Bipolar - dvla

[Pibolar]

Hi, those of you with bipolar, have you notified the dvla? What happened? Does your insurance go up? My psychiatrist was talking about it today and it’s made me wonder

Yes, you are required to notify them. If not, your insurance will be invalid. In my experience for quite a while I was issued 1 year or 3 year licences, but then after about 10 years of that, they put me back on a permanent licence. They write to your consultant each time, but you can normally keep driving whilst they do that. Hope this helps.

@Antagonishy thank you. Can you remember if they asked you any specific questions? Do I need any info? For example I don’t know what type i am 1,2 etc. …. It’s just been put down as a working diagnosis. Have had it for over 20 years but only just been diagnosed. Also do you know if you have to do it for ADHD as well?

The form basically asks about medication, inpatient treatment, drug and alcohol use, and last contact with doctor / CPN, you can just write "bipolar disorder" and put working diagnosis next to it if you want. They ask your doctor much the same thing. The process can take a while but you can still drive while you're waiting.

I usually get a 3 year license issued.

It doesn't impact on insurance costs.

@VerityUnreasonble thank you for this. It’s very helpful, glad I can still drive whilst it’s processing.

Yes. I wasn't told I had been diagnosed with bipolar so I did it late but had no consequences of doing so

You get a form asking for details of medication, admissions and drug and alcohol use. It asks when you last saw GP, psychiatrist and cpn and contact details for GP and psychiatrist. They will write the psychiatrist. For me this is the slow bit and they can need nudging sometimes the letter gets lost or it's gets forgotten

I get either a 1 or 3 year licence depending whether I have had an episode in the previous year.

@Superscientist thanks. I don’t seem to have a cpn.
what counts as an episode, just mania or depression too?

Me neither. I had one, they came once said they would be back in 2 weeks.... That was sept 2022 and I'm still waiting!

All episodes I think. The last depressive episode was also with psychosis and the one before that had mixed features with delusions so I don't know how much that contributed. I get more depressive episodes than mania/hypomania

Oh no! I have about half dozen to a dozen each year! mainly depressive too.

@Superscientist does your license automatically renew once they’ve ticked all the boxes or do you have to keep re-applying yourself?

About 3 months before the license runs out the DVLA writes to you with the forms to fill in for the information.
They have started an online form for some reasons for needing a medical licence but bipolar currently isn't one of them.
If you have certain episodes you have to declare it before the renewal. If you are danger to yourself or others or lose touch with reality. With my last episode I was borderline for needing to inform the DVLA. If it hadn't started to respond to treatment I would have had to declare it. My psychiatrist had this discussion with me. I had severe treatment resistant depression.

It sounds like you aren't getting properly into recovery from each episode before the next one arrives. Do you have much support it sounds like what the current plan is, isn't enough. I was rapid cycling with very little breaks between episodes for probably the first 2 years of treatment as it wasn't right. Then it settled as two a year one bad depression and a mild-moderate hypomania. Then I moved to a much lower stress job and I had mood changes during the year but not bad enough to count as an episode. Then I had my daughter and had a very bad episode. Stopping anti depressants and mood stabilisers and using quetiapine on its own was got me to 1-2 episodes a year

@Superscientist more forms, just what I need 😂 have ADHD too so forms and deadlines aren’t my strong point.

I’m not a danger to myself or others, never been admitted, in terms of psychosis i get disordered and flight of thoughts.

I’ve been like this since a teenager, I’m now 40 and just been diagnosed. I’ve been put on anti depressants most of my life which tended to make me go up and down quite quickly. I’m on my own and don’t have any family. I’m under a psychiatrist and just started my third medication, Quietiapine and Aripiprazole didn’t work for me, fingers crossed this one does.

sorry to hear what you’ve been through and thank you for sharing, it helps to know you’re not alone. I’ve heard many times it’s a long journey to find what works best, it certainly feels like it.

From a practical point of view. Car insurance companies aren't allowed to penalise your for having a medical licence. If the DVLA count you as safe to drive you are safe to drive as any one else. Some insurance companies will ask you out right others will say "we assume that if anyone on the policy has a declarable condition the dvla are aware and a restricted (1,2 or 3 yr licence) or a non restricted licence has been issued". I've just renewed with Tesco and they fell into the latter category. My partner renewed the month before and his was former.

I haven't been able to go rent a car however, I think this might be a relic from when they couldn't check if i licence is stil valid.

That’s good news then, don’t need any more bills going up

My mental illness started at 8. I was diagnosed at 25. I'm 36 now and since turning 30s I got a lot more stable but that's when i finally left uni having got my phd

I ended up on lithium, lamotrigine, mirtazapine and quetiapine after the last episode. It has been the only time I have tolerated antidepressants and had to come off it when before stopping the lithium. If that hadn't worked they were looking at ect which I wasn't keen on. I've been stable now for 18 months and almost back on just quetiapine - I have one week of lithium left but I had to slow the reduction down as I was going slightly hypomanic but that does seemed to have settled down.

It's mostly a tick box exercise which is easier than some forms - life insurance wanted details of every episode! The hardest part I find is locating the appointment letters with my psychiatrist address on!

@Superscientist You’ve done so well to go through uni and get a phd. I feel mine has got worse as I’ve got older, it’s great to hear you’ve been stable for 18 months, that’s promising. There is still hope yet then.

I better search for my letters and make an effort to keep them all together in one place.

I’ve been given risperidone, only started last night. Lamotrigine will be next if this doesn’t work.

For me it was a combination of medication, therapy and lifestyle. It was only after the lifestyle was more stable that the therapy I had when I was first diagnosed fitted into place and the medication had a chance of helping. Whilst my life was chaotic and stressful at uni it was an uphill battle
I have a fairly low stress job now and work 4 days week having Wednesdays off as I can't work more than 2 days in the row.
I was under the early intervention team for the first 3 years of diagnosis and they gave me a lot of the skills I needed but it's more recently that I have been fully able to put them in place. My only goal was been to slowly handle each episode slightly better than the last one.

Sounds like you’ve been through a lot already and it’s been tough. I’ve been in and out of counselling since I was 18 but found it hasn’t helped. I think it’s the other way round for me, I need the meds to get me on an even keel and then maybe I’ll try more therapy. I definitely agree with the lifestyle changes, I’ve just started to look at mine and what I can change. I get lcwra and work pt, about 8-12 hrs. Before covid i had my own business, plus a small pt contact and also sub contracted…. The Wednesday off sounds like a great idea once I get back on my feet.

can I ask what type of skills and how I could access this?

The therapy at the time didn't help but obviously something stuck under the surface. Once the meds and lifestyle got things more stable the therapy I had had over the previous 15 years clicked into place.
I really think when bipolar moods aren't controlled they are so much harder to manage. I definitely felt like a passive passenger in my life for a long time as it didn't matter if I did or thought the "right" things the moods ruled me. Once the ups and downs were less erratic from helpful medication and life things I learnt many years earlier was suddenly relevant and useful. My moods are more predictable now a days which means it's easier to see the road ahead and to mitigate the episode. Like recently having the fizz excess energy in the afternoon recently having me running around erratically. it's taken time to learn that what I need then is to slow life down - colouring and jigsaws and avoiding high tempo music otherwise the energy just snowballs. The more I do the more energy I have and the higher my moods goes. A few weeks down the line and it's not escalated. 10 years ago I would be hypomanic by now and heading towards mania, risking my licence and time off sick.
There are funny warning signs like when I sit perched on my feet like I'm ready to jump/spring into action that you will never see in the dsm are neon beacons that something is going awry

thank you, that’s really interesting. I can relate to the snowball effect and I’m the same whereby the more I do the more energy I have to do even more. So I guess i need to learn my early warning signs, I’ve thought about this before but still haven’t been able to spot them. I know when I get no sleep but don’t feel tired that I’m in hypo/mania but by then it’s too late. I’d love to learn my signs before a depression, not sure what I’d do to help matters though, as like you say it kind of takes over. I definitely think a slower pace would help. Keep thinking about digging out my adult colouring books. Never thought about the tempo of my music though, it makes sense to consider it. I’ve bought an exercise machine, hoping that will help to burn off energy.

I got told my diagnosis because of the DVLA. I got a new psych, and they asked me if I'd declared my condition. I queried if the DVLA needed to know about anxiety/depression. Cue some very confused looks, the psych checking my name and date if birth and my notes. Turned out 6 months earlier a previous psych had written me up as bipolar but not told me! I thought I was on quetiapine off-licence for treatment resistant depression😮

@Antagonishy oh no, what a way to find out. You should have been told, I sorry you weren’t. Do you feel better for knowing?

Mine was the other way around…. I went in for an assessment for ADHD and came out with bipolar. It turns out i have both, ADHD is yet to be officially confirmed but pdoc said we have to get the bipolar under control first.

I do feel better now. The diagnosis at least explained why life felt like a tightrope walk and why I seemed like two different people. Over the years I've got braver about telling people and employers and that helps too. I also struggled very badly with PMDD so a hysterectomy and oophorectomy solved that, which got rid of a lot of the depression. Now I have to keep more of an eye out for hypomania though.

@Antagonishy That’s good to know as I’m at the point of not being sure and sometimes wishing I didn’t know. I guess its helpful in that it explains a lot and I’m sure this feeling will pass and I will start to feel the same as you do. I have only told a close few and just recently my employer, wasn’t sure whether it would become something i would later regret.

At work, I have found a WRAP plan (wellness recovery action plan) really helpful. It sets out what you want to happen if you get poorly. How often they should contact you, what time of day, what they should tell colleagues etc. And also how to help you get back in through the door after a period of sickness e.g. maybe meet for coffee, then walk you in, do a short day for several weeks etc. I can't articulate any of that when I'm sick and in the past it meant I didn't always go back. You might find something like that a practical and positive benefit to having told work.

Grateful to see the responses to your thread OP, my DH has been diagnosed with BPD2 and just got his license changed. He’s on a 1 year and the moment and we both had a meltdown last week realising it could affect insurance. It’s reassuring to see in most cases , it doesn’t.

DH was mighty pissed when I told him he needed to tell the DVLA about his diagnosis. It was all a little too much and he was still a bit in shock. However the process seemed to be easy and when he did get the new license he didn’t think much about it.

My insurers have always said so long as I have declared it to the DVLA and they have given me a licence, that is all they need to know. I've never had it impact my premium. So I declare it every time I change insurer, but it has never been a problem. I hope this is reassuring for anybody following this thread.