specialists) but they don't take my insurance.
Also, I don't think I mentioned it but my "recent" health problems began after a bout of pneumonia. I've read about the theoretical link between viral illnesses and BP (and schizophrenia, etc..). I'm wondering if anyone else can trace the onset of their BP to a viral illness (or bacterial)? Especially if you had been only unipolar for decades prior.
Thanks
poster:fires
thread:464357
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050227/msgs/464525.html