Apologies, the copyright has expired on the piece I was addressing.
However I think that the reply, or discussion, stands as a piece of criticism
about the accepted diagnosis of being bi-polar. The current trend to reduce the
diagnosis is to find the patient BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) this can
be treated with CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) a cheaper and quicker
alternative to long term psychiatric therapy.
I read a piece written by Darian Leader in the Guardian Review
on 27th April 2013. The piece peddled the same views of being bi-polar that
have flowed from the pens of authors and therapists on this subject ever since
I have been reading on the subject: namely that bipolar people have excesses
that involve spending vast amounts of money or other excesses that in my
opinion the ‘normal’ bi polar person could never hope to do or afford. There is
always a mention of Catherine Zeta Jones and Stephen Fry, both of whom have a
good income and celebrity status.
Their excesses and my excesses differ wildly. I came from
relative poverty and temper my manic excesses accordingly: the biggest manic purchase
so far has been a hi-fi that cost £1000. I knew we could afford it, we didn’t
need it but I knew we could afford it. A camera for £600 was another ‘big’ manic
high spend, again we could afford it; it was a calculated spend. On each occasion
I drove home chewing my lip as to what would be the consequences of such an
unconsidered spend. Both these spends were of the moment, I didn’t do the
possibly right thing of looking for a better price or a review of the item; I
just bought them in a manic high.
My other manic spends have been a case of dishwasher powder
because it was on offer, cases of wine because they are cheap, plug in odour
removers; again because they were on offer: we have about eight of them, four
suits on a buy one get one half price offer; not two suits but four suits! And
that is the difference between celebrity depressive spending and the ‘ordinary’
bi-polar manic spending I think. The celebrity often knows that the income and
money is there, this allows them the luxury of that manic excess, and it does
not diminish their depression or make it any easier for them to deal with. I
think that celebrity status can make the symptoms of a manic episode very
different from Bob Smith a welder from Clapham, or indeed me. I can only
reflect what I feel on this matter and what I have experienced.
Darian Leader tells a story of a client that gives him a
cheque for 10 times the fees for their counselling then his wife had to cancel
the cheque. I have never done anything like that because my inner ‘poverty’ voice
limits my excesses.
I have, however, scribbled words, had racing thoughts, lay
awake thinking, thinking and thinking and then I have had to do things that
have no meaning in reality; dust all the ornaments. I have feverishly made up
words and puns that cannot be written down fast enough. Latterly I have tweeted
jokes and silliness one after another with no pause to read others comments, I
must have that manic expression. The crash often comes the next day. These are
my manic excesses. But I have never given away money; I tell a lie: I gave a
beggar £20 in Leeds after we had come out of a swanky restaurant when we had some
income and was somewhat inebriated. But that is hardly the amount of money a
celebrity bipolar person can give away or spend in one manic episode. This is
not me being envious.
I am trying to explore the hackneyed view of being bipolar
and its consequences. I am convinced that ‘ordinary’ people cannot fall into
the grandiose excesses that celebrities can and do.
Of course the celebrity also has the fall back that is the
Priory Clinic, where their money buys them a comprehensive diagnosis of their
disorder. On the NHS the client is lucky to get to see a Psychotherapist in less
than two years and the Holy Grail of a Psychiatrist in less than three years,
which is certainly the case here in Cumbria.
If a diagnosis of being bi-polar hinges exclusively on the
massive manic spends that we, as a community, are alleged to spend then I or we
will never be diagnosed as being bi-polar. I think therapists should move away
from the old fashioned, perhaps Freudian based diagnosis of the manic episode. It
should be remembered that a lot of those diagnoses were based on people who,
importantly in my opinion, could and still do pay for that diagnosis. The
ability to seek further opinion and indeed buy the best opinion is not in the
remit of the common man, we have to accept the treatment that the NHS gives us.
Of course the patient can ask for a second opinion. However how many patients
would do so in the NHS system? The person has waited possibly two or three
years to see a therapist and then has the temerity to disagree with their
diagnosis. This does not auger well for the patient. The referral to another
therapist may take another two to three years. Where does that leave the
patient? Whereas in somewhere like the Priory, the therapists all swap notes
and come to conclusions and discuss treatments and therapies and often the
patient will have some resolve to their condition. I am not criticising the NHS
on this point, I am criticising the unjoined up thinking of the NHS mental health
policy that exists today and tomorrow.
Whilst the opinions of Darian Leader continue to be accepted
and nodded towards then us regular people will never achieve a diagnosis
without having to pander to the ‘comfortable’ upper class, celebrity diagnosis
of being bi-polar and the excesses that are displayed by them.
How do we get out voices heard on this subject? The medical
community, I believe, will close down on us and protect their received wisdom and
in doing so protect their valuable sought after diagnoses and status.
I hold no formal qualifications in psychiatry but I can
argue the point about manic spending and its inclusion in the diagnosis of
being bi-polar.
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