Lived Experience Forum

[FloatingFeather]

Hi @Me_again,

Welcome to the forums! I'm really glad your psychiatrist referred you here - it is a great community with people that can support you from both a lived experience place and a caring and supportive place.

A close family member of mine was diagnosed with bipolar I several years ago. I remember it took him a while to accept and process his diagnosis. I think what helped him was time, support from professionals and family and friends, and finding support from others diagnosed with bipolar. I also think being kind to yourself and allowing yourself time to process your thoughts and feelings is important. 

Here is a link to some information about bipolar https://www.sane.org/spotlight-on/bipolar which may be helpful to you.   

For future reference if you want to tag someone so that they get a notification from you just put the @ symbol followed by their name with no spaces and then click on their name in the drop down box that appears. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Take care and please let us know how you are getting on.

Best wishes,

FloatingFeather

[Roughsea]

@Oaktree this was really helpful to read! I am the same as @Me_again and am struggling to accept mu diagnosis and taking medication all the time. 

One of the biggest fears I have is being hospitalised so have you got any advice about that? 

[Oaktree]

Hi @Roughsea, I just saw your message. I am about to have dinner so I will think about it and get back to you a bit later.

Meggle

[Eve7]

Hi @Roughsea  I just spent a few days in hospital. It wasn’t pleasant but it worked out ok. I can answer your questions if you have any.

[Roughsea]

Thank you so much @Eve7. I know there were 2 times that I should've been hospitalised but it was very early in my diagnosis and both my partner and I had no idea what to do. 

How do you know when it's bad enough to actually go? 

[Eve7]

Hi @Roughsea 

I’m sorry for not replying sooner to your question. Where I live in SE Qlld I can contact the acute care team 24/7 if I’m not travelling too well and they will either chat on the phone, ask me to come in or send someone to visit and assess me. I could also go to the ED as a last resort and be prepared to sit and wait.

If it’s a planned admission to a private facility my psychiatrist will arrange that.

I hope that answers some of your questions.