Stephen Fry - The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive BBC2 9PM

[ShiverMeMolesworths]

Tonight!

He's great , isn't he?

So witty and seems so charming. Poor love, when he was taking about is depression.

That was really well done with the GP, wasn't it. The whole program was so measured and wise, and his attitude just really impressive

wonderful - bet he had a hand in its editing, prog actually seemed to expect the audience to have half a brain, not so common now in docs.

I've had to tie my hands together to stop me writing/emailing him

Yes, this was interesting. It made me long for a huge indepth series on depression.
However it worried me that by the end of the second prog, SF still had a strong personal aversion to the idea of ADs (I'd guess this will influence some people/sufferers/relatives who watched).
I can't imagine how he can be overpowered by those regular depressions (didn't he say he had 2/3 a year?) without a bit of support from meds. Felt for him, but wanted to shake him too.
Wish he had examined the stigma of ADs as well as the stigma of manic depression.

What I loved about the GP was two fold. One, it blew away the 'nutter' steriotype bigtime. And then they told you that she hasd been the higest rated neurosurgion in her year....and that being a part time GP was 'taking things easier' LOL

I suppose the only thing I would say about that, bakedpotato, is that I felt he was being really clear that what he was talking about was bipolar rather than unipolar depression, and that the reason he didn't want to take medication was because he gets so much out of his manic phases that he was willing to take the down phases in return.

Sorry, that was a ludicrously long sentence.

mediaction/no medication is a very hot debate, I liked the fact he didn't take medication..I thought it again showed that is possible

I thought that 'Electroboy' was very interesting too!

I had no idea that ECT was still used to treat Bipolar depression.

only some ads are suitable for manic depressives, can be quite difficult to idnetify/control without inducing mania which then leads to needing eg lithium as well and taking drugs to counteract side effects from other drugs is quite unpleasant

also was interesting how gp, esp considering she was a gp thought she cd handle it thro diet alone/stress reduction alone.

And he also did talk in depth to people like R,Dreyfuss who was v clear that meds were/had been vital for him.

I think the programme did focus more on people functioning relatively well than on those currently in full blown revolving door mania/depression cycles but in some ways I thought it was all the more refreshing for that.

Evinced a dislike for the psychiatrist at the East London hospital though- felt he was a bit disingenuous and own trumpet blowing.

it didn't say much about using alcohol to manage it either which is actually probably as common as using medication (total lack of evidence to back that up but my gut feeling lol)

I wondered how the GP's patients would respond to her after the programme. Would it change their opinion of her in any way? (Lovely to see Borough Market too!). I thought the woman who was plotting her days was very interesting - I felt quite moved when her children were talking about her.
I thought it was a fantastic programme and very well done. I found the ordinary people far more interesting than the stars, apart from Fry himself.

I think that there was an unspoken underlying thread of patients taking control being so beneficial.

That doc was a bit of a prat, wasn't he, scummy. It can't really be quite as rosy a picture as all that, surely. Lovely word, evinced...

To be fair, he spent quite some time with the parents of the beautiful girl who committed suicide, didn't he, so he wasn't shying away from the worst aspects.

Jo Brand was lovely too, wasn't she?

His problem was said to be 70something on the scale. Does the scale go to 100 and what would someone near the end of the scale be like?

what scale was it? was that a research project?

I think it's probably this yoyo, so yes, up to 100. Notasheep further down the thread was talking about a case of permanent hospitalisation, so I guess that would be 100

Jo Brand was also fab.

She just oozed good natured understanding of the people that she had nursed. Very like the nurses that look after my Mum, in fact. What is wonderful about them is that they see the undoubted 'funny side' of the situations they work with, while never loosing sight of the need for the dignity of the patients, if that makes sense.

Yes- Jo Brand exceptionally lovely. I agree he didn't shy away from anything really. I just think maybe it's quite hard to communicate the real problems of the manic part of the illness in some ways, especially when it spills over into full blown psychosis.

Finding this programme really interesting.

Didn't J Brand see totaly unshockable and unflapable? You got the feeling that the woman had coped with just about everything in her time

Twinset - how do you manage your bipolarity - do you take meds, or are you using different strategies? And what kind of career do you have that you can be valued for whilst being bipolar? Don't feel you have to answer if the question is too personal...I'm asking because I suspect I am high functioning bipolar too, and not keen to take meds for it.