Treatment

• Temporary Treatment. . . 

• Long Term Treatment. . . 

• Types of Treatment. . . 

1. Drug therapy
2. Psychotherapy & Counseling
3. Electroconvulsive shock



• Some treatment concerns. . . 

Temporary - hospitals & treatment centers

Temporary treatment may be of several kinds for bipolars who need immediate, supervised care. Some authority or a psychiatrist may urge or insist on hospitalisation. Depending upon the condition of the patient, such confinement may be either voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary hospitalisation may be of a very short duration, or it may extend through several months of intense treatment depending upon a person's ability to regain stability. Some in-hospital stays occur at non-specialised institutions--meaning the hospital is a general service facility with a psychiatric suite as well. Others may entail confinement at a psychiatric hospital that deals exclusively with mental illnesses. These facilities may allow for much longer terms of treatment along with shorter termed interventions.

In addition to the hospitals, there are specialised treatment businesses in some countries, such as the US. These are generally to be avoided. On the other hand, there are halfway houses and group homes which do a very good job of acclimating the mentally fragile to the outside world and are particularly useful for bipolars coming from a long period of hospitalisation.

Where one ends up for treatment and how long one remains hospitalised depends greatly on one's state at the time the decision to treat is made. A bipolar on a manic tear who is out of touch with reality, or one suffering severe suicide ideation is likely to find themselves forcibly committed for treatment, while a lesser depression or hypomania will seldom warrant long term intervention.

Long term treatment can be of two sorts: inpatient or outpatient, and sometimes a combination of the two. Inpatient care involves extended stays in a psychiatric facility where supervision is constant and all activities are carefully monitored via extensive security measures. This kind of confinement is perhaps the rarest and yet the most feared treatment a bipolar can encounter. Feared, because the patient has no control and little choice concerning their treatment program. This is not to say such facilities don't have their place, but there is a long extant history of various kinds of abuse associated with some of the older institutions, and even the new ones are not exempt from irregularities. It behooves you as the patient to be careful before admission to an institution rather than after when it may be too late. You and your immediate family or advocate, (whether family, a friend or another designated person), should be prepared to ask some tough and penetrating questions about paperwork and procedures.

Outpatient care is another form of long term care that may consist of temporary residence in a half-way house of some sort. These facilities are generally rather small and are intended as safe places for assimilating the recovering patient back into the community. Working in conjunction with the halfway houses are various mental health professionals that have more or less influence on the patient. Generally, social workers and those not directly involved with delivering medical and therapeutic assistance will wean away from the patient. But, the psychiatrist and psychotherapist will normally be a mainstay in the bipolar person's life forevermore. It is because the doctor/patient relationship is so extended and enduring that it is vitally important you and your doctor have a strong, caring, working relationship.

Types of treatment -

 Drug therapy

Some tough talk about drugs. You may as well get used to it now--Drugs will be your close companion from the day you are diagnosed till the day ya die. The most common problem encountered when treating bipolar folk is their proclivity for becoming drug noncompliant. Non-compliancy means the ill person simply quits taking the prescribed psychotropic drugs. The reasons for this behavior are legion and include feelings of losing the core "self ", side-effects, no physician relationship, or an erratic one at best, no insurance to cover medical costs, and a slew of others. These we will discuss in more detail in the Living and Surviving section. You'll find a ton of drug information in the links section, but for now just take note that noncompliancy is the number one reason why bipolars end up in serious difficulties, and frequently hospitalised.

 Psychotherapy and/or counseling

Once you (the bipolar person) have become stablized on a drug regimen, these other forms of therapy may come into play. Psychotherapy isn't always to be preferred to counseling by a certified therapist or vice versa; both have something to offer. It's important to understand that often, especially in the early stages, some form of talk-therapy is not only very helpful in healing old hurts, but may even be absolutely essential. Even though the drugs you'll be prescribed will probably (no guarantees though) take care of the biochemical aspect of your illness, they cannot sort out those long-buried harms that may be the result of years of substance abuse, traumatic childhood experiences, and the multitude of bipolar antics that lead to one carrying a huge burden of guilt and and repressed anger.

No one can predict how a patient and a therapist or physician will get along, and most won't bother to mention that without that just-right meshing of respect and dignity no such relationship is worth the effort. If you find yourself in the care of a physician or therapist you simply can't feel comfortable about working with then for the god's sake get out!!! Nothing good will ever come of such a mismatch and it's not your fault if it doesn't. Find another doctor or therapist immediately! For more information about how to go about shopping for a physician you can work with go to Shop-A-Doc, just be sure ya come back here before moving on.

 Electroconvulsive shock

One of the oldest, and certainly the most controversial, of treatments is ECT (electroconvulsive therapy). While today's ECT is far less traumatic to the patient than when it originated, it is still perhaps the most feared of all possible treatments for bipolar disorder. The fear is not unfounded, for this treatment can leave a patient with severe, and sometimes permanent, memory loss due to massive brain shock. So, while every other method of treatment is to be preferred, for some unresponsive, severe cases of bipolar disorder, ECT has been very effective at bringing the illness under control. All things considered though, I strongly suggest you not allow anyone to administer this treatment until all other treatment options have been exhausted. Please be sure to read up on ECT by following some of the links relating to this form of therapy.