Bipolar Disorder/Expert Profile

Expertise

I can answers questions from family members of adult patients with serious mental illnesses. I am most familiar with bipolar disorder [manic-depression] and schizophrenia. I use principles of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill to provide clinical info, emotional support, and practical suggestions, including finances/insurance. Emphasis is on family health; family preservation and functioning; coping skills; and effective communications with patients [consumers] and with providers of services. I am not qualified to help families with patients under 18 I cannot answer questions about herbal remedies.

Experience in the area

I have a daughter w/ bipolar illness. Have experience with clinical medicine/psychiatry through my work in a hospital library. I have taken and now monitor the NAMI Family to Family educational program and I facilitate NAMI family caring and sharing evenings.

What do you like about this subject?

There is nothing to like about mental illness but much to be admired about patients and their families as they struggle to reconstruct their individual and family lives after diagnosis.

What do you still hope to achieve/learn in this field?

Hope to train other NAMI caring/sharing facilitators. Hope to become a better help to my daughter. Hope to enlarge my NAMI affiliate's outreach services.

Something interesting about this subject that others may not know:

The symptoms of brain disorders [mental illnesses] are disordered thoughts, moods, and behavior. The 'bad' behavior that is symptomatic of mental illnesses is not chosen behavior, under the patient's control, and is not being directed to, nor caused by, those around him/her. Mental illnesses are caused by problems of brain chemistry; medicines are directed toward correcting these neurochemical p

Something controversial or provocative about this subject

Brain disorders should be, but are not, covered by insurance equally with other illnesses, surgeries, and accidents [insurance parity]. The seriously mentally ill who are so symptomatic that they can no longer make reasoned decisions should be treated whether or not they agree; however, they can make an advance psychiatric directive so that their wishes will be honored when they are ill as to who