On the Job with Bipolar: Five-Part Series

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Dr. Fink | 2 Comments

On our other blog, Bipolar Beat, we are currently running a five-part series on returning to work with bipolar disorder, starting with “Bipolar on the Job Part I: Will I Be Able to Return to Work?” Please check it out and let us know what you think.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Rethinking Mental Health” Competition

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Dr. Fink | 4 Comments

For far too long, mental illness has been stigmatized and those stigmas have served as a barrier to innovation. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Rethinking Mental Health” competition offers an opportunity for new ideas outside the traditional structures to emerge.

What can you do to participate? Visit the Changemakers Website to do any of the following:

  1. Comment on entries from others like you who are deeply concerned about this very important issue and want to get involved.
  2. Enter the competition and share your own idea for improving mental health.
  3. Nominate an inspired idea or project.

Please note that you will have to create an account on the Changemakers website, but it is free to do so and will only take a minute of your time.

Entries and comments can be submitted until October 14th. A panel of judges will then select 10 ideas that the Changemakers community will vote on to select the top three. The Changemakers collaborative competition winners-the three finalists that receive the most votes-will be announced on December 16, 2009 and will each receive a cash prize of USD $5,000. As important as the three winners, however, is the dialogue that occurs about mental health and that as many great minds as possible come to the table with fresh thinking and new solutions.

Posted in Advocacy | 4 Comments »

Bipolar Disorder For Dummies Travels to Slovenia

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Joe | 4 Comments

Slovene edition of Bipolar Disorder For DummiesI recently received an email message from the translator who’s doing the Slovene translation of Bipolar Disorder For Dummies. Following is the letter (included here with permission).

 

  

 

Hello,

I’m currently finishing the Slovene (ours is a tiny country in Middle Europe) translation of Bipolar Disorder For Dummies, so I’ve been checking your name on the Internet and I’ve come across your site. :-)

I have bipolar myself (Bipolar I). I was hospitalized for the first time at 16 – that was a quarter of a century ago; and I’ve also managed to transmit my bipolar genes to my son (the second of our three children), and they burst out really, really wildly two years ago, when he was eleven. But we survived as a family and we’re actually better off now than we were before. I have a loving husband and I suppose – considering you have bipolar in your family – you can pretty well imagine what he’s been through beside us.

Why am I writing this? To tell you that I love your and Candida’s book. I was having doubts when I first got it, but it is actually just what someone with bipolar needs. I’ve replaced all your legal information with our legislation so that the book is going to be just as useful as it was, I suppose, originally meant to be. Beside this book, I am doing everything I can to help my co-sufferers and especially to help kids with bipolar and their parents; one part of my efforts is my web site bipolarna.si.

Well, that’s about it: congratulations for the book once again and … have a nice day today!

Darja

Bipolar Website from SloveniaIf you can read and understand Slovene, I encourage you to visit Darja’s Web site – bipolarna.si

Posted in Bipolar Books | 4 Comments »

Bipolar Disorder: Setting Boundaries

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Joe | 21 Comments

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) has a NAMI’s Family-to-Family Program – a free, 12-week course for family caregivers of individuals with severe mental illnesses. Several years ago, when I had my first encounter with bipolar disorder in my family, I enrolled in the program and found it very helpful.

While the program devotes a great deal of time and resources to helping family members develop a sense of empathy with those who have a mental illness (including bipolar disorder or schizophrenia), the program also encourages families to establish well-defined boundaries and “communicate undebatable harsh consequences if the boundaries are violated.” Boundaries are beneficial for everyone involved, because they establish the house rules for maintaining safety and some degree of order and calm.

While I was doing some research on boundaries, I came across an article on the NAMI website by Kathy Bayes, entitled “Setting Boundaries in a Marriage Complicated by Mental Illness.” Please read the article and then come back here and post a comment to share your opinion of it and your insights and experiences related to the topic of setting boundaries.

Posted in Marriage, Relationships | 21 Comments »

Tragedy of Errors

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Joe | 13 Comments

Last spring, my wife ended up in the hospital with a rip roaring manic episode, so this year, we were on high alert. A couple weeks ago, she noticed herself having trouble sleeping, one of our first early warning signs, so she did the right thing and called her doctor. She requested a prescription for temazepam (Restoril), but he said he didn’t like to prescribe it because patients tended to develop a dependency. Instead, he called in a prescription for Ambien CR – an extended release form of Ambien.

Anthem, my wife’s insurance company, refused to cover the cost of Ambien CR. Apparently, this stuff’s like gold; $150 for a month’s prescription. That’s five bucks a night to sleep. She could file an appeal, fill the prescription out of pocket, and hope that insurance would cover it… yeah, right.

For several days, the doctor did battle with the insurance company, while my wife self-medicated to get some sleep. Melatonin was her remedy of choice, complemented with a few Benadryl every so often, which would help with her seasonal allergies as well. She continued to get more manic – talking more, louder, and faster; gesturing more; racing thoughts and difficulty concentrating while continuing to work; becoming more and more irritable and argumentative.

Unable to convince the insurance company (which was playing the role of God Almighty with my wife’s life), the doctor prescribed Lunesta as a second choice. My wife took it for a few days and reported that it had the same effect on her as Ambien (non CR) did when she had taken it in the past – she would sleep fine for four to five hours and then wake up WIRED! It was not helping. It was making things worse.

She needed something that worked and she needed it soon. Her friend from Japan was scheduled to arrive for a week-long visit, and my wife needed to be able to gain control over the mania. Sleep was key. Sleep is always key.

This brings us to yesterday. My wife called her doctor’s office, and the receptionist agreed to fit her in for a 3:30 appointment. My wife’s friend from Japan was flying into Indianapolis the same day. Her flight was due to arrive at 9:45 pm. We live about an hour from Indianapolis, and since my wife’s doctor’s office is just south of Indy, we figured we could do the doctor and the airport in one trip.

After some discussion, the doctor agreed to provide my wife with a month’s prescription of temazepam. Instead of taking the written prescription and having it filled, she asked the doctor to call it into her pharmacy back home. We would have our son pick up the prescription before the pharmacy closed, and it would be waiting for us when we returned from the airport.

After the doctor’s appointment, we headed to downtown Indianapolis, where my wife did some light shopping and we went to a movie to kill some time. After the movie (about 7:30), my wife checked her cell phone. She had one message from her sister in Phoenix explaining that my wife’s friend’s flight was cancelled. She would now be arriving in Indianapolis at 1:30 am.

Instead of waiting around another six hours we decided to head home. My wife could take a temazepam and start getting some much needed sleep, and I could return later to pick up our guest at the airport.

We arrived home at about 8:40 pm. On the counter were two prescriptions. When my wife opened them, she was in utter disbelief; neither of the medications were the one she desperately needed. She called the pharmacy as I put on my shoes to fly out the door before the pharmacy closed at 9 pm. She signaled me to wait. The pharmacy had no record of a prescription for temazepam and was closing in 8 minutes! UN-bleeping-believable!

With insufficient time to resolve the snafu, we decided to give up and try again tomorrow. My wife took one of my Buspars to help with anxiety and a Lunesta to sleep and we headed to bed. I got a couple hours sleep and headed to the airport.

Next day…

My wife calls the doctor’s office and asks about the prescription. The doctor’s assistant assures her that they did, in fact, call in the prescription. My wife calls the pharmacy and learns that the prescription had been on their answering machine. It’s been filled and is now ready to be picked up. UN-bleeping-believable!

Posted in Relationships, Sleep, Stories | 13 Comments »

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