DBSAlliance

We continue our teen round table college edition. On this episode of the college round table, our panel talks about the reality of stigma and the pro's and con's of being open with others about living with a mood disorder.

We continue the 2010 College Teen Round Table. On this episode, we ask our panel about sleep. How well do they sleep? How many hours do they sleep? Are their sleep schedules normal or do they change them from day to day? Hear what these teens had to say.

The 2010 Teen College Round Table talks about what they know about bipolar disorder. Ryan and Chris comment.

Continuing the 2010 Teen Round Table, College Edition, Aime Lynn and Chris listen as the round table talks about the differences between men and women when it comes to depression and bipolar disorder.

The 2010 Teen College Round Table continues. In this episode, they talk about how they learned about mental health and how it was talked about in their families.

In this discussion, we talk about a real world scenario that recently happened to one of our own co-hosts that almost forced her to reveal her disorder when she did not want it to be revealed.

The American's With Disabilities Act has provisions in it that specifically suggest that one's disorder does not have to be revealed without certain conditions being met. Our discussion's example is prime in a number of ways. 1. An organization randomly wanted information that it could distribute to other state agencies, 2. a doctor decided against the co-host's wishes what was best in this case. and 3. the co-host was able to bring together resources from around the city to stand up for her rights. Problem - Solution - Victory.

Welcome to a special return edition of Flipswitch’s “Learning the Terms” segment. I’m Samreen. On Learning the Terms, we break down all that confusing jargon you hear from doctors and experts and really smart people so that you can understand what the heck these people are talking about.

On this round of Learning the Terms, we’ll be learning a little bit about the Americans With Disabilities Act. More specifically, we’ll be talking about a section of the act that deals with the question of when you HAVE to disclose your disorder in some public setting. Here’s a preview of that section. NEVER!

But first, let’s go over some basics of the act as a whole. The Americans With Disabilities Act (or ADA as it’s often called) was passed in 1990 under president George Herbert Walker Bush (Dubya’s dad). The act was passed after a coalition of groups that advocated for an end to discrimination against people with disabilities of different types banded together to apply pressure to congress.

The law seeks to end discrimination against people with different disabilities, be they blindness, deafness, mental illness or whatever. Specifically, businesses and government offices were required to remove all barriers as much as possible that tended to keep people with disabilities out of them. This goes for general use as well as employment. So, buildings with high staircases had to be refitted with ramps and elevators for people with walking difficulties, and nowadays, you’ll notice that brail is used on many signs in buildings. All thanks to the ADA.

For our purposes, we want to look at issues of confidentiality as applied by the law. On a recent episode of Flipswitch, Aime Lynn talked about her struggles with a doctor attempting to reveal her disorder on a form that was to be given to a government agency. This attempt tipped off a firestorm for Aime Lynn in attempting to keep the information off of a form.

But that brings up an important question. When exactly would Aime Lynn have to tell her prospective employer or volunteer organization about any disorder she might have.

Well, according to the ADA, the answer is NEVER! She would never have to tell anyone at all about her disorder unless she chose too.

In section 1 of the ADA, employment and accommodations are explained to go hand in hand with revealing of any disorder. Basically, it’s like this: you don’t ever have to tell anyone about your disorder if you don’t want to. However, if you want accommodations from your job or from school or anywhere else that you may need in order to do well in any of those places, you’ll have to reveal your disorder in order to get them. Other than that, it’s all up to you.

You can get hired at a job without telling anyone about your condition. You can get promoted and then decide to reveal your condition. It’s all up to you.

So remember this one thing: The Americans With Disabilities Act says that YOU are in charge of revealing that you have a disorder of any kind. And by law, no public entity can reveal that information if you don’t want them to. It’s called confidentiality, and it’s serious business.

Chris and Aime Lynn talk about the finer points of choosing things like support networks and online information when one is first diagnosed with a mood disorder.

Our co-hosts talk about what factors put you at risk for having a mood disorder or making a mood disorder worse when you already have one. We also talk about protective factors, those things that guard against worsening mood disorders.

On this segment, we talk about 10 of the most pernicious of risk factors, those things that increase your chance of having a mood disorder or worsening an already existing mood disorder.