Bipolar Disorder Controversy with Medications

When Denise Goren was 13, she began cutting herself to cope with the stress of everyday life. She called it her scapegoat.

Showing signs of Bipolar II disorder later at age 20, she said doctors told her that her feelings and actions were based on the feelings and actions of others around her.
Bipolar disorder is a treatable chemical imbalance describing genetic and neurological intercellular components of physiological mood disorders, Dr. Juan Rios, a South Florida psychiatrist said.

Lithium, Depakote and atypical antipsychotics are common forms of treatment.
"I didn't like knowing that my medication was to treat seizures when I never had a seizure. I think some of the medication out there is not 100 percent accurate, and that scares me," Goren said.

Bipolar disorder is not schizophrenia, but a person who has bipolar disorder can portray psychotic symptoms, Dr. Rios said.

For people with bipolar disorder, being on medication is a lifelong struggle. It is typical that a person will change medications more than once throughout their life as well.
Medication makes it possible for a person to function, and it stabilizes moods while organizing thoughts, he said.

"Overall, I trust doctors, but I am still afraid of the side effects the medication brings," Goren said.

Medication is always an option. There are no known health issues that would prevent someone from being able to take some form of medication, Dr. Rios said.

The disadvantages of being on medication are the side effects that can occur such as short term memory loss and fluctuations in levels of alertness.

"A misconception of being on medication is that the person is crazy," Dr. Rios said.
Samantha Chalal, 21, was diagnosed with mild manic depression and ADHD in high school. She currently takes Zoloft and Strattera. She believes her medication works and keeps her from getting too chaotic.

"Patience is very important when dealing with medication. I've had several 'cocktails' that didn't work for me," she said.

Chalal adds that being diagnosed properly is a long and frustrating process.
"I usually trust psychologists and psychiatrists more than other types of doctors because I see them often, and their feedback has history behind it," Chalal said.

There is a mood disorder questionnaire, published by the Manic Depression/Depression Association, that is a very practical assessment to take to diagnose bipolar disorder, which is remarkably accurate, Dr. Rios said. This is because the test evaluates how a person feels rather than how a person appears to function.

Symptoms of bipolar disorder may look like straight depression at first, said Dr. Julie Abrams, a psychologist at the University of Florida Student Mental Health Center.
"When experiencing mania, often times the person will exude excessive energy, have racing thoughts, have a decreased need for sleep and become extremely impulsive in nature," she said.

Stigmas surround bipolar disorder due to a lack of understanding, Dr. Abrams said. Sometimes a person in crisis just needs a family member to stay with them overnight.

Hospitalization is good for dealing with psychotic symptoms sometimes, Dr. Abrams said.

In 11th grade, Chalal went on a field trip to a psychiatric ward. When she went there, students were talking down to the patients like they were experiments.

"Society looks at weak people and feeds off of them. It makes me sick. I feel like psychiatric hospitals have a stigma attached to them," Chalal said.

Sometimes involuntary hospitalization becomes an option for people who are experiencing mania.

Involuntary hospitalization is when a person is taken by a law enforcement official and kept in the psychiatric hospital for a medical evaluation. Although the person is usually released after 72 hours, they might be kept longer if they are putting themselves at risk and deemed unsafe, she said.

At University Pavilion Hospital in Tamarac Fla., all personal belongings must be left at the front desk including shoe laces and drawstrings.

All the doors are locked, and only a staff member with a key can open them. One room called the lounge is where visitors can meet with their loved ones for about two hours.
The people staying in the hospital were a mix of involuntary and voluntary patients. Some had been there multiple times, and others had been there for the first time.

When it was time to issue medication, patients would stand in line and receive the pills accordingly.

Some people threw out the pills, and others hid them inside their mouth. When a patient refused to take their medication, a nurse would suggest a shot instead. Taking medication seemed to bring the most aggravation for patients.

Psychiatric hospitals are not for everyone.

"Hospitals scare me. It basically makes you feel like you're a guinea pig. I've had friends who were kept in the hospital for a month," Goren said.