I have bipolar disorder and have been sectioned. AMA!

[slipperyeel]

AMA if anyone is interested

Totally relate to that and please, post away.

I suffer quite badly with hyper sexuality which I find very embarrassing.
I cannot stop myself and will take stupid risks and do very stupid things just to get sex. I have no inhibitions whatsoever.

This is has had awful repercussions as you can imagine and it's very embarrassing.

I am full of ideas, think I'm a genius, work lots of hours but am often producing rubbish. I have ridiculously amounts of energy, barely need to sleep. I jumped into the Thames because I thought I could swim across it.

That sort of thing...

I've taken cocaine a few times. It's a bit like mania but doesn't last as long!

I hate the feeling after smoking marijuana, only done it a couple of times.

I have a very fraught relationship with alcohol. I have no stop button and it sort of enables my bipolar. I have done some very stupid and very dangerous things while drunk and manic.

I shouldn't drink at all but I still do.

When I'm well I feel like the manic me was somebody else. I recognise them by I'm ashamed of them.

@slipperyeel
I think this is a really important thread to 'get it out there'. I am bipolar 1 and was diagnosed over 20 years ago but like you it has been there since my teens . I have a well paid job, a child and keep myself well medicated.

A few half hearted attempts at suicide when having a mixed episode and I absolutely know that I need to keep taking the tablets which is why I was surprised by the statement that @Justtheonequestion doesn't need them anymore!!!

Most people I know I have been very open with including my managers and direct reports. An old boss told me that he knew when I was up (called it my roadrunner stages) but not when I was down. Up and down are ok but a mixed episode is very bad - seriously depressed and a feeling of worthless combined with the energy to do something about it hahaha

Been mainly stable for the last 15 years but keep having to change my meds as I build up a tolerance. So it's a case of having people that know you enough to notice that there's something not quite right and frog March you to the Drs even when you really really don't want to go!!!

....and changing meds is dreadfully

Who said I don't need them any more? I'm on them daily!

thanks for starting this thread. It’s been interesting (I have a relative with similar experiences)

My question is do you remember what you’ve done during an episode? If not, would you prefer to be told the truth about what had happened during one or not?

@Justtheonequestion
Sorry!!!! It was @Bombardier25966 who said meds don't work for her and she doesn't take them. Then your post said you took them for 2 years. In my pea brain I read that as though you took them for 2 years then stopped.

I think that true bipolar (not minimising anyone here) needs lifelong management and medication. Otherwise it will always come back. Plus, the trajectory is worse because untreated episodes damage the brain and make the level of functioning lower.

I've also been alcoholic, done coke and weed, shagged anything that moved and totally humiliated myself. I hate myself afterwards, it truly is awful.

In my job, I sometimes work with patients who are sectioned. What can clinicians/nurses/ doctors do to improve ward experience of sectioned patients?

@Mobydick100
Luckily I can't answer that. I have a good support network so with me it has been Drs, referral to mental health and they family 'put me under house arrest' to make sure I am not a danger to myself.
Problem is that there's nothing anyone can do to help other than keep you safe and make sure you take the tablets.

CBT and a year of psych did absolutely nothing. That's because for me there's not a direct trigger. Must say that it's normally in April or May.

Just wanted to say as upthread it was asked if inpatient was scary. I love the nhs but my experience was horrific. Lots of ill people but some are aggressive and some very unpredictable. I was slapped and had to walk on egg shells at all times. Also I had to share a room. It's not great.

Completely agree with op that the mental health messages in media can be very annoying. The 'just talk to someone' thing or 'ask for help' is ubiquitous on twitter when there are awareness campaigns. That's great but talking would do nothing for a lot of people (if they have anyone to talk to) and getting help is not a cure but a lifelong management system.

Sorry thought BPD stood for bipolar. Have now realised it doesnt! My family member is definitely bipolar. Thank you for this thread. I do worry that people think bipolar is a kind of celebrity thing, and that it isn't as life impacting as it certainly can be.

A lot of people think that being bipolar means you're a genius as so many artists and poets have suffered from it. Sadly I can confirm that this is not the case.

What was the most embarrassing thing you have done?
Glad you are feeling much better x

Do they use strait jackets like in the films? Sorry if that sounds a really stupid question

No nothing. Never. They do use restraint techniques and also something called prn medication which tends to be either a strong antipsychotic or a sedative like diazepam, if you are exceptionally stressed or high.
Re embarrasding i remember being in a lecture at university, and standing up mid lecture talking in very sexual ways towards the lecturer. I took over from her to finish the lecture everyone was like wtf.

I was tied to the bed when I was hospitalised abroad. Leather belts on my wrists, ankles and over my belly. Horrible experience. I was tied for 13 hours until psychiatrist let me go. The special bed was always in the corridor when not used. Same ward had a isolation room, but I didn't need to go there.

I don’t know if those strait jackets but I’ve been restrained. Very frightening.

Under what circumstance slippery eel? High or agitated?

Thanks for posting OP and to everyone for sharing their experiences. My DD had an extremely turbulent time in her teens and was diagnosed with bipolar at around 19 years of age. It made a lot of things make sense.

It's still early days for her an following a stay of approximately 16 months on and off in hospital and she is much improved. I'm under no illusion that her condition will disappear but does she stand a chance of being and remaining stable?

She is on meds and has outpatient appointments with our local mental health team.

Beer that sounds awful, you poor thing. I hope things have improved for you.

Imo car she can stabilise but her functioning wont be high. I was diagnosed age 19, had lots of potential but the reality is i struggle to work part time. Its the worlds 6th leading cause of disability.

Chasing I am unwell at the moment but I have had good times too. Currently waiting for psychiatrist to change meds.

I have been hospitalised in uk too and saw other people being restrained. I didn't see that abroad when I was hospitalised four times there. If you were trouble they gave some strong tablets first. If it didn't work it was the bed or isolation.

User that's painful for me to hear but I appreciate your honesty. I didn't know it is the 6th leading cause of disability. I suppose it's better that I know the reality.

I have been living in a fantasy that she will learn to deal with it and do normal things like work full time, study, have a family at some point.

I suppose life doesn't always go the way we want it to.

Maybe now that there appears to be more of a focus or acceptance of mental illness we might start to see advances in treatment.