Lets Talk Bipolar - by Bipolar UK

It will be world mental health day on the 10th of October and the "let's talk Bipolar" by @bipolar_uk has a special podcast episode for you

The theme this year is "Mental health in an unequal world"

It was a pleasure to be joined by our guest, Bella Rareworld, to talk about the barriers faced by the black community when trying to access effective health care for their mental and emotional wellbeing

Bella shares her own personal experience and is now an advocate for Mental illness and health with a passion to empower those in the black communities to be able to identify when they may need help, how to access that help and importantly how to communicate what pathway is most helpful for them.

Bella, thank you for your vulnerability and courage, I know that you are helping people in the community to shed shame, seek help and be more empowered in their journey of seeking stability and wellness with their mental health

Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: @bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolaruk

Where to find Bella Rareworld

https://www.bellarareworldbipolar.com/blackpeople

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea | Black Mental Health Awareness Event on Wednesday 27th October 2021

https://linktr.ee/BellaRareworldBipolar

My Stimga blog for Bipolar uk

https://www.bipolaruk.org/Blog/breaking-down-stigma-in-the-black-community

IG

Founder / Podcast host: Bella Rareworld

www.ThinkTenacity.com

Hosted by Emma Belle

Insta: @emmakbelle

Facebook: bellekemma

www.emmakbelle.com

This is a Bonus episode that is being released on World suicide Prevention Day 2021.

Simon Kitchen is the CEO of Bipolar UK and in this episode we get to know a bit about him and how he came to work with Bipolar UK. We talk about the Bipolar Commission research that is being carried out and also what we know so far about the impact of increased risk of suicide for those living with Bipolar.

On the same day that this podcast is released Bipolar Uk will be hosting a free webinar for Suicide Prevention Day to raise the profile of the number of suicides linked to bipolar, and proactive steps that need to be taken to reduce them.

Key facts

Yet these statistics don’t reveal the whole picture. “It’s very likely these figures are hugely underestimated because of the large numbers of people with bipolar who are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed,” says Professor Guy Goodwin, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oxford. The real figure is more likely to equate to two people with bipolar taking their own life every day.

Resources

Bipolar UK’s suicide prevention bank of content can be found here: https://www.bipolaruk.org/blogs/suicide-prevention

April Kelley’s personal account of how she copes with the really difficult days:

https://www.bipolaruk.org/blog/in-the-mist-of-time2

Jeremy Clark shares how he has learnt to manage suicidal thinking:

https://www.bipolaruk.org/blog/managesuicidalthinking

Emma Belle chats with founder of suicide prevention charity Grassroots, Chris Brown, on her podcast:

https://www.bipolaruk.org/blog/how-do-we-speak-to-someone-who-is-suicidal

Nicky Chinn reflects on how ‘talking about it’ helps him deal with suicidal thinking:

https://www.bipolaruk.org/blog/a-life-was-saved

Ellie remembers her father who took his own life when she was at school:

https://www.bipolaruk.org/blog/coping-with-loss

With Suicide Prevention day approaching I am excited to share my conversation with my friend Chris Brown. I was lucky enough to receive training from Chris nearly 10 years ago on suicide prevention and safe talk. 

Chris has trained hundreds upon hundreds of people and organisations suicide prevention under the ASSIST model. Chris is one of the founders of the Suicide Prevention charity in the UK, Grassroots and was fundamental in the creation of the "Stay Alive" app. This app has had over 10,000 downloads and is an excellent resource for safety planning for those that are experiencing thoughts and making plans to end their life. 

This conversation will be so valuable to those that are or have experienced suicidal thoughts and intent and also to those that support them. 

The most powerful message is that talking about suicide does not increase the risk of suicide, it is actually proven to reduce the risk of suicide and I hope that this episode will empower everyone to feel less fearful around these very important conversations. 

Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: @bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolaruk

Guest - Chris Brown

Insta: @chris_brown_facilitates 

Facebook: @chris_brown_facilitates

www.chrisbrown.uk.com

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Insta: @ollysfuture

www.ollysfuture.org.uk

Grass Roots Suicide Prevention 

Hosted by Emma Belle

Insta: @emmakbelle

www.emmakbelle.com

Sam is the author of the book Winning the War with Bipolar and a psychological researcher. 5 years ago, Sam couldn’t read a page of a book let alone work or study. He was suicidal and thought his life was over. Fortunately, Sam had the right help that allowed him to develop and become well. He hopes by sharing his experience he can help others to do the same!

In this episode we talk a lot about the different states of mood within the Bipolar diagnoses and what they look and feel like and how finding medication that works for us can be difficult and often a longer road than we might hope it to be. Patience with medication changes and trials is key as sometimes it can feel worse before it had the positive effects. It’s a fine balance between giving new medications a chance to be effective and not allowing yourself to suffer with the wrong medication for too long and risking being very unstable and at risk to yourself and others.

Where to find Samuel J Swidzinski:

@winningthewarwithin : Instagram https://www.instagram.com/winningthewarwithin/

My guest for this episode is my Husband, Gareth. Bipolar also affects those that support those living with bipolar, so in this episode I wanted to ask Gareth how things felt for him, how they impacted him and how he copes with being the partner of someone living with Bipolar.

We talk about how he felt when I first told him that I have Bipolar, how this changed when we started living with each other and how him witnessing me through highs and lows feels for him and what he things about it. 

He also shares some of what he does that can be helpful or not so helpful through the different ranges of mood that present themselves within me and the importance of sharing our big feelings with each other regardless of if there is mental illness in the couple-ship or not. 

We also talk about suicidal phases and how that impacts him and our relationship, the importance of safety plans and care plans and how they will need revisiting as time goes on as we will always be changing as people and encountering different life stressors that may affect how we cope. 

Please listen with care as we do discuss topics that may feel difficult and triggering as we do discuss a specific trigger for myself when I experience suicidal phases. 

If you have any questions please email me on [email protected] and we will answer them directly or at the beginning of a future episode of Let's talk Bipolar.

We hope that this may speak to those partners/support people who support those living with Bipolar.

Thank you for listening

Emma and Gareth

Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: @bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolaruk

Hosted by Emma Belle

Insta: @emmakbelle

www.emmakbelle.com

Dean was in the Army and his symptoms were quickly passed off as PTSD. It was only when he had transitioned out of the army into civilian life that his world started to implode until the point that he could see no other way forward than taking his own life.

This was what started his pathway to being diagnosed with Bipolar and starting to rebuild his life.

When he was diagnosed, he was given a leaflet and very little support, this has led him to now passionately helping and advocating for those living with Bipolar to help them feel more supported in their reality and journey. Dean is now an Ambassador for Bipolar UK and often speaks for the charity on all their platforms.

How do we look after ourselves in a low VS a high? How do we adapt to the different seasons of living with Bipolar and how we need to adapt and keep learning every day. The more we learn about ourselves the more we can learn how to live with Bipolar.

This is a great episode that discusses the journey and levels of acceptance and how we need to adapt to live well with Bipolar.

Thank you for listening, Emma Belle

Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: @bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolarukWhere to find Steve

Dean Clarke 

Insta: _changing_the_way_

Hosted by Emma Belle

Insta: @emmakbelle

www.emmakbelle.com

Ep.05 Steve Gilbert OBE

In this episode my guest is Steve Gilbert, OBE. Doctors initially were telling him that he was suffering with seasonal affective disorder, he knew that what he was suffering with was more than this. When he was 24 he was suicidal and went under the care of the mental health trust. This then happened again at 25 and 26, followed by a manic episode when he was then detained under the mental health act for 3 weeks and was diagnosed with Bipolar.

Steve ended up being diagnosed in 2010, yet he remembers first being affected by this when he was 25 and at the time he joked with his friend about having Bipolar like Stephen Fry.

Steve talks about how helpful it is to have a constant person outside of you that you trust that can help you check in on your mood especially when you are on the higher side of things. Having moved out of home at the age of 19, he now looks back and realises that there were early signs of bipolar were there, but he wasn’t around anyone consistently enough for it to be noticed by others and how young adult life can lend itself to disguising the symptoms of living with Bipolar as being young and carefree in a typical university setting is not unusual.

Steve talks about explosive anger in Mania, the level of aggression that can be felt and how difficult it can be to manage. The feeling of shame and remorse that is felt after the explosion can be crippling. Destructive behaviours that we participate in in these moments can be hugely shame inducing and being a part of the bipolar community can really help us to distinguish the difference between us being bad people versus I am a good person that did a ‘not so good’ thing, which takes us away from shame inducing language and thoughts that can push us further down and away in to being isolated.

Managing your life when you live with Bipolar means everything has to change. We have to make big life changes to stay well, we cannot just carry on as normal and expect to live a mostly stable life.

We also talk about how CPTSD features in Steve’s life and how that shows up in terms of triggering Bipolar disorder. Steve had done a lot of work over 4 years on how Bipolar was manifesting in his life, yet there were still many factors that were showing up for him that he recognised may be symptoms of PTSD. On further investigations with a Psychologist, it was determined that they were a result of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This was brought on by a compounding effect of prolonged emotional and psychological abuse from Steve’s family members.  Steve reflects that this may have been a trigger for him now living with Bipolar disorder. His CPTSD manifests as anxiety and Hyper-vigilance his ongoing recovery has been supported with intense Psychotherapy sessions and medications. Recovering from CPTSD is difficult and is made even harder when you are still dealing with some of the behaviours/actions/experiences that have contributed to you having CPTSD.

__________________________

Steve is a Trustee for the Association of Mental Health Providers (March 2018 – current), and Mind (Sept 2017 – current) representing the experiences of people with experiences of mental illness, supporting work to reduce racial inequalities.

Steve was recognised in the 2019 Queens Birthday Honours List and appointed OBE for services to mental health.

_________________________

Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: @bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolarukWhere to find Steve

Steve Gilbert OBE FRSA

Hosted by Emma Belle

Insta: @emmakbelle

www.emmakbelle.com

My guest for this episode of Let's Talk Bipolar by @bipolar_uk, is Professor Ian Jones, a Professor of Psychiatry and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist for the NHS.

Professor Ian Jones spent a number of years listening, as part of a Bipolar study, to those living with Bipolar and they picked up on a recurring clue that the process of choosing to carry a baby could be a huge trigger for the onset of Bipolar or the beginning of a period of being very unwell with Bipolar.

We talk about his area of speciality in perinatal & postpartum care and treatment for those living with Bipolar Disorder. In current day medicine professionals will be looking to support those wishing to carry a baby and how the risk of becoming unwell can be managed and supported through this season in life.

Ian Jones and his colleagues are running a Psycho education programme, which consists of 10 sessions in a peer group environment. The sessions cover; What is Bipolar? What do the labels mean? What causes Bipolar disorder? What are the treatments and understanding medications and treatments? self-management, monitoring, lifestyle and sleep patterns, which helps those living with Bipolar to learn how to live their best life whilst living with Bipolar.

Professor Ian Jones also talks us through what Bipolar is and some of the terminology that is used in the conversation of Bipolar. We talk about labels and diagnosis and how this can be helpful and unhelpful. Treating the patient as an individual in an ever-changing landscape and how it is essential that professionals should be re-visiting our diagnosis and reviewing regularly. We should be asking what is the evidence that this is still the most true and helpful diagnosis for the patient to continue to move forward in the best way.

If you would like to take part in research or future programmes you can get in contact here:

For our NCMH study:

https://www.ncmh.info/help-with-research/online-study/

For BDRN including accessing True Colours and pregnancy study

http://bdrn.org

Professor Ian Jones:

Graduating from St Georges Hospital Medical School, London, I trained in general medicine and psychiatry in South Wales and on obtaining membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists began research training in the Neuropsychiatric Genetics Group at Cardiff University. I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship to study the genetics of Postpartum Psychosis in Birmingham and spent a year as a visiting research fellow at the Medical College of Virginia, USA. Prior to my appointment in Cardiff I was Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham.

Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: @bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolaruk

Professor Ian Jones Twitter: @jonesir

Hosted by Emma Belle

Insta: @emmakbelle

www.emmakbelle.com

Leah is a Bipolar UK Ambassador joins me on Let’s Talk Bipolar podcast and on this day, Leah was feeling very low and we talk through the reality of how that feels when you have commitments and how we get used to painting on a face. In this conversation we. Don’t need to pretend and I am so grateful to Leah for showing up and having this conversation despite being in a low phase and also dealing with grief after losing a family member.

Leah has lived a life that has been full of highs and lows growing up in the entertainment and music industry. Leah has been in TV for 20 years and was in a girl band. Living this life led to the symptoms of Bipolar going unnoticed for so many years. As it was presumed that this was just how life was due to the industry that she grew up in.

Her life was a rollercoaster going from hits in the charts and TV shows to being out of work and being homeless and needing financial support, she has really been on a journey.

Looking back on her life she now realises that she had periods of being suicidal that weren’t recognised or even within awareness that mental illness existed.

Leah is from a black Caribbean background and mental illness was not something that was spoken about and could actually bring shame to a family which contributed to her condition being undiagnosed and untreated for a very long time.

When she watched EastEnders, Leah recognised that she was suffering with Bipolar and started to seek help. She wrote a suicide letter to her doctor and this was the beginning of getting her diagnosis. Following diagnosis Leah kept her condition a secret for 7 years carrying shame around this before opening up about her reality, with real worries that no one would want to work with her because it would make her a liability to work with.

Since opening up about her experience and illness she has discovered there is life after diagnosis and that living with Bipolar does not mean that we are like the stereotype that is often portrayed. Being open about her mental illness was liberating and has led her to purpose in helping others and believing that she isn’t defined by Bipolar and can lead a strong life.

Please find support and resources on our website:

Website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolaruk

Find Leah on all social media platforms @leahcharlesking

Hosted by Emma Belle

IG @emmakbelle

www.emmakbelle.com

April is an actor and producer, and an Ambassador for Bipolar UK. April started her own company at 21 to bring stability to her career as an Actor. For April working for herself works better than working for someone else, so this career path she feels is best suited to her.

April lives with Bipolar type 2 and Borderline Personality Disorder; she has suffered since she was 15 but didn’t receive diagnosis and help until she was 27.

She has been on medication since the age of 18 and feels that in the last year she has stepped into therapy whole heartedly after hitting rock bottom.

We talk about how receiving a diagnosis can be bittersweet and how this can land so differently for us all and how Bipolar can be partly genetic and partly triggered by trauma.

When April was diagnosed, April’s dad said “I always knew there was a stroke of genius inside of you”

The feeling of being invincible and absolute certainty that we are able to carry out an immense number of tasks without any doubt in our highest selves versus how low we can go and not be able to even to the smallest of tasks.

We talk about the differences in our experiences of taking Quetiapine, April’s hunger has been totally suppressed and in my experience my hunger was insatiable, and I needed 3 breakfasts before I my normal level of hunger came through for a normal hunger. We both know the feeling of a medication hangover and how it can take a few hours in the morning to shift.

We also talk about how experiencing balanced mood is something that feels alien to us after having spent most of your life affected by Bipolar.

Inner child work can be very healing in learning how to reparent our younger selves and offer those parts of us compassion, grace, love and understanding. April is currently working through these parts of her journey and grieving for the parts of our lives in the past where we were doing our best and forgive ourselves for the things we didn’t know at the time and do know now.

TW: Auditory intrusions, Hypomanic, Paranoia and Mania

Please find support and resources on our website:

Website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolaruk

Find the links to April’s profiles below:

IG: @april_kelley

Hosted by Emma Belle

IG @emmakbelle

www.emmakbelle.com