Posted by med_empowered on February 28, 2005, at 11:13:05
In reply to Re: Bipolar II questions » fires, posted by Dinah on February 28, 2005, at 10:51:39
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.
poster:med_empowered
thread:464357
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050227/msgs/464399.html