Diane, Lithium is the gold standard for Bipolar but it doesn't mean everyone can take it as you apparently know!
You're absolutely right, Judy. But gold standards change with science. Institutionalization and shock therapy used to be gold standards, too. I'm so grateful for science and research. I heard a news blurb this morning about a huge obesity breakthrough. I missed the entire thing, but will stay tuned. Another gold standard? Let's hope.
These treatments are often developed by drug companies, so it's tricky.
I was institutionalized briefly in 2005. After a few days a doctor called me into the office and accused me of faking my symptoms.
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He actually put it in my medical chart, which is there for my whole life, that I was "malingering." I had to look it up. He based it on the fact that he was WATCHING me at mealtimes, and I was eating a lot.
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Duh. I guess eating to the point of obesity is a sign of good mental health. No matter that I'd been fighting suicidal ideation for days before I finally admitted, humiliated, that I needed hospitalization.
What kind of weirdo goes into psychology, then bases a diagnosis on virtually stalking a patient? He shoulda been a traffic cop.
Anyway, I don't think a whole lot of science is involved in some psychologists' diagnoses. It helps me to ask the question: Why did this doc get into psychiatry in the first place? There was much discussion in the Seventies about personal problems driving people with MA & MS degrees to enter this field of mystery.
I don't mean to dismiss anyone's diagnosis. I've had some wonderful docs and lay therapists. They helped me to keep going and seeking. Part of me is broken. I'm grateful for those who've been open to me, who saw that and wanted to help me.
It's like walking the razor's edge to see the combinations of real and imagined in our psyches. I struggled for years until the medical community embraced PTSD, part of my generation of Vietnam war survivors. I don't fit bipolar nearly as accurately as PTSD. It's been a godsend for child abuse survivors.
I'm so happy to know your daughter is responding to meds.