Posted on 03/06/2010 6:41:41 PM PST by j_marie
On March 4, 2010, John Bendell shot two police officers at the entrance to the Pentagon. He and I have a feared and very personal trait in common.
Like me - and 5.7 million other Americans - Mr. Bendell had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. However, unlike Mr. Bendell, most of those 5.7 million and I have never committed a crime and are not violent.
(Excerpt) Read more at articlesbase.com ...
I know four bi-polars. One killed someone.
Ditto. Because illegal drugs become legal does not mean its effects on the brain and health over long term usage disappears. Libertarians don’t seem to understand this. The Pentagon shooting is only a peek of what the world can be like if Liberal/Libertarians take over this country.
My ex is bi-polar, but not violent.
You know many bipolar people who are not violent. You just don’t know that they are bipolar.
heard a recording of this devil today , sounds gay
Maybe not only bi-polar
I have bipolar disorder.
Might as well out myself. I am on a medication called Seroquel, which works,
My bipolar mania never was violent, just very productive. My bipolar depression (which was misdiagnosed at first) docs put me on anti-mania meds...caused me to throw into a depression and I took ALL of the anti-depressant meds plus a giant bottle of Tylenol PM. I did this in 2005.
I miraculously survived the overdose (I wasn’t a weenie...I took it and woke up two days later)...and THEN called an ambulance....
What I mean to say is...I was serious. I didn’t want attention...when I took those drugs...I thought they would kill me.
They didn’t.
And at the time I took them I had been misdiagnosed.
Now that I am properly diagnosed...NOT THAT I LIKE IT...but I’m properly diagnosed...
I take the medication prescribed and I live day to day....
I write. In another place.
I understand people who live with brains that aren’t predictable. They are my people.
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I am not sure about this guy, bipolar disorder isn't well understood, IMHO, and it comes in different forms, some are worse than others. Hers can, and I think will be beaten, we've been married eight years, and as funny as it sounds, her illness has made me a better person, even if it makes me give God the ass chewing of a life time in my prayers (apologies to the more god-fearing amongst us, but I have a sense of duality with regards to faith. I ask that you simply respect my POV, and I'll respect yours). I've found reserves of strength and fortitude I didn't think I had. Have there been days I've said to myself, "ah screw it, why the hell am I doing this?" Yes. We, the families of those with bipolar suffer too. We see the people we love have their lives turned upside down by a disease that isn't well understood, and where the medication isn't always sufficient.
A word about the state. We live in DC. Yes, I know, but I took us where the jobs were, and they weren't in NYC. Sadly, DC social services got their hooks into her, they've promised a lot, and delivered just enough so that she's not a problem. That's the aim, keep the mentally ill drugged up and out of site. Considering things like the Pentagon shooting, they don't do a very good job of that, do they?
Makes you wonder if people saw this system in action, would they really support government run health care? What really scares me? I have yet to find mental health provisions in the bill. And to be honest, I am hoping that the idiots aren't seeking to return to a system of "Hey, you're nuts, to the state asylum with you!" But I have no confidence with Obambi, to him he'd rather we all sample the "joys" of the state.
I do know some non violent bipolars, but when those meds stop working, the part of the brain that controls impulses and rational thought kicks out, leaving the moods in control.
My husband was bipolar, and I can tell you under the right circumstances he was very unsafe. I spent my entire married life “watching the cat”. He was an extremely loving, good man, but it’s a true psychosis - watch out if they start to percieve something threatening that ain’t so.
The delusions were really rough.
I have an old friend, who is the only person I know well with true manic-depressive, bipolar disorder. She’s aware of it, and is taking several medications, I believe Wellbutrin and Abilify, but not certain.
She’s got her masters from a very well regarded university here in NC, and is a school administrator for one of the larger counties in the state. She credits her medication for enabling her to hold down a job, something she couldn’t manage otherwise, because the “down” stage was so completely debilitating.
But, she finally admitted to me that she misses the “high,” the manic stage ... says she feels so good, so energetic, so alive. She occasionally goes off her meds intentionally. I’d suspected this for a while. She just sort of disappears for several days, hits the bars and clubs, drinks, dances and has a fling, which was how I met her so many years ago. But, she’s married with beautiful kids now, I told her she needs to give it up and stay on her medication, that she was risking all that.
It doesn’t seem to have made an impression, though.
After spending years dealing with it, I can tell you the state is totally clueless dealing with bipolar disorder.
The most important thing is good, caring, committed family. Sadly bipolars often lack this because so few understand the illness.... they just think the family member is mean/selfish/uncontrolled.
The state, instead of helping, was another stress to deal with in raising a family. They interfere instead of support. Once I called 911 to take my husband to the hospital and they arrested him when they got there and put him in jail and made him spend DAYS without meds. It took months to get rid of the psychosis. B*******. That’s how I feel about the state “help”.
If you have problems with bipolar in your family stay FAR AWAY from state services. Their first response is to physically break up the family and have them make enemies of one another. They have no regard for the family and instead focus on the kids, like they can grow well in a vacuum. The kids I know were damaged far worse by state interference than the parents illness.
I have never heard of it.
Bless you for taking good care of yourself. Your illness is a devious one that can kill the soul rather than, like cancer, just the body.
But it’s treatable, as you have discovered. Tragedy occurs when a victim of this disease refuses proper medical care and disrupts or destroys not only their own life but those who care for them.
Best wishes as you learn to deal with your issues. We all have them in one form or another. Remember that. None of us are whole; some of us just hide our imperfections well.
The classic bi-polar—that’s the type I have met. And yes I know they are bi-polar because they are kind enough to warn people that they have the illness. My first experience was an eye opener for sure.
If I have met others I probably met their acquaintance on an upward crest. The one’s I found out later were bi-polar are fun when they rev up.
Incidentally, do you have any bipolar relatives? Bipolar illness seems to have a strong hereditary component.
I kind of came out and then retreated....because often when you admit these things, people will come out of the woodwork to attack you.
Especially as a Republican...who is out now, as someone who lives with mental illness, there are many on the other side who would say, “I knew it!”
Which is why I take offense and get peeved when either side throws the “crazy” label around.
I won twice on Jeopardy.
I have a different kind of brain and I’m not bragging.
It’s just a fact of life. I read voraciously and remember what I read.
I am too young to know for sure if there were others in the family with this...but I would bet that my grandfather had issues. He became a millionaire after being a kid who lost his mom at 13 and had to live with his sister because his father was a mess. He was a drinker. I just learned recently that he had a sister no one talked about because she died in a mental institution.
My mother’s side has depression.
That’s all I know. But I also have close family that are brilliant at one thing or another despite not necessarily being educated formally.
And I also need to say. If you are bipolar or have someone you love dealing with it, remember....we didn’t bring it on ourselves...we’re dealing with it the same as you are.
Doc had me on many meds before we settled on Seroquel. I recommend this med. Others had me having trouble walking or in a sort of constant fog. I refused to settle for those meds. I battled with the Doc to get me a better med. Lithium is common...but I found it AWFUL and every bi-polar I have known who was on lithium has relapsed.
I don’t know how it would be if I went off my Seroquel. What I did was read books when I was sorta diagnosed. I recommend Kay Redfield Jamieson. She’s bipolar, and so, is sort of the oracle.
I read her books, identified, fought for my treatment and followed the things she talked about.
Someone above said family is important...and I say, AMEN. I have some GREAT family. I also had some shitty family that was hurting me and they were stressors, but now...family is good.
Also, life can deal you stressful things. My family moved alot. I am a victim of childhood sexual abuse. I am an incest survivor. That’s not libel..the family member admitted it.
I grew up overseas. I actually did pretty well.
But after moving back, I lost my Dad to complications of surgery after cancer when I was 28. The immediate family fractured and I struggled (as the youngest) to self-preserve and live. (My mother had had brain surgery a year before dad died and was left with brain damage).
When all of these things coalesce...it’s hard. And there probably is a family history.
I became a true Christian before the crux of my mental health problems hit me...I’m glad that I had that spiritual support...but it also gave me a “what the #$%^” attitude when I became depressed enough to end it all.
This disease is insidious...but others can also be insidious in their dealings with you. And there were some very upset friends online when I talked about being a Republican and they actually said insulting and threatening things. So, I was already indelicate and then longtime friends were deserting me or outright insulting me.
I protect myself better now.
I must say that HERE where I live...social services have actually been VERY good...but that might be because I have alot of friends in the health care system and the legal system because I worked the front desk of our local trauma center for five years.
I MAY have gotten some preferential treatment.
This has been going on for well, almost a decade now, and I’m good.
Life doesn’t get easier. My mother moved here three years ago and had been doing ok at a residential facility near me. (My brother got sick of taking care of her and after draining her of assets, dumped her here)....
They found her dead on January 4th. The scene was something that even the healthiest would have a problem dealing with...but my Mom was a strong Christian. One of her best friends was Dee Jepsen. Mom died very fast and since she was a nurse...well, the coroner was someone I knew from the hospital and he told me, “Jill, this is the way health care providers pray to go.”
So anyway. Long story short. TOO LATE!
Mental illness has nothing to do with intelligence. Many bipolar people, in particular, are highly intelligent, creative, and very productive during their manic or hypomanic phases. I mentioned the bipolar med student who ranked second in his class.
I dislike the looseness with which words like "crazy," "nuts," etc. are used by people on FR and in the world at large. I assume that "crazy" roughly equates to psychotic. The most dangerous people in the world are not psychotic at all, although most are sociopaths, like Obama, Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, etc. Most truly psychotic people are not dangerous to others.
March 11: My, the Bedell story fizzled out quick.
No media bias here.
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