My Chaos Narrative: 66 Years of Bipolar Disorder: Part 1

[RonPrice]

The study of bipolar disorder in the next decade or so may be of help to me, a sufferer over the last 7 decades. Here is the first instalment of my story.-Ron Price, Tasmania

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PREAMBLE

 

The many manifestations of health problems like neurotic, personality, psychotic and non-psychotic mental disorders is now one of the leading causes of death globally.1 Mental disorders also account for a significant percentage of the non-fatal burden of disease.

 

This is my personal story and experience of bipolar disorder(BPD). It is my life-narrative, my personal story, my experience with a special focus on the idiosyncratic manifestations of BPD in my life. For this reason, among others, I have posted part or all of what I call my 'chaos-narrative' at a number of internet sites.

 

Severe mental tests are everywhere apparent, not only in the field of psychiatry and clinical psychology whose role is to deal with these afflictions, but also across the wider culture in which we all live. These tests have been afflicting people across most cultures in the long history of humankind, but especially in the last century as the world’s population has gone from 1.5 billion in 1914 to 7.5 billion in 2014 and especially since the onset of the Great War: 1914-1918 and the tempests of our modern world. These tests will continue to do so in the decades ahead as the tempest afflicting society continues seemingly unabated.

 

There are now available a burgeoning range of resources in today’s print and electronic media to help people understand the complex field of mental health. My life-narrative, which I hope will be of help with respect to BPD, is but one small resource for readers and I have posted sections of this account at internet sites which contain a dialogue between people interested in particular mental health issues about which I have had some experience in my life.

 

There are many internet sites today, some organized for and by mental health experts and others for the general public and especially for sufferers of mental-illness to provide information as well as opportunities to discuss issues and obtain help for what has become a very large range of specific disorders. If one googles the following words: mental health, depression, bipolar disorder, affective disorders, OCD, PTSD, anger management, indeed, any one of dozens of other disorders in this field, one discovers a host of sites of interest and of relevance to one’s special concerns.

 

According to one source, one-third of all people in western cultures will suffer from a disorder or emotional problem during their lifetime and they would benefit from therapy. In the last half century there has been a revolution in treatment programs and regimes which have found better and permanent cures for many, if not most, of the mentally afflicted, but there are millions more suffering from mental illness as well. In this world mental illness is truly a heavy burden to bear. I leave it to readers to do more googling for there is much to read for those who are interested in this subject.

 

I have joined over 100 of these sites and participate, as circumstances permit, in the discussions on mental health, bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders among other topics in the field of psychiatry. What I have posted below is, as I say, also posted in whole or in part at many of these sites. I have posted this account because this is part of my own effort to destigmatize the field of mental illness.

 

My own somewhat lengthy account below will hopefully provide mental health sufferers, clients or consumers, as they are variously called these days, with: (i) a more adequate information base to make some comparisons and contrasts with their own situation, their own predicament, whatever it may be, (ii) some helpful general knowledge and understanding, (iii) some useful techniques in assisting them to cope with and sort out problems associated with their particular form of mental health problem or some other traumatized disorder that affects their body, their spirit, their soul and their everyday life and (iv) some detailed instructions on how to manage their lives more successfully despite the negative consequences of their BPD or whatever trauma or illness affects their lives.

 

For many readers the following post will be simply too long for their reading tastes and interests. In that case just file this document for future use, skim and scan it as suits your taste, go to the sections relevant to your interest or delete it now. Apologies, too, for the absense of an extensive body of footnotes which I have been unable to transfer to this document at BLO.2

-----------------------------FOOTNOTES ---------------------------------

1 See a 17 page list of neurotic, personality and other nonpsychotic mental disorders on the internet; see also psychotic or affective mental health disorders. The internet has excellent overviews of all these mental health disabilities.

2 I have had difficulties placing footnotes into this document and so readers will not find the full list of annotations that I originally placed in this document. I hope to remedy this problem in a future edition.

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BIPOLAR DISORDER:

 

A Personal Analysis of My Chaos Narrative

 

A Longitudinal Context: October 1943 To October 2010

10th Edition, Draft #5

 

By

Ron Price of George Town Tasmania Australia

(153 Pages: Font 14—62,000 words)

 

1. Preamble and Introduction:

 

1.1 This medium-sized book was once very small, indeed, not much more than a long essay.

-------------INSTALMENT #2 TO COME IF DESIRED---------------:confused:

[CerebralEcstasy]

Hello Ron,

 

Thank you for sharing a portion of your story. It seems well written, but perhaps a little too austere for one who isn't living personally with the disorder. Your experience with the disorder isn't necessarily text book material and I think that it is incredibly important for those who aren't living with BPD to see the human emotion, and if it pertains to your particular case, the suffering behind the disorder.

 

It is my opinion that by sharing these aspects, the reader will come to understand what you may be experiencing as a result of the stigma surrounding mental illness and be able to empathize, and perhaps persuade them to change their viewpoint, if it were a negatively biased.

 

Also, I wouldn't suggest using the word googling. Personally, it just doesn't read well for me. I would suggest using the words 'search engine' or researching via the internet.

 

As a side note, my mom was diagnosed with BPD in her early 30's, and died at 42. I believe her death, in part, was caused by the stigma that surrounds mental illness. As you see, she had been complaining of chest pressure, nausea, and all other symptoms related to a heart problem and was told that it was all in her head by an emergency physician who examined her a few years prior. Conveniently, at the same hospital where she had spent time in the psychiatric ward.

 

Then, the very day prior to her dying from a heart attack, she had seen another physician who told her he thought she had the flu and to go home and rest.

 

It's imperative that you write, so as to strike home your point about the stigma, so that others do not die needlessly as she did.