Candida Fink MD
Bipolar Disorder For Dummies
Bipolar Disorder For Dummies®, 3rd Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015951120
ISBN: 978-1-119-12186-2
ISBN 978-1-119-12186-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-12187-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-12188-6 (ebk)
Introduction
Imagine yourself cruising down the highway at a comfortable speed of 65 miles per hour when your cruise control goes berserk. The speedometer climbs to 75 and then 85 … you hit the button to cancel … tap the brakes … 90 … nothing slows you down … 95 … your car is shaking and weaving … 100 … people are honking … 105 … police cars are chasing you … 110 … your spouse is yelling at you to SLOW DOWN … 115 … 120 … .
Or imagine the opposite: You’re driving through town in a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit zone. Nobody’s in front of you – you’re practically pushing the accelerator through the floor – but your car can only creep along at 3 miles per hour. Your neighbors are honking, passing you on the right – on bicycles – and giving you dirty looks and other gestures of discontent.
When you have bipolar disorder, your brain’s accelerator is stuck. At full speed, it launches you into a manic episode. In low gear, it grinds you down into a deep depression. If this were a situation with your heart, somebody would call an ambulance; doctors and nurses would flock to your bedside; loved ones would fly in from other states; and you’d get flowers and fruit baskets. But when your brain is stuck in park or overdrive, people tend to think you’re lazy, you’ve snapped, or you’re too weak to deal with life. Instead of flowers and fruit baskets, you get a pink slip and divorce papers.
The good news is that the mind mechanics – psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists – have toolboxes packed with medications and therapies that can repair your brain’s accelerator. In this book, we reveal those tools along with strategies and techniques you can use to achieve and maintain mood stability and to help yourself feel a whole lot better.
About This Book
Although psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists are better equipped than ever to treat bipolar disorder, studies increasingly show that the more involved patients and their loved ones are in the treatment plan, the better the outcome. Our goal in writing this book is to make you a well-informed patient or support person and to empower you to become a key player on the treatment team.
Organized in an easy-to-access format and presented in plain English, the newest edition of Bipolar Disorder For Dummies brings you up to speed on bipolar disorder, explaining what it is, what causes it, and how it’s diagnosed and treated. We present the most effective treatments, explain why preventive treatment plays such a critical role in keeping symptoms at bay, and point out the positive prognosis that you can expect with the right combination of medication, therapy, lifestyle adjustments, and support.
In addition to comprehensive coverage of bipolar disorder, this book contains numerous first-person accounts from people living with bipolar disorder and their loved ones. These stories give you a glimpse inside the minds of people living with bipolar disorder along with additional insight into how people deal with the challenges in their own lives.
When we refer to medications or drugs, we use this format on first reference: generic name (Brand name), as in fluoxetine (Prozac), and in an attempt to be fair to both sexes, we alternate the use of “he” and “she” as we change from one section to the next instead of using the bulky “he or she” approach or the really weird “s/he” solution.
Foolish Assumptions
When you (or your loved ones) are diagnosed with bipolar, you automatically become a rank beginner. You never needed information about this illness before and probably had little interest in the topic. Now you have to get up to speed in a hurry. With that in mind, we assume that you know very little about bipolar disorder. If you’ve been to a doctor or therapist and received a diagnosis, however, you know at least a little. And if you got burned by a misdiagnosis or the wrong approach, you know you don’t want that to happen again. But no matter how experienced you are, this book can help.
We also assume that you or someone you know has bipolar or that you’re at least somewhat curious about the condition. The more the disorder affects you, your family, or someone else you know, the more this book can help.
Finally, we assume that you have a sense of humor. Yes, bipolar disorder can be brutal, but laughter is one tool that enables you to rise above the absurdity and frustration of dealing with it.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout this book, we sprinkle the following icons in the margins to cue you in to different types of information that you may or may not care to see:
