Life With Bipolar Is Possible and Can Be Fun With Proper Treatment

Peter J. Dorsen, M.D., LADC

Hey, Everyone. As Aaaanold says, "I'm back." AS long as I'm not sounding like Clint, I'm gonna be OK.

I apologize that so much time has elapsed since my last blog. One learns to live with success and failure. As that goes, I am about to hear that my license to practice alcohol and drug counseling (LADC) no longer has Rules and Stipulations. Most of what all that was about was The Board watching me for 5 years and confirming I was stable with my bipolar disorder.

Frankly, no one but myself was ever worked up about co-occurring illness, in my case something just as simple as throwing my illness haywire with mood altering substances.

Whew! This a good thing and things just seem to be fitting into place. I am able to deal with pressures that include instances like that with the Board that I find humiliating.My sponsor, John B, tells me he was never poorer than when he entered recovery. Boy, that's great to hear.  Does that men that I have to take a vow of poverty. No. It tells me and indirectly you who will read my blog that moving forward with a stable bipolar life can still have some bumps.  My point in writing is that proper medication and sobriety, as in my case, can--as I explained some time back-- mean a level playing field.
I attribute an improved life as one in which I am constantly doing personal checks and sometimes asking my therapist or psychiatrist if they are comfortable with where I am, my moods, my behavior as they observe it.

I try as best I can to be honest. I have had to report that Trileptal made me dizzy. Heck, I kept on flying off the track last year at cross country ski races. We moved on to lamotrigine but I must confess after I went the wrong way on a course I knew I had to convince my prescriber I was on too much.  Hell, I'm 69 next month (which is very hard to believe), if my coronaries clogged 7 years ago, it doesn't come as a surprise that some of my brain blood vessels have also narrowed some.

My point: Stand up to your provider and don't just stop your meds but challenge, ask questions, and refuse until you get what you deserve.  There are actually psychiatrists I believe fear the mental illnesses that they claim to be qualified to treat. Find a new shrink or therapist who you may feel does not respect you. Hey team, we bipolars are the ones who besides being dysfunctional also are the most creative, the most driven.

I'm welcoming myself back and encourage all of you who gravitate to our blog to tell us what you think about living with a treatable condition.  We're right up there as the most likely to quit taking our meds.  I know, I need them and that my life has taken a beautiful direction with caring professional who listen, are not on the defensive, who do not fear their own mental heath issues that we mirror.

No one said this would be easy. There are plenty of those who have known us who would judge.  That is why impartial opinion and professional expertise mean so much.

Tell us your journey.  We are here to listen and respond. Blessings,

Peter J. Dorsen, M.D., LADC