ACQ_Vol_11_no_3_2009

Mental health

A consumer speaks Barriers of glass: “Tammy’s” story

actually an “invisible force field to keep out the paparazzi!!” I was diagnosed with manic depression when I was 16 after a lengthy stay at a local hospital. I married at 18 and completed an apprenticeship, all the while having episodes of euphoria, and then downs like you wouldn’t believe – curling up in a foetal position in a dark cupboard for hours or sometimes days on end, feeling like my heart had been ripped out and replaced with sorrow and emptiness so black I didn’t think I would ever be able to crawl out!! At other times I could work 90 hours a week and spring back for more – when everybody was dead to the world, I was up and running. When I became pregnant I guess in the back of my mind I knew things wouldn’t be ok. I had just gotten used to the idea of being pregnant, when I miscarried and my son was gone. My next pregnancy was fraught with anxiety. When I had my baby, everything went wrong. I started crying with the baby blues after three days and didn’t stop for three months. I didn’t go out – I spent my entire life cleaning a house which was spotless, putting up signs around the house about washing hands and not going to shopping centres. I didn’t drive because we would surely crash, and I didn’t want people over anymore lest they discover my terrible secret. I ended up as an outpatient at a private hospital and did an intensive course of CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy). I had a good psychiatrist and tried numerous medications but never gave them more than a week to work, so of course they didn’t. When my son was six months old I discovered I was pregnant with my daughter. I was elated but my husband wasn’t and my marriage started going sour. I didn’t get PND (post natal depression) after she was born. She was a great baby and life was bliss. Three months later I had to go back to work because we were winding down our business. The kids were up one after the other through the may include believing he or she is famous or has special powers. A person having a depressive episode may believe he or she is penniless, or has committed a crime. Bipolar disorder often develops in a person’s late teens or early adult years with at least half of all cases starting before age 25. It can be difficult to diagnose with the early symptoms appearing to be separate problems rather than characteristics of a larger problem. Whilst bipolar disorder is a long-term illness that must be carefully managed throughout a person’s life, it can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives. Further information on mental illness, including bipolar disorder, can be accessed on the following websites: National Institute of Mental Health: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder SANE Australia http://www.sane.org

It is very hard to sit and write this story of mine; avoidance is not so easy when you’re staring at your life in black and white! Parts of which I am certainly not proud of, parts that don’t even sound like me, instead they could be some delinquent uneducated mother high on drugs thinking the most hideous vile things about her baby. This doesn’t sound like me and of course it isn’t me anymore, but it’s been a long hard road to recovery. I don’t take drugs, I am successful and educated, have what I would consider a high sense of morals – in fact the Vatican would think I was a bit over the top! I married for the second time 5 years ago and have a very good relationship with my husband, and our blended family works better than most. My kids go to private schools and I live in a nice area. Oh, did I mention I have bipolar disorder? Life is very interesting when my “famous friends” come to visit – not that they have for a while. Maybe now that I am just Tammy, house wife extraordinaire, they find my life style a little dull, but then I actually go to sleep now!! I don’t paint fences at midnight by torch or decide to rebuild the bathroom at three in the morning. Not that there is anything wrong with those things, its just not good when “Madonna” is holding the paint bucket and the paint is Children’s Hospital Child and Youth Mental Health Service, Brisbane, Australia. Clinical assessments and interventions are provided to infants and their families, where there is concern that the mental health of the infant may be compromised in the context of a disturbed or disordered parent-infant relationship. This is an excerpt from one mum’s story. Names and identifying details have been changed. Bipolar Disorder Approximately 20% of adults are affected by some form of mental health disorder every year, with bipolar disorder affecting up to 2% of Australians (SANE, 2000). Bipolar disorder is commonly known as manic-depression and is a mental illness that causes unusual and intense shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels which can affect the individual’s ability to carry out their day-to-day tasks. The intense emotional states that people with bipolar disorder experience that occur in distinct periods are called “mood episodes”. An overly joyful or overexcited state is called a manic episode, and an extremely sad or hopeless state is called a depressive episode. Sometimes, during a severe episode of mania or depression, psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions are experienced. These psychotic symptoms usually reflect the person’s extreme mood. For example, psychotic symptoms for a person having a manic episode Future Families is an Infant Mental Health service located in the Children’s Health Services District, Royal

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 3 2009

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au