Hi
My name is Roger. This is me when not in a canoe...
I have recovered after being labeled by a psychiatrist as having manic depression.
I was taught that manic depression was the same as bipolar affective disorder and came to believe I had a life-long genetic illness. That was what I was being told and that what I was reading about. I accepted that I needed medication.. largatil/chlorpromazine, haloperidol, zopiclone, lentizol/amytripilene, prozac/fluoxitene, zyprexa/olanzapine, lithium..
It took a long time to realise that all these medications were not doing me much good. I was putting on weight, slowing down, getting a lot of pain, worrying about my health, struggling to think about work, struggling to stay awake, going to the toilet more and more as the lithium took its toll on my kidneys, getting abdominal pain, being shunned by some family, 'friends' and some business associates. The stigma has been the worst thing.
I wrote a book about my early experiences. It is called Stop Paddling/Start Sailing.
Since 2002 I have been teaching people about stress, moods and emotions and how to cope if you are given a psychiatric label such as bipolar. It was through this teaching and the other tutors I met that I came to realise that the very first doctors who talked to me about emotions back in 1980 were right. I have simply been suffering from anxiety all this time. After 14 years of taking thousands of tablets, it turned out I was being treated for the wrong thing!
The periods of high mood that landed me in hospital, had simply been my response to a combination of anxiety and drugs. The lows were not depression at all. I am one of those fortunate people who just doesn't get depressed. If someone upsets me I can get fed up for a few minutes. I have been known to sulk for an hour or two, but I do not get depressed. When on high doses of depressant drugs I will appear to depressed. These drugs slow movement, slow thinking, make it difficult to smile, reduce the will to exercise and reduce the will to live. In fact for a long time on these drugs I mainly just thought about food and the pain only reduced when I was eating.
Knowing it was all about anxiety, I learned about stress, gained a stress advisors certificate and changed career.
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Some of the training provided by Stop Paddling
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I have met many others who once suffered from being labeled as manic-depressive and bipolar, and now are able to say they no longer have those symptoms. This is not just about us saying these things in an irresponsible way. Our doctors and even some of the psychiatrists (we no longer use) are in agreement. We were not mentally ill. We were emotionally troubled / emotionally distressed. Essentially it was a problem with our anxiety levels being caused by the environment we found ourselves in at the time.
How common is misdiagnosis? One UK psychiatrist recently reported studies that show more than 50% of those diagnosed with bipolar have been wrongly diagnosed even according to the psychiatrists' own criteria.
Some of us are now prepared to suggest that 100% are wrongly diagnosed! Why? Because, recovery from emotion troubles, such as excess anxiety, is quicker when people get support and any necessary treatment needed to eliminate the causes. Labeling can be misleading and reduce opportunities to get the right support.
2012 is a year in which I am determined to help experts around the world present the facts about mood and emotions more clearly. We want those who are on the verge of diagnosis and their supporters to be able to make informed choices.
Stop Paddling (my original business, named after the book and reflecting how many see recovery as a journey) has always acted as a social enterprise focused on helping less fortunate people (rather than on making money). Surprisingly Stop Paddling has made profits and this is allowing me to work with others to relaunch with a new more effective social enterprise. We will be helping far more people with understanding that mental illness is part of the medical model and that there is a big choice to be made in accepting or rejecting a mental illness label.
General ideas about bipolar and alternatives to accepting the bipolar label:
Recovery training:
Mood and Bipolar Training + Food and Mood Training:
Link to new social enterprise web site to be added here once it is launched...
www.............org.uk