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Q: Diagnosis & Ability to Work Again
Dear Dr Phelps
I was diagnosed with Manic Psychosis in February 2001 and was hospitalised. I
have had subsequent hypomanic episodes and am currently being maintained on 3mg
Risperidone per day. I saw a different Psychiatrist in November who recommended
adding Lithium, which I am due to start. I am 36 years old.
I have not been able to work since becoming ill. Until then I worked as a
Company Director. Please can you give some indication of whether people with my
diagnosis are likely to get back to their pre-morbid level of functioning, as I
cannot imagine I will be able to? Also, I am sorry to be ignorant, but does my
diagnosis mean I have Schizophrenia as well as Bipolar Disorders?
Thank you kindly for your help
Dear Sue --
By now you may have learned a good deal more about what you're facing, but let
me add a few things. As you've probably learned, no, bipolar disorder can have
psychosis (basically, "loss of contact with reality") so you don't have to have
an additional label to account for that part of your experience.
As for getting back to work: many people with bipolar
disorder can indeed get back to the kind of work they were doing. And then,
unfortunately, there are also many who can't, or who seem to lose a little
ground each severe episode -- the latter group may be the most common. However,
you may have heard about Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D. She's one of the world's
foremost research authorities on bipolar disorder, and she has bipolar I
herself. Her book An Unquiet Mind might be inspirational for you. There are
lots of extremely inspirational stories out there, from folks with bipolar
disorder who are still making quite an impact on the world in one fashion or
another (see
Joy Ikelman's
site, for example; and
peoples' stories here on BipolarWorld). So I'd urge you
to try extremely hard but also to be aware that for some people, even with their
utmost, they may not be able to get back to where they were, and ultimately need
to come to terms with that; in your case, you'll just have to see what you can
manage over time, with your sights set high initially. Good luck to you.
Dr. Phelps
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Published February, 2002
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