Psychosis.

[Edward Appleby]

Originally Posted by coachvu

Not only inappropriate but also illegal.

It's funny though, if I was told someone had bipolar disorder (a violation of privacy laws) what would come to mind would not be nearly as well, unflattering, as what Conne described (a perfectly legal description of an incident he witnessed.)

 

[Connemara]

To clarify: I said to the nurse "So it's bipolar, right?" and she nodded her head and said "Yes." Not sure if that's still illegal or what.

Originally Posted by mano

That being said, it appears the unfortunate young lady was sent into a reactive psychotic tailspin (perhaps fostered by her untreated bipolar disorder) as a direct result of her contact with Connemara. There's a close temporal relationship between the onset of her psychosis and her interaction with him. Moreover, she seemed to have been doing better until he came to visit her at which point she spouted delusional ramblings in an attempt to dissociate herself from his visit.

I tend to have that effect on women.

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by Connemara

To clarify: I said to the nurse "So it's bipolar, right?" and she nodded her head and said "Yes." Not sure if that's still illegal or what.



.

Technically yes, but on a human level fairly understandable in a context where she knew you were a concerned friend or family member.

 

[dokelroth]

Please give this girl my best wishes.

 

[Connemara]

I was at a party last night and some of the people I visited Amy with came in. One girl looked terribly haggard...I asked her what was wrong and she barely choked out, "She's not coming back" before totally breaking down.

Apparently, Amy's going to some sort of facility in either Massachusetts or Florida. I don't know for how long, and I don't know if she's coming back to school.

What a week.

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by Connemara

I was at a party last night and some of the people I visited Amy with came in. One girl looked terribly haggard...I asked her what was wrong and she barely choked out, "She's not coming back" before totally breaking down.

Apparently, Amy's going to some sort of facility in either Massachusetts or Florida. I don't know for how long, and I don't know if she's coming back to school.

What a week.

I'm reading this thread for the first time. Man, what a waste of a young life. I hope she'll recover at some point.

 

[bachbeet]

Conne: I would add that what you did by staying by her side through the night with her other friends was very generous and supportive. You showed you are one of her true friends. She's gonna need more of this type of support.

 

[Thomas]

That blows, Conne. Sorry to hear.

I am reminded of a young lady I dated in college. I knew she was bi-polar, but went along for the ride. No peanut butter was involved, and I wasn't that committed to her since I was weeks away from graduating and leaving town for good. A week before the end of term she disappeared. Left no word at all, just split. This was before cell phones, BTW, so she really fell off the planet as best I could tell.

Months later I got a letter from her explaining what happened and that she was getting better again.

Once again, best wishes to her.

 

[Southern-Nupe]

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

Technically yes, but on a human level fairly understandable in a context where she knew you were a concerned friend or family member.
LawyerDad,

HIPPA would prevent the nurse from even addressing Conne's question.

Conne,

They probably will prescribe Depakote, as it's one of the more common mood stabiliizers used in helping those with Bipolar D/O.

 

[Southern-Nupe]

Originally Posted by j

I've been working on a new ad campaign "Homeless... or Bluetooth?" for a while now. Maybe we should donate old Bluetooth headsets to ranting crazy people to make people around them worry less.

As for this girl, any number of things could have led to this and I very much doubt this was some sort of "cry for help". She could have had an allergy, a drug reaction (legal or illegal), sleep deprivation, extreme stress, etc. The ambulance was probably the best and safest choice because there was no way to know what she might do next (like run out of a cab into traffic), and bringing the police into the matter would potentially bring an armed response to a harmless situation and make it much worse.

I'm sure it was scary but most likely she will be totally fine, and probably get some much needed mental medical attention.

J,

Believe or not, one the few things Houston police department does right, is help with those who have a mental illness. Of course each city and state is different, in Houston, you can go to the courts if you feel someone is a danger to theirself or others, afterwards the courts put out a mental health warrant and has the person picked up. The police then takes the person to the psychiatric unit at the hospital.....this is only recommended if the person involved, refuses to go the hospital, and/or exhibits harmful behaviors.


J...you got my support for your campaign.

 

[Steve B.]

I too am reading this thread for the first time and I find the condescending attitude of many of the posters disturbing.

Bipolar disorder is like asthma, diabetes, any other illness. Stigma is attached to it because it affects the mind and no one wants to appear abnormal to the rest of us.

In fact, here is a list of people you might have heard of who have or had it:

http://www.mental-health-today.com/bp/famous_people.htm

What I find most disturbing about this disease is that people rarely care when someone is enduring its depression. 1 of 5 bipolars eventually kill themselves.

Conne, what you did was extremely laudable. My hat's off to you.

 

[kwiteaboy]

Originally Posted by Southern-Nupe

J,

Believe or not, one the few things Houston police department does right, is help with those who have a mental illness. Of course each city and state is different, in Houston, you can go to the courts if you feel someone is a danger to theirself or others, afterwards the courts put out a mental health warrant and has the person picked up. The police then takes the person to the psychiatric unit at the hospital.....this is only recommended if the person involved, refuses to go the hospital, and/or exhibits harmful behaviors.

This seems very problematic from a civil rights perspective.

There are (I believe) 32 FDA-approved pharmaceutical treatments for bipolar disorder. For many people, none of them have an effect (aside from, for instance, the extreme toxicity of lithium). Hopefully your friend is not one of those people.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

I lived in a hospital for a year or two during my formative years due to a diagnosed bipolar disorder and psychotic rage complex. The thing is... that after the say... sixteen months of being there, being on an encyclopedia worth of pills, escaping a dozen times or so... only to come back voluntarily when I realized that I had nowhere to go (or got picked up by the cops)... they eventually took me of the medicaton, and told me that there wasn't anything wrong with me, that I had very good reasons to be pissed off and that they wished me the best of luck.

Ahhh... those were the exciting times in my life. And yes, I remember lithium being particularly icky.

 

[acidboy]

Going to an institution is what's best for your friend, Conne. I hope she gets through this and it won't be a long stay. And do keep in touch with her family to know how she's holding out. You're doing the Lord's work, my boy, even if it seems you're out partying every damn night.

 

[Steve B.]

Going to an institution is what's best for your friend, Conne. I hope she gets through this and it won't be a long stay. And do keep in touch with her family to know how she's holding out. You're doing the Lord's work, my boy, even if it seems you're out partying every damn night.

Unless it's really severe it should only be 2 weeks to a month. It takes meds time to titrate to levels that will help her.

Here are more people. Fascinating...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...polar_disorder