Did anyone find Tony slattery painful to watch?

[Charliesmum123]

Just that really,it must of taken a lot of courage to be so open about his past,I hope he finds peace ✌️

It was a hard watch, and I greatly admire him for doing it.

It was shocking to see how long he had gone without getting the right help/treatment.

I was interested to hear bipolar being described as a spectrum though, because I had struggled to understand it previously, but that helped me make sense of it.

It's incredibly painful to watch and no doubt an awful lot more painful to live.

Heartbreaking and very courageous. I felt for both Tony and his lovely partner.

Watching it now. So sad...his life has just been ruined by this awful illness.

It is really sad to watch. However, I really think that if he was a woman, particularly a young woman, the diagnosis would be bpd/eupd.

Very very rapid mood swings, a lot of anxiety and anger in between the depression, switching between grandiosity and feeling incompetent (identity disturbance), use of alcohol and drugs (impulsive behaviour), a history of childhood sexual abuse. Could be labelled as eupd/bpd.

I felt very warm towards Tony and thought he was very brave to make it, but I was shocked at how 'medical model' the thinking about his difficulties was. There was an almost unquestioning assumption by the programme makers that he has bipolar and though they mentioned the impact of trauma at the end this was significantly underemphasised. I would have liked to have seen a broader, psychological rather than solely psychiatric approach to understanding his difficulties.

Did he get any help re his childhood trauma? I didn't see him getting any and all he seemed to receive from the other docs was 'you've managed to give up Cocaine so just give up alcohol' easy right!!!!

His partner was so lovely. I wanted to give him a hug.

@shivermetimbers77

I think that is the danger with psychiatric diagnosis' in general, especially bipolar. It's seen as ultimately a chemical imbalance and addressing the traumatic roots of the disorder isn't a priority. I hope Tony does get help to process his childhood trauma....if he wants that.

Eupd/Bpd has very similar symptoms. The downside is that it is a much more stigmatised diagnosis. But the benefit is that the treatment is very much based on talking therapies and takes into account trauma history.

It's the fact that his trauma history was acknowledged, but there was no treatment plan for this that made me feel a bit sad.

The whole programme was just about getting a 'diagnosis'. I know (from personal experience) that some mental health services now, avoid official diagnoses completely and just 'treat the symptoms'.

@Casino218

I agree, his partner is totally lovely 😊