Please consult a GP/physician, or psychiatrist. The diagnosis can only be done by a trained psychiatrist. Bipolar disorder is characterised by periods of depression and mania. Medication and compliance is paramount to bipolar control.

And I have never, ever, heard of a no-drug bipolar control strategy. What are you guys advising here? If a manic bipolar goes off, the patient can literally die from exhaustion! It's a serious condition!

To TS: If the previous diagnosis of social anxiety disorder was done by a psychiatrist, it is likely that your diagnosis will remain in personality disorder categories, unless the symptomatology that you will report to the psychiatrist is markedly different. Don't be afraid to pour everything out to your psychiatrist, it helps the psychiatrist gain rapport and understanding with you.

This post has been edited by trencher10: Aug 22 2011, 12:16 PM

You mean a referral letter from a GP/clinic doctor is it? A prescription is for medication.

And it is possible for those choices to be made under times when insight is poor or lacking. And when sufferes make those judgements at those times, do you know what happens? Mental Health Acts and involuntary admission into mental healthcare units. Adverse drug reactions that decrease thresholds for mania are NOT contraindications for discouraging pharmacological strategies, there's a whole armamentarium of pharmaceuticals that allows better control at less adverse effects.

I don't discourage psychotherapy, counselling, lifestyle changes and other non-pharmacological strategies in psychiatric disorders. They are important parts of managing psychiatric disorders. However, the simplistic views and opinions that some sentences people spout off can too be miscontrued by patients to distrust physician's advice in medication compliance, and it is a serious problem. It reduces the rapport needed by the psychiatrist to gain trust, and can reinforce resistance of patients to outside support or help.

Some aspects of the comprehensive psychiatric systems I've seen in Ireland are practiced in a multi-disciplinary fashion that does not depend solely on pharmacology, where psychotherapists, social workers, public mental health nurses and counsellors work to help the patient in all aspects of their lives. But it is important that people do not play off the assumptions from news-grabbing headlines of dramatic adversities and base their management strategies that simplistically. Which is why I was vehement in the rebuttal. I guess I am too forceful in my countenance, so I also apologize if I am in anyway hurting any feelings.

This post has been edited by trencher10: Aug 26 2011, 08:51 AM