(Part 1 Of 3) What Are The Worst Things I Could Do If I Had Bipolar Disorder?

0:00What are the worst things that I could do if I were bipolar?

0:08Knowing what I know as a double board certified psychiatrist.

0:11I'm going to tell you and I'm going to help you avoid these problems.

0:14I'm Dr. Rodriguez from Healing Sky.

0:16I'm also the medical director of the Delray Center for Healing.

0:21And we're going to talk about what are the worst things that somebody could do if they

0:26are in fact bipolar.

0:29Part one, because there's a bunch of them.

0:31So the first thing, very common issue, that's one of the worst things that somebody could

0:36do with their bipolar is to believe that they are not bipolar, meaning they are in denial

0:43of their condition.

0:44They are in denial of their diagnosis, but in reality and actuality, they do have bipolar.

0:51Now in all fairness, bipolar disorder is commonly misdiagnosed.

0:58That is a common problem.

1:01It is often given to people who don't have that diagnosis actually, and then people who

1:07actually have it are often diagnosed with something else.

1:10So in fairness to this particular issue, it is very commonly misdiagnosed.

1:17And when people do have it and they finally are told, look, you have bipolar disorder

1:23type one, type two, especially with type one, they often will not want to accept it.

1:30And they're going to want to believe this leads to refusal of treatment or inconsistent

1:36compliance with treatment, which caused problems in general, not believing you have it.

1:42People don't want to take the treatment.

1:43They don't want to take the medication.

1:45They refuse it.

1:46They're not consistent with it.

1:47They're not compliant with it.

1:49And this leads to problems because the condition without proper medication, without proper

1:55treatment will run rampant, will run wild.

1:59There will be mania, there'll be depression, and these conditions can be very dangerous.

2:03Bad things can happen.

2:04Bad decisions can be made.

2:06A lot of money can be spent with nothing to show for it.

2:09People can get arrested, they can get hurt, they can get killed.

2:13So this condition, if you have it, it must be treated.

2:17And that's one of the things I harp on with a lot of my patients who have this exact problem.

2:22I tell them, look, you have something.

2:25You got to stop pretending you don't have something.

2:28You've been hospitalized how many times?

2:31You've had how many problems?

2:32You've had how many family members call the police on you because of this or that?

2:37Again, this is not normal behavior.

2:39You have something.

2:41You need to come to terms with that you have something.

2:44And then if you know you have something, you're going to really want to know what exactly

2:49it is because only then can you do something about it.

2:54And that's the key here is doing something about it, which leads to item number two of

3:01the worst things that somebody can do if they have bipolar disorder is to refuse treatment.

3:09So this person has been diagnosed accurately that they have bipolar disorder.

3:15They now know they have bipolar disorder, but for whatever reason, they're resisting.

3:20Maybe they don't like the idea of it.

3:21They think they can handle it on their own.

3:24They don't like the medication they were given.

3:25They don't like the side effects, which can happen.

3:27In all fairness, that can happen.

3:29In which case that involves a conversation with their treatment provider to try and find

3:34something else that can work better.

3:36So that can definitely happen.

3:38However, that is not a reason to just stop treatment because when you refuse treatment,

3:44knowing that you have bipolar disorder, again, you're going to have problems.

3:48The condition will run wild.

3:50There'll be mania.

3:51There'll be depression.

3:52There'll be arrests.

3:53There'll be fights.

3:54There'll be arguments.

3:55There'll be conflicts.

3:56People get fired.

3:57People get arrested.

3:58Nothing good.

3:59It's all bad.

4:00Mania feels good in the moment, but it is followed by the ultimate consequence of post

4:06manic depression, which you do not want to have.

4:10Post manic depression is one of the worst forms of depression anybody could feel.

4:15It's hard to treat.

4:17It's treatable, but it's hard to treat.

4:19The easiest way to treat post manic depression is to avoid it by not getting manic.

4:26How do you not get manic?

4:28You participate and comply with treatment.

4:33That is key to managing bipolar disorder is accepting and managing your treatment responsibly.

4:39I hope you find this helpful.

4:42There will be more parts to the worst things you can do if you have bipolar disorder.

4:46This is just part one.

4:48If you would like treatment from me as a psychiatrist, you can find me at delraycenter.com or here

4:55on healingsky.com.

4:58Also look for my podcast, The Smiling Brain, where I go into great detail over a lot of

5:04these topics, the conditions, the treatments into great, great detail.

5:09Thank you so much.