Without going in detail, I will say I’ve been on both sides of this myself.
What’s impossible to convey matters here.
First, unless you’ve been in the real spiraling confusion and dark descent, you cannot understand what it is like.
I think the closet representation I’ve ever seen is the final scenes of two movies. The first is What Dreams may Come. What she’s going through is close. (But there is no savior in real life; you’ll do it yourself or perish). The other is A Beautiful Mind, where he decides to simply live with, and largely ignore, a major mental illness.
The second thing to try to understand is what actually happens to you when someone finds out. This is really a tale of being ostracized by silence and a mass turning away. Unlike cancer, if you get mentally ill you’re generally abandoned.
The third point people don’t really know about is what you experience when physicians literally guess and start making you, substantially, a medical experiment. You take the meds and the side-effects are so severe that you cannot, as they demand, tell them or it is “working” or not. What you can feel is the “blanket” they discussed or far, far worse, in which case a physician may increase or add medication. That itself becomes a hydra and unless you’re just stubborn enough to stop the meds you could easily end up dead, wishing you were, or in a long-term facility.
Or try this. Imagine being unable to work, sleep, eat or rest. For months or years. Just about everyone towns on you or abandons you.
But for my brother, i could’ve easily ended up homeless as a result. There’s no safety net at all unless you were born into welfare up front; you’re going down alone.
That’s a reality.
It is the hardest thing to face, even above the death of a parent or child, that you could experience.
You decide one day to live. To survive. Later you can return to “normalcy” and live a content and happy life again. But most can’t and don’t, and there is no real help if they have no family who can lift them off the ground. Is a part of that stopping the meds? It was for me.
So I’ve seen both sides. Bari snd her guests are all correct, and cannot really know what they’re taking about at the exact same time, save the one man who actually has bipolar disorder and lives through it.
I deeply wish to say I hope you never, ever face what he lives with. Ever.
I also wish to say to todays guest -- you were Bob’s hero. I’ll bet he knew that.
There are now tests available that purportedly analyze which meds will likely work and which will not based on the metabolism of the patient. It is for all drugs but I think has particular application in mental health meds because that area is so very trial and error. There are several now but the one I am.familar with is GeneX.
Without going in detail, I will say I’ve been on both sides of this myself.
What’s impossible to convey matters here.
First, unless you’ve been in the real spiraling confusion and dark descent, you cannot understand what it is like.
I think the closet representation I’ve ever seen is the final scenes of two movies. The first is What Dreams may Come. What she’s going through is close. (But there is no savior in real life; you’ll do it yourself or perish). The other is A Beautiful Mind, where he decides to simply live with, and largely ignore, a major mental illness.
The second thing to try to understand is what actually happens to you when someone finds out. This is really a tale of being ostracized by silence and a mass turning away. Unlike cancer, if you get mentally ill you’re generally abandoned.
The third point people don’t really know about is what you experience when physicians literally guess and start making you, substantially, a medical experiment. You take the meds and the side-effects are so severe that you cannot, as they demand, tell them or it is “working” or not. What you can feel is the “blanket” they discussed or far, far worse, in which case a physician may increase or add medication. That itself becomes a hydra and unless you’re just stubborn enough to stop the meds you could easily end up dead, wishing you were, or in a long-term facility.
Or try this. Imagine being unable to work, sleep, eat or rest. For months or years. Just about everyone towns on you or abandons you.
But for my brother, i could’ve easily ended up homeless as a result. There’s no safety net at all unless you were born into welfare up front; you’re going down alone.
That’s a reality.
It is the hardest thing to face, even above the death of a parent or child, that you could experience.
You decide one day to live. To survive. Later you can return to “normalcy” and live a content and happy life again. But most can’t and don’t, and there is no real help if they have no family who can lift them off the ground. Is a part of that stopping the meds? It was for me.
So I’ve seen both sides. Bari snd her guests are all correct, and cannot really know what they’re taking about at the exact same time, save the one man who actually has bipolar disorder and lives through it.
I deeply wish to say I hope you never, ever face what he lives with. Ever.
I also wish to say to todays guest -- you were Bob’s hero. I’ll bet he knew that.
Bon courage.
There are now tests available that purportedly analyze which meds will likely work and which will not based on the metabolism of the patient. It is for all drugs but I think has particular application in mental health meds because that area is so very trial and error. There are several now but the one I am.familar with is GeneX.
I learn something every day. TY, Ma'am..
I’m truly glad you made it to the other side.