Bipolar Disorder Question (Sorry, Britney related)

[karina5]

So on another thread there is a discussion about how Britney had a drug test and did not test dirty for drugs or alcohol, and many people have speculated that she may have bipolar disorder.

Well my very good friend has bipolar disorder (pretty extreme) and she is the only person I know with this, so there's something I don't "get" about the Britney thing...

Why won't she get help for it? I mean, don't people know that they need help? My friend has told me that when she was acting very erratic and crazy she wouldn't have accepted help in the moment, but that she knew she needed help.

I'm not wording this very well, and obviously I know everyone is not like my friend, all bipolar people are not the same, etc, etc, etc..

I am just trying to understand, b/c I feel bad for Britney, and if she is having mental health problems you would think that with ALL THE TONS of things that have happened, there would be a part of her who knows she needs help, yet she just won't get it. YOu would think losing all custody and visitation of her children would be a pretty big wake up call.

I hope this makes sense. I'm just wondering how/why someone won't get help.

[Carley]

Many people with Bipolar disorder (& schizoaffective disorders) are not aware they are ill. Denial is a part of Bipolar disorder just like any other disease. There is also they physical phenomenon of anosognosia that coincides the brain damage caused by the illness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anosognosia

[perl]

When a mental illness gets severe, many suffers have what they call "poor insight." It's just what it sounds like - the insight into their behavior is not good, and they oftentimes have little or no idea that they are acting bizarre or irrational. Poor judgment usually goes along with poor insight.

[painefaria]

Originally Posted by perl

When a mental illness gets severe, many suffers have what they call "poor insight." It's just what it sounds like - the insight into their behavior is not good, and they oftentimes have little or no idea that they are acting bizarre or irrational. Poor judgment usually goes along with poor insight.

Sadly, this is quite common. I have been a mental health case manager for almost three years, working with the chronically mentally ill. It usually takes a major life changing event to make the individual see that there is something wrong. Even then, some don't see the problems and decide to make any changes. In the mental health field there is a process of recovery, which is very similar to addictions recovery. It requires insight/willingness to change and some people never make that decision.

[Phoenix_Rising]

I will agree that many times when people are "in the thick of it" so to speak it can be hard for them to see that they need help. I have a friend who was vehemently denying she needed help when she had a razor blade to her wrist. She felt like she had it under control. For other people I know it has to do with thinking that other people are lying to them about what they have said/done - they don't remember having said/done these things, so of course they didn't happen. It seems like it should be easy to ask for and get help, but really it isn't.

[AnyMama]

Speaking as someone who has been through a mental illness with someone else: No, people don't know they're sick when they are. And even if they know something is wrong, that doesn't mean they trust those who could help. Irrational fears can accompany mania/psychosis. To this day (though he's well), my husband can rationalize some of his paranoia,psychotic thoughts and delusions, and doesn't see them as sick.

Short of threatening to harm yourself or others, and being forcibly committed, there's nothing that can be done to force a person into treatment.

Yes, that does suck for us family members when we're watching our loved one suffer.

[thebarkingbird]

people often go from feeling like it's not worth getting help and better to let themselves burn out to feeling as though they can fixt it all themselves.

getting regular psych treatment really is shaking hands with the devil. i've done it. i would do it again if i had to. it's the best option for many people but really that best uption still sucks. did you know that as a psych inpatient you have fewer rights than a prison inmate. the treatment is dehumanizing at times and scary. with the history of MI in her family she probably knows something about this and is frightened to death. also, people with children often refuse help because they're afraid of it being on their record and hving their kids taken away even though they're so gone at the time that they're acting out in was that look much worse than a short stay in the hospital.