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…
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…
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Mind Palaver 