Many factors influence how well a consumer is able to adapt to bipolar. These include the severity of the illness, level of self-awareness, one’s attitude about mental illness, availability of a support system, and access to quality health care. Some consumers are able to accept their illness after one or two manic episodes. Others remain in denial for years, burning through relationships, jobs, and money until they hit rock bottom.“Bipolar is one of the illnesses people have the hardest time accepting,” says Sagar V. Parikh, MD, deputy psychiatrist-in-chief at the University Health Network in Toronto and professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. “Maybe one third accept [the diagnosis] right away. At least a third totally reject it, and a third believe it, but when they are better for a while, begin to doubt it again.”
“It’s common for acceptance to take years,” agrees Evette J. Ludman, PhD, a clinical psychologist and researcher at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle and coauthor of Overcoming Bipolar Disorder: A Comprehensive Workbook for Managing Your Symptoms and Achieving Your Life Goals (New Harbinger Publications, 2009).
Fully accepting the diagnosis is “almost like joining the priesthood,” Parikh says. “The commitment to treatment is a major one that involves going to the doctor regularly and paying a lot of effort to regulating one’s lifestyle. It’s not just a commitment to medication, but a way of life.”
In his research, Parikh found that consumers with bipolar II have greater difficulty acknowledging the diagnosis than do those with bipolar I, which is typically characterized by clear-cut episodes of mania and depression.
The symptoms of bipolar II are subtle, he explains, making it difficult to perceive the hypomania as a symptom of the illness, rather than part of one’s identity. “Your highs are mild, your brain is working faster, you have more confidence and energy, you need less sleep—it’s the ideal human condition,” says Parikh. Because the symptoms of bipolar II tend to be sporadic, “it is difficult to conceptualize it as an illness,” he adds.
excerpted from the Sept. issue of Bipolar Magazine.
