Psychopathology Sum-Up: Bipolar Disorder

[Content note: brief discussion of suicide]

Weekly series! As per previous discussion, I will be published a big information blog about a specific mental illness on each Friday.

I know, today is not Friday. I’m publishing early because I’m excited, and also I want to get lots of feedback. Tell me what I’m not including, what other things you want to know, etc. If there’s enough questions, I’ll do a second follow-up post. Lastly, tell me if there’s terms I’m not defining that I should be. I really really don’t want to get wrapped around jargon here–it helps nobody.

The idea is to talk about what the diagnoses are and aren’t, common misconceptions, what treatment and outcomes look like, and so on. Though not all therapeutic orientations (the theory and approach behind a course of treatment) depend on or use diagnoses–and there’s some very good arguments against using the medical model of diagnosis–we do use labels to conduct research, and it’s worth learning what a mental illness is. I’m going to try to include any changes to diagnostic criteria as well as current debates.

This post is massive and organized in informational sections, so I’ve put it behind a jump.

Continue reading “Psychopathology Sum-Up: Bipolar Disorder”

Psychopathology Sum-Up: Bipolar Disorder
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Real Life gets in the way; Missing Roommate

My roommate went missing.  She’s only lived in LA for about a month, and I don’t know her that well.  She graduated from the same film school I went to and we’d worked on set together, but we aren’t close.

She disappeared for 48 hours.  She left a string of incomprehensible facebook messages, texts and voicemails over the weekend.  I spent yesterday calling anyone who may have seen her, where she worked, all of that.  No one had heard from her.  Her mother flew into LA last night.  My other roommate went to the police.  The police came by where I live, asked some questions.  Whatever you may have heard about the LAPD, these two gentlemen were very nice and polite.  I was quite impressed.  Though they seemed confused as to why this house full of white MFAs was living in a poor Hispanic neighborhood.  See: Overeducated/Underpaid.

No news over night, searched some parks, though she’d posted on facebook something about a road trip.  It was all difficult to decipher, her most recent update being: Please SMS the menu. W/ the fucking whatever it is that it’s either. Yes jfkdkmenc chomp just ate electric particles.  And the other 100 or so updates in the 3 hours up to that were equally nonsensical.

Fortunately, she was found this morning.  The police had picked her up at a lake, crying, and she was taken to the emergency psych ward at the UCLA medical center.  She’s refusing to see her mother, but she’s safe.  She clearly has had a psychotic break, whether drug-induced or related to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is not clear at this point.

I have terrible luck with roommates, I’m glad she’s safe.  But if this is the start of an intense mental disorder, she has a very long and difficult road ahead of her.  The last 24 hours have been exhausting.

Real Life gets in the way; Missing Roommate