to think it suddenly seems 'the in-thing' to suffer with bi-polar?

[Champersonice]

This is really getting to me. Perhaps these 'celebs' really are suffering with bi-polar but I remember the days when it was the biggest taboo. My mother suffers with this illness and it is just awful.

There have been so many and whilst I really believe some I really do not believe Kerry Katona and now Catherine Zeta-Jones. Apparantely, CZJ booked herself into a psychiatric hospital for becoming manic-depressive following her husband's cancer, and now, according to her publicist is "feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week on two upcoming films". Perhaps Ms Zeta-Jones should visit a real psychiatric hopsital (not a detox clinic) and see real life patients suffering with this terrible, terrible illness.

AIBU?

lesley - the same thing can be said of depression. The number of times people say "Oh, I'm feeling a bit depressed" Well, they're not feeling actual depression are they? (in the main) they're just feeling a little blue. It's the way of the world, and I am glad that despite there being ignorance surrounding the disorder (as there is about most MH illness) at least there is some "awareness" of it.

I have bipolar affective disorder, and i rapid cycle, pre meds i could skip from deliriously high to suicidally low in the space of thirty minutes. The docs havent been able to pin point when it started, I was often 'low' as a young teen. i experimented early with drugs and alcohol, I was always recless with my own life although not actually wanting to die, just not fased if that were to be a possible outcome of my actions. I had about 2 years of high mood where i honestly lived on the adrehnalin of my 'condition'. looking back now it was like a massive rollercoaster, constantly chasing a high. Not through drugs etal (although sometimes) but through experience. Starting a business, spending sprees, signing up to colleges for 15 courses at once, starting 3 jobs i a week, walking out of a job half way through a meeting. I was weird but i was enjoying it, well i wasnt but had a strong impulse that any second i was going to have a rush and that would see me through. I wouldnt eat for a week as i genuinely forgot and passed out on the bus. Then would spend the next week eating three takeout meals a day as i was starving with hunger pains!

All that was okay. I didnt feel there was anything wrong with me, i was having fun and i didnt care. It all hit me with suicidal lows in my first pregnancy, then extreme pnd. Then finally the early intervention team catching me mid high when i was 24. I'm 27 now, and the last three years have been all about the meds, Ive tried a whole host of meds until finally finding one that suits me, then ages messing about with the levels of meds to take. Finally feeling on a level again (well for the first time ever i supose) and some of the symptoms that came wioth the bipolar being untreated are slowly disappearing, the OCD issues are lessening, the agraphobia is still an issue but Im feeling readly to start to tackle it, same with the social phobia (i have only just in the last 4 months started to leave the house with my kids without my dh having to be with me and my DS is three and a half!) The whole experience was absolutly exhausting and terrifying, and its never going to be over.

However, with all that said, nobody knows i have this outside a very small circle of immediate family and friends. I feel it would be completely possible for a public figure to be able to hind this condition for a long time, and then after a spell in hospital would be able to get on with things again. If you've found the right medication and have a support system, however small, and know your triggers and the signs in your behaviour, you can deal with it you can be in control, the odd out burst seems impossible to avoid, and thats what CZJ may have just had? we wont know without her medical records really. Cant see why anyone would be pissed off with a sleb coming out with this illness, you wouldnt think that if they said they had cancer and there is know way you would know if that was true without medical records either

When my partner was manic she was actually very happy - this was because she believed she was part of a plot to save the world and she was happy to be part of such an important piece of work! She also thought people could read her mind - so wouldn't bother answering questions; that lots of historical things weren't true - it was in 2011 and she thought the planes in the side of the world trade centre was a very realistic film etc, etc.

Bipolar is a bloody scary illness IMO.

Shirley, I agree that the profressionals can be a useless lot and I do feel that in the past ten years, MH has totally failed my mum. I really feel for you with the effects your father's illness has had on you. Just to let you know, I am not saying this is a trendy illness. What I am saying, however, is that some seem to think it is trendy to 'have it'. It is by far trendy.

Oh and BTW, I am not a fucking idiot.

Woh! sorry that was so long, glad Im finally trendy though

champers,you dont post impartially and this is evident in your posts. and you are dismissing someone else experience as a trendy affectation.it doesnt work like that

this season must have
alexa mulberry - check
ipad- check
bipolar - check

I understand what you're saying . It's the way that you're saying it that makes you sound like a fucking idiot. I have taken offense, and I'm usually pretty laid back, so y'know? Maybe you should think before you start typing stuff like "oooh looks like a touched a nerve" when you are addressing an illness that can end in suicide.

And I disgree that some people think it's a "trendy" disease to have. That is a bizarre conclusion to come to IMO.

So you get to decide who really has bipolar disorder. Wow. And of course you get to decide how people experience it. And it was so much better when people were ashamed of mental illness, and those in the public eye being open about their illness couldn't help the public to see that people with mental illnesses can be functioning and successful.

And the fact that CZJ has managed her illness couldn't be anything to do with the fact that money - and the excellent personalised health care it buys - combined with modern drugs - mean that she gets the help she needs. Unlike those without the money, whose suffering is often ignored until they are in crisis due to chronic underfunding of psychiatric care, when they're put into understaffed, overcrowded NHS hospitals.

Lesley33 thaht remind me of when i was 20 and told people about my new revolutionary invention - 'the walking chair' but then i decded it would be a bit bumpy so i though we could put wheels on it instead - I know, I'll call it a wheel chair! I told everyone!!! Funny now but blummin hell - what a dork i have so many examples of this sort of thing. films i invented, told work mates all about a film with a Duck from space, told them the whole film. 'Howard the Duck' anyone! nightmare!

"Polar" means "pertaining to a pole," where "pole" refers to an extreme. "Bipolar" therefore means "relating to 2 extremes." I am baffled as to how this is hard to understand.

"This depression isn't the kind of depression non-sufferers get when they feel a little low. This is a deep, deep, dark depression that I cannot put into words."

How do you go about deciding whose severe depression is more severe? It has never occurred to me to claim that the depression I suffer as someone with bipolar is somehow "worse" than that suffered by my uniposr friends. In fact I find the concept bizarre.

I read this morning somewhere online that CZJ has "Bipolar2" - not "Bipolar", seems to be a milder form of the illness and it was linked to hypomania.

The new black....once it was bulimia, then it was PND, now bipolar.

YABVU. You don't know these people and you don't know what their lives are really like. You only get to see the glossy side that the media presents.

Champersonice

As someone has already said, I think some illnesses are fashionable. Someone feels abit fed up so suddenly they have Bi Polar. Its as if everything has to have a label on it to make it ok, i.e. I'm too lazy to get a job so therefore I must have Bi Polar.

With bipolar "manic" really means losing touch with reality at the same time as having very extreme up moods.

Lesley - yes, I think it's this important aspect on the Disorder - 'losing touch with reality', which generally clinches an authentic diagnosis, that appears to be missing in some folk who think they are Bi-Polar.

einstein - the people i know with Bipolar are anything other than lazy - often never stop, literally, thats the fukin problem!

You don't know these people and you don't know what their lives are really like. You only get to see the glossy side that the media presents

I am fairly sure there is little about Kerry Katona that we dont know.. have the cameras followed her to the toilet yet? We seem to get every other minute detail of her daily life on screen.

And how do you know she is in a detox clinic? From what I've read she is in a "mental health facility" Her publicist seems to be really playing down the extent of her illness.

And as 1% of the population suffers from bipolar, there are going to be quite a few celebs with by polar, aren't there.

Still waiting to find out what the benefits are for "pretending" to have bipolar. I suppose in KK's case she can blame her erratic behaviour on something other than masses of cocaine. I think it's kind of sad that as a society we are expected to have sympathy for people with MH problems but not with addiction problems.

Babydubs, I think the point Einstein is making there is that too many people who use BiPolar as a reason for their behaviour, dont genuinely have it, but that it seems a fashionable illness to "say" they have, and it will garner them lots of sympathetic media attention (in the case of people in the public eye). Which is the point that the OP is making too, and I also agree with.

And as I said earlier, I dont believe that CZJ is attention seeking, or lying, as that is not the type of person she has ever been in the media.

I have been diagnosed with bipolar II by three separate psychiatrists and have spent periods in psychiatric hospital as an in-patient. As I understand it, psychiatrists cannot diagnose bipolar disorder, as a opposed to unipolar depression, unless they have witnessed the individual in a state of mania or hypomania.

Re. 'celebrities' with bipolar. The correlation between manic-depression and creativity has long been of interest and it has often been observed that people with bipolar are attracted to professions of creativity and extroversion. They are also likely to command attention and possess what might be described as charisma. So rather than celebrities latching on to a 'trendy' diagnosis, it is more likely that there is a slightly increased attraction to performing professions by manic-depressives.

Re. Kerry Katona. People with mental illness are likely to self medicate. It is entirely plausible that she turned to cocaine due to depression or recklessness. Indeed she, along with Britney Spears, seem classic cases.

I don't mind either term btw, but accept it's a personal choice for fellow sufferers.

In conclusion I think YABU in looking at it as 'A Celebrity wants bipolar' rather than 'A Bipolar wants celebrity'. And 'cocaine has similar symptoms as bipolar' rather than 'bipolar causes person to take cocaine to deal with/as consequence of symptoms'.

Babydubs - I know what you mean! My partner during one manic phase saw an advert about a competition to write a short play for the radio. She told me and others, I could give up my job as she was going to write plays and make loads of money. Luckily, I didn't believe her.

But although it is funny in retrospect, it also causes massive embarassment. My partner has been very embarassed to meet people who she has said things like this to during a period of mania.

I should add she is very stable now. Lithium is a great drug!

And from following an edited reality show you can conclude KK doesn't have bipolar? Nice.

I have no idea if she has or not. I avoid tabloids and don't watch her show.

EricNorthmansMistress Your suggestion re the publicists/spin makes a lot of sense.

I think with CZJ (and I know I am judging her) is trying to put the light back on her. Her husband nearly died of cancer. Was the limelight on him for a bit too long?

And yes, for fear of offending others, I DO think people out there think it is trendy to say they have bi-polar. I am not saying I think it is trendy.

Some have a high followed by a low period and they jump on the bipolar wagon. Everyone has ups and downs - that is life. Suffering from bipolar is a very serious matter and not to be taken lightly.

And yes Steps, I do think bipolar depression is worst than feeling a little blue.

And as for the name - call it what you want - bipolar/manic depression - it is the same thing.

lesley - "Lithium is a great drug!"

Isn't it??! It saved my life, I love it.