Category: Blog Elle

Blog Elle, Mental Health

Self Medicating (Elle)

Dissent

Mind Palaver

As my consultant said recently, medication has its role, but it’s not the be all and end all. I really respect her for this view – it’s close to my own opinion.

So this had me wondering how else I ‘medicate’ myself aside from the meds I take.

My first risky run in with self-medication was with alcohol, in my early days of doing psychiatry. I hadn’t been diagnosed bipolar as yet, and was cycling out of control between hypomania and depression. When my father killed himself the stress and claustrophobia of that weekend in hospital were colossal, and when the life support was switched off my mood soared (stress has often made me go very high). I remember the train journey home with my sister feeling elated, superhuman, able to take on the universe. The sky was ethereal, the clouds whitest white and fluffy. I was staring down the…

View original post 452 more words

Blog Elle, Mental Health

Getting the ‘Label.’ Elle

Dissent

As Elle is unfortunately still in hospital and I have a writing deadline to meet. I’m going to reblog over the next couple of weeks some of our favourite posts. So here we are…

Mind Palaver

Both John and I experienced misdiagnosis before we were finally diagnosed with Bipolar 1. This I believe is a pretty common experience. The figure often quoted is that it takes on average 10 years from the onset of symptoms to the point where the diagnosis is made. There are a number of reasons for this as I see it – (a) Hypomania is usually seen by the patient as an entirely positive state of affairs, and is often not reported as a problem. This leaves a bipolar person reporting more on the depressive episodes, leading to a diagnosis of major depression. (b) As I said previously people may try to cope with the worsening symptoms on their own out of fear, shame or degrees of denial (I’ll talk about medicating with alcohol later). (c) Psychosis (as in John’s case) or intense paranoia can lead to false assumption that the person…

View original post 443 more words

Blog Elle, Blog John, Mental Health

A Quick Word From Elle (Via John)

Dissent

So if you've been following us in recent weeks you'll know that Elle isn't blogging just now because she's under section. We've been in regular contact and she agrees she's probably in the best place for how she is feeling just now. Still...that doesn't make what she's experiencing easy. As always she's been her incredibly… Continue reading A Quick Word From Elle (Via John)