Interview 36
Age at interview: 37
Age at diagnosis: 22
Brief Outline: Useful approaches include medication, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, therapy, hospitalisation, self-help groups. Currently takes Lithium (600mg/day) and citalopram (Cipramil) 20mg/day.
Background: Suffered depression and attempted suicide after leaving university and starting work. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1989. Currently self-employed as a teacher. Has had a number of bouts of depression/mania. (Played by an actor.)
More about me...
When he was suicidal, he looked at everything in terms of suicide, and he felt angry he was not...
When he was suicidal, he looked at everything in terms of suicide, and he felt angry he was not...
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And then I got the... I was sort of like a zombie at that point, probably from medication partly, also because I was I felt I'd let everybody down' But yeah, during those 3 weeks at first I was sort of very uncommunicative and very obviously, people say my eyes just looked totally dead. And then, I was being quite closely sort of protected during that stage'. Yeah, and at times I've resented the fact that I wasn't allowed to die, as I had made it very clear in my intentions that I didn't want to be kept alive. But, as I say, that's in, you know, some of the lowest points, which I've never got to again. Although I have, you know, been depressed.
He had trouble expressing how he felt and he and others tended to explain his depression in other...
He had trouble expressing how he felt and he and others tended to explain his depression in other...
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You think, oh, I'm run-down, it's physical. And I think, you know, in some ways I still do that now. But I had felt quite sort of locked in and difficult too expressing very well. And I know I wouldn't.... I went through a phase when I didn't speak very much at all. But the psychiatrist came out and he put me on Amitriptyline.
Choose your counsellor/therapist carefully - you need to be able to trust them so you can be...
Choose your counsellor/therapist carefully - you need to be able to trust them so you can be...
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