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interpol15Most people I know would hesitate to call me an angry person, and normally this would be true. I am one of those wholesome, midwestern people that still call others ma'am and sir, won't swear in front of my family, and holds the door open for just about everyone.
However, there is one thing that gets me mind-blowingly angry, and that is the misdiagnos and treatment of mental illness, specifically those on the bipolar spectrum.
[background]
In the United States, a country with a population of around 280 million, around 4 percent of the population is believed to suffer from bipolar I, II, bipolar NOS, and cyclothymia. That's approximately 11.2 million people.
Bipolar disorder is an illness that, while has severe mental and mood effects on a person, is physical in origin, like most mental illnesses. The illness causes a person to experience severe mood swings, from manias to severe depression, sometimes cycling between the two over a matter of weeks, leaving almost no periods of normal mood levels and behavior. Bipolar disorder has no cure, only treatment.
This is par for the course for the disease. You go up and down, are stuck on medication for life, have a high chance of giving the illness or some other form of mood disorder to your children, since it is genetically linked, have a greater chance of drug abuse, death, and suicide.
[the truth]
What turns this from a simple crap throw of the genetic dice is the treatment and under-diagnosis of the illness. Bipolar disorder is one of the costliest illnesses, has a low rate of recovery, high rate of relapse, and is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all ( Roger S. McIntyre, MD, Joanna K. Soczynska, and Jakub Konarski "Bipolar Disorder: Defining Remission and Selecting Treatment" Vol. XXIII, No. 11 (October 2006)).
THE FACT THAT BIPOLAR DISORDER IS OFTEN UNDER OR MISDIAGNOSED, COUPLED WITH THE FACT THAT PEOPLE WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER ARE TWICE AS LIKELY TO DIE, PERIOD, AND FACE SUICIDE RATES 10 TO 20 TIMES HIGHER THEN THE US AVERAGE (^ Leslie Citrome, MD, MPH; Joseph F. Goldberg, MD. "Bipolar disorder is a potentially fatal disease".) IS WHAT MAKES THIS ALL SICK.
THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
(my story)
I suffer from rapid cycling, mixed state bipolar II. Bipolar II is considered the more deadly of the disorders, since people with it spend the majority of their lives in a state of reoccuring depression, with periods of normal and manic functioning. Rapid cycling and mixed states are even worse, since a person must deal with the cycling of moods at a much higher level then normal, sometimes swinging from one to the other within days.
I was 11 when I started pulling out my hair. After three years, my parents took me to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed me as suffering from OCD and Trichitilomania (obsessive compulsive hair pulling). I was treated with therapy and Zoloft. Three years later my depression got worse, I attempted suicide, and was diagnosed as bipolar II, and treated with Zonegram.
I bounced up and down, eventually stopping all meds as I entered college. A year after that, I tried to kill myself again, realizing that my depression had gotten to much to handle, and saw a new doctor, who diagnosed me as depressed and gave me Cymbalta.
[rock bottom]
A few months later, I stopped all meds. By September of 2007, I was med free for 10 months. By November, I was so depressed that I was unable to get out of bed, and I was going to sleep drunk around 2/3rds of the time. By December, I had tried to kill myself repeated times and was in the psyciatric unit of a local hospital.
It still took me three months to finally recieve the diagnosis of bipolar II, mixed state rapid cycling and to finally start a medication regime that is working.
In short, I was misdiagnosed for 7 years, leaving me with periods of such little functioning, I failed school, almost became an addict, and made some of the poorest liestyle choices in my life. I've been on seven different medications, 4 of which have made me worse, one where I was used as a test trial without my consent or knowledge, and two that finally are making a difference. I have had 5 different doctors, only one that is willing to listen to me and look into my family history and medical tendencies towards treatment.
[the refutation]
I'm not looking for sympathy. I don't want people to pity me. I don't see myself as a victim, or as someone that is guilt free. This is not a generalization or assumption of any other person's experience with bipolar disorder but mine.
I am not speaking for anyone but myself. This is not a Gail is an innocent victim of the big bad medical community.
This is here to give one person's tale.
[the message]
So what was all this for? This is for me to say that the treatment, diagnosis, and prognosis are a big fucking mess. The lack of communication between doctors, patients, and families, the lack of education of those that suffer, the fact that patients don't know when to stand up for themselves, THE FACT THAT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND MILLIONS OF LIVES ARE LOST FROM BIPOLAR DISODER IS NOT RIGHT.
This is my mission. To get my story out, to educate those with bipolar disorder, to make doctors realize that they need to really listen to their patients, to make people realize that they don't have to just accept the first medicaton, the first diagnosis. In two words, FUCKING COMMUNICATION.
We will probably never cure bipolar disorder. But you don't have to just live with it. If I can help one person learn to speak out about meds that they don't feel are right, make one doctor really look and see, make one person not feel ashamed about having bipolar disorder, that I can live with myself.
This is my mission, this is what makes me feel, this is what makes my life more the just living. My name is Gail Eichenberger, and I want to save your life.
However, there is one thing that gets me mind-blowingly angry, and that is the misdiagnos and treatment of mental illness, specifically those on the bipolar spectrum.
[background]
In the United States, a country with a population of around 280 million, around 4 percent of the population is believed to suffer from bipolar I, II, bipolar NOS, and cyclothymia. That's approximately 11.2 million people.
Bipolar disorder is an illness that, while has severe mental and mood effects on a person, is physical in origin, like most mental illnesses. The illness causes a person to experience severe mood swings, from manias to severe depression, sometimes cycling between the two over a matter of weeks, leaving almost no periods of normal mood levels and behavior. Bipolar disorder has no cure, only treatment.
This is par for the course for the disease. You go up and down, are stuck on medication for life, have a high chance of giving the illness or some other form of mood disorder to your children, since it is genetically linked, have a greater chance of drug abuse, death, and suicide.
[the truth]
What turns this from a simple crap throw of the genetic dice is the treatment and under-diagnosis of the illness. Bipolar disorder is one of the costliest illnesses, has a low rate of recovery, high rate of relapse, and is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all ( Roger S. McIntyre, MD, Joanna K. Soczynska, and Jakub Konarski "Bipolar Disorder: Defining Remission and Selecting Treatment" Vol. XXIII, No. 11 (October 2006)).
THE FACT THAT BIPOLAR DISORDER IS OFTEN UNDER OR MISDIAGNOSED, COUPLED WITH THE FACT THAT PEOPLE WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER ARE TWICE AS LIKELY TO DIE, PERIOD, AND FACE SUICIDE RATES 10 TO 20 TIMES HIGHER THEN THE US AVERAGE (^ Leslie Citrome, MD, MPH; Joseph F. Goldberg, MD. "Bipolar disorder is a potentially fatal disease".) IS WHAT MAKES THIS ALL SICK.
THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
(my story)
I suffer from rapid cycling, mixed state bipolar II. Bipolar II is considered the more deadly of the disorders, since people with it spend the majority of their lives in a state of reoccuring depression, with periods of normal and manic functioning. Rapid cycling and mixed states are even worse, since a person must deal with the cycling of moods at a much higher level then normal, sometimes swinging from one to the other within days.
I was 11 when I started pulling out my hair. After three years, my parents took me to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed me as suffering from OCD and Trichitilomania (obsessive compulsive hair pulling). I was treated with therapy and Zoloft. Three years later my depression got worse, I attempted suicide, and was diagnosed as bipolar II, and treated with Zonegram.
I bounced up and down, eventually stopping all meds as I entered college. A year after that, I tried to kill myself again, realizing that my depression had gotten to much to handle, and saw a new doctor, who diagnosed me as depressed and gave me Cymbalta.
[rock bottom]
A few months later, I stopped all meds. By September of 2007, I was med free for 10 months. By November, I was so depressed that I was unable to get out of bed, and I was going to sleep drunk around 2/3rds of the time. By December, I had tried to kill myself repeated times and was in the psyciatric unit of a local hospital.
It still took me three months to finally recieve the diagnosis of bipolar II, mixed state rapid cycling and to finally start a medication regime that is working.
In short, I was misdiagnosed for 7 years, leaving me with periods of such little functioning, I failed school, almost became an addict, and made some of the poorest liestyle choices in my life. I've been on seven different medications, 4 of which have made me worse, one where I was used as a test trial without my consent or knowledge, and two that finally are making a difference. I have had 5 different doctors, only one that is willing to listen to me and look into my family history and medical tendencies towards treatment.
[the refutation]
I'm not looking for sympathy. I don't want people to pity me. I don't see myself as a victim, or as someone that is guilt free. This is not a generalization or assumption of any other person's experience with bipolar disorder but mine.
I am not speaking for anyone but myself. This is not a Gail is an innocent victim of the big bad medical community.
This is here to give one person's tale.
[the message]
So what was all this for? This is for me to say that the treatment, diagnosis, and prognosis are a big fucking mess. The lack of communication between doctors, patients, and families, the lack of education of those that suffer, the fact that patients don't know when to stand up for themselves, THE FACT THAT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND MILLIONS OF LIVES ARE LOST FROM BIPOLAR DISODER IS NOT RIGHT.
This is my mission. To get my story out, to educate those with bipolar disorder, to make doctors realize that they need to really listen to their patients, to make people realize that they don't have to just accept the first medicaton, the first diagnosis. In two words, FUCKING COMMUNICATION.
We will probably never cure bipolar disorder. But you don't have to just live with it. If I can help one person learn to speak out about meds that they don't feel are right, make one doctor really look and see, make one person not feel ashamed about having bipolar disorder, that I can live with myself.
This is my mission, this is what makes me feel, this is what makes my life more the just living. My name is Gail Eichenberger, and I want to save your life.
