STEPHEN FRY

hi dogfight,
welcome!
you should leave an introduction on the introductions thread, if you have the time.
when you do, i'd be curious to know where your name comes from.

I seem to have come out of my mixed/depressive episode that had lasted for about 2 months, and now I am hypomanic, I have been for about 5 days now. My mood is definitely UP. My family have noticed that I am laughing and dancing about and talking fast etc. Here's the problem. A week this Tues I have to see the wanker psychiatrist again. He has never seen me manic, indeed nobody in Derby has because my last manic episode was when I lived full time in Oxford. (Yes I have had hypomania since, but I don't exactly complain about it). What I need to do is show the wanker psychiatrist that I am manic/hypomanic so that he fucking well gets off his arse and corrects my lithium level (only 4.1) and rethinks about the risperidone because I have been really unstable since I came off it. I do still think about suicide, but at the moment it's just a fleeting thought. How do I show him my mania when I really hate him and tend to go all quiet? Any ideas?

KSx

Hi Katy,
This is where I believe a mood diary comes in very handy. I know I've mention this before however.

Plotting your mood cycles from a scale of say 1 to 10, with 1 being depressed, and 10 being manic. But using your own emotional scale to determine these figures. For example 1 being the lowest of low that YOU have experienced, with 10 being the highest of highs. If you need a scale resolution of 20, then use that, but I think most people find 10 enough.

I did this during the early stages of diagnosis, and it helped me and the psychiatrist out enormously in determining what was wrong, and how often.

In addition to simply charting your moods on a daily basis, also write down what triggers may have caused an episode, and also record, if necessary, how it effected your interaction with others. I.E. Did it mean that you just couldn't face anyone, and needed to be alone, or did it make you unbearable to be around because you were so exited and elated. Or, is it that you couldn't cope or focus on anything that day.

One of the problems (and I kind of pre-empted this a bit prior to my initial appointment) is that explaining how depressed you have been to someone is quite easy, and does tend to stick in your mind. But remembering and explaining the truly Manic states that you have experienced can be more difficult. Maybe that's becasue the Depressive states, wipe these out.. Not real sure !!

Anyway, there is obviously a difference between a bout of Mania, and just someone who has a bubbly personality, but how do you explain what you think might be bouts of Mania to a Psychiatrist, or anyone for that matter?

What I did was to look back at the times where I was so Manic that I then went on to do something silly, destructive, or almost near destructive. Now the task of explaining had become easier.

I understand that some Psychiatrists and Psychologists do not recommend a mood diary initially for some patients. Especially for those who are very depressed, as I think it can make a person dwell on how depressing things currently are. But, I think as a patient it is very important, because it's one of the only things that we can go prepared with and say "look at that.... that's what's going on inside my brain!!".

If the Psychiatrist or Psychologist could open up the top of your head like a Milo tin lid, and check out whether or not all the circuits are in place and all working fine, it would possibly be easier. But unfortunately he or she can't, and can only run with what we tell them.

In fact I'm just finishing up a Bipolar educational study with the University of New South Wales, and after every set of questions there's a mood diary to be completed.

If anyone thinks it might help, I can post a template for a mood diary somewhere on my website, which can then be download from there, as and when members wish to do so. Anyway.... please let me know if that might help?

Take care,
oxo
Pete

I htink a mood diary is a really good thing. I know bipolarity and anorexia are different things but getting better for me involved becoming self-aware and learning to trust emotions and feelings. I didn't keep a mood diary as such but the regular posts I made on a forum acted as a diary. I began to see patterns in my behaviour and my emotions and it helped me to work out what was wrong, how I could change and the areas I needed to change.

So this crap psych is the one who's scared of you just becasue you've got a PhD and all that waffle? Ha! If you're going to get rid of him anyway, you should really play up to the manic stereotype. Go to one of his sessions and go effin' mad. Sit there claiming you're God, say that you want to shower his naked body in paint as a gift to the god above, enter his place of work wearing a pig on your head... the sky is the limit.

If you do, can I come with a video camera? I'll say I'm filming a documentary and you gave me permission to film you from the first time that fine white powder hits your nostrils to the final moments as you run round his office whilst singing a song entitled 'Ode to the All-Powerful Turtle King'.

If you don't fancy the coke option, I know a great trick involving two pencils and a pair of underpants...

X-D The more the merrier. It will be interesting to see what happens... Must not take it too far though, or will end up sectioned.

That was a classic Blackadder scene Saturn. Loved it.

Wibble-KSx

I haven't got any left now.