Lets Talk Bipolar - by Bipolar UK

2.10 Melissa Duncan and Jihan Gabart - Melissa was diagnosed with Bipolar 1. Jihan has been her best friend and carer to Melissa, living through 9/11 and navigating Mel living with with bipolar

In our last episode of the series 2 I am joined by Melissa Duncan and Jihan Gabart - Melissa was diagnosed with Bipolar 1. Jihan has been her best friend since the age of 14 and they have lived together and Jihan is a carer to Melissa to support her whilst living with this diagnosis. They were childhood friends and then moved to New York City together to be college roommates at the age of 17 and 18 and lived through the 9/11 disaster on just their second day living in New York. Living through this traumatic event as well as living together whilst Melissa was living undiagnosed with Bipolar was truly friendship changing. There is a history of mental illness in Mel’s family which pushed her diagnosis further down the road because there was a lot of fear around what she had witnessed with family members being sectioned and committed. When her diagnosis did come there was a lot of denial and resistance around it, as Mel was only ready to accept that she had anxiety at that time and really believed that her doctor had got it wrong and that her friend Jihan had it wrong too. Johan and Melissa have grown alongside each other and their friendship and relationship is full of beautiful and hard moments as they have walked through this journey. Jihan being Melissa's point of truth and grounding and having to stand firm on the different boundaries required within their friendship dynamic to support Mel in being stable, well and accessing help.  Thank you so much for sharing your joint experience with me in this conversation. Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org [https://www.bipolaruk.org/] Insta: @bipolar_uk [https://www.instagram.com/bipolar_uk/] Twitter: bipolaruk [https://twitter.com/BipolarUK] Facebook: bipolaruk [https://www.facebook.com/bipolaruk] Find Melissa and Jihan here: www.instagram.com/somypolar [http://www.instagram.com/somypolar] www.somypolar.org [http://www.somypolar.org/] www.twitter.com/somypolar [http://www.twitter.com/somypolar] Hosted by Emma Belle: Insta: @emmakbelle [https://www.instagram.com/emmakbelle/] Facebook: bellekemma [https://www.facebook.com/bellekemma] www.emmakbelle.com [https://www.emmakbelle.com/]

2.09 Professor Allan Young - answers your questions on Bipolar, Lithium, recovery and the top 3 things to stay well and why

Professor Allan Young MB, ChB, MPhil, PhD, FRCP (Edin.), FRCPC, FRCPsych answers your questions on bipolar: How do we define recovery when living with Bipolar? How do we recover our overall functioning after episodes of being unwell? What are the studies and research around Lithium and cognitive function? What can we do to prepare for our meeting with our psychiatrist to get the most out of our appointments? What are the top 3 things someone with Bipolar can do to help stay well and why? There is a wariness to taking Lithium, can you share your thoughts, findings and evidence on Lithium treatment for those that live with bipolar? What does starting Lithium look like and how often do I need to be seen? How does Lithium interact with other drugs and alcohol etc? Professor Allan Young joined King’s in 2013 and holds the Chair of Mood Disorders and is Director of the Centre for Affective Disorders in the Department of Psychological Medicine in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London (where he is also interim Vice-Dean for Academic Psychiatry), United Kingdom (UK). Prof Young is the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Cluster and Theme lead in the Translational Therapeutics Cluster. Prof Young is the clinical academic lead in the Psychological Medicine and Integrated Care Clinical Academic Group in the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust where he is also a Consultant Psychiatrist and the head of the National Affective Disorders Tertiary Clinic. Professor Young’s research interests focus on the cause and treatments for severe psychiatric illnesses, particularly mood disorders. Professor Allan Young, my guest  for this episode answers your questions on all things Bipolar. Allan.young@kcl.ac.uk [Allan.young@kcl.ac.uk] Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org [https://www.bipolaruk.org/] Insta: @bipolar_uk [https://www.instagram.com/bipolar_uk/] Twitter: bipolaruk [https://twitter.com/BipolarUK] Facebook: bipolaruk [https://www.facebook.com/bipolaruk] Hosted by Emma Belle: Insta: @emmakbelle [https://www.instagram.com/emmakbelle/] Facebook: bellekemma [https://www.facebook.com/bellekemma] www.emmakbelle.com [https://www.emmakbelle.com/]

2.08 Anastasia Mclean - Diagnosed with Bipolar II in 2015 when she was 20 years old after seeing psychiatrists since the age of 9, also lives with Narcolepsy and PTSD.

Anastasia was seeing psychiatrists since the age of 9 so her journey has been a long one and coming to terms with her diagnosis was hard as all she had heard was fear and stigma around the diagnosis. After some research the diagnosis brought relief and made things make sense. We talk a lot about lost years and the how on reflection we can realise that there have been losses and it’s ok to grieve those losses. Being gentle with the younger versions of ourselves and offering compassion to these past versions of ourselves allows us to be proud of how hard they were working for us at the time and how they were doing their very best. We also talk about therapy and the importance of breaks and allowing the work to integrate along with the benefits and energy required for dedicated trauma therapies like EMDR therapy. We also talk about the changes and the adjustments we need to make in our lives to stay well and stable living with Bipolar, Anastasia shares some of the ways she looks after herself to live well with Bipolar. Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org [https://www.bipolaruk.org/] Insta: @bipolar_uk [https://www.instagram.com/bipolar_uk/] Twitter: bipolaruk [https://twitter.com/BipolarUK] Facebook: bipolaruk [https://www.facebook.com/bipolaruk] Find Anastasia: Instagram: @thebipolardiaries_ [https://www.instagram.com/thebipolardiaries_/] Facebook: The BP Diaries [https://www.facebook.com/thebpdiaries] Blog: https://thebpdiaries.com/ [https://thebpdiaries.com/] Podcast: The Bipolar Diaries [https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-bipolar-diaries/id1571542239] Hosted by Emma Belle: Insta: @emmakbelle [https://www.instagram.com/emmakbelle/] Facebook: bellekemma [https://www.facebook.com/bellekemma] www.emmakbelle.com [https://www.emmakbelle.com/]

2.07 Paul Allen - Supporting my adult child through diagnosis and living with Bipolar

Paul’s son is one of 3 children and the whole family is very supportive to do what they can and be as supportive as they can in his journey of learning to manage and live with Bipolar. Paul talks about the complexity of supporting his son and the impact of some of the emotional and financial impacts that have occurred because of his son being unwell. It is evident that supporting a family member who lives with Bipolar is complex for all involved and presents its challenges all round. Bridging the gap between how everyone is feeling and know what to do and say do be supportive in the most helpful ways can be incredibly difficult to navigate. We also discuss a trial treatment that his son had to lift him out of an acute depressive episode and is about to have another treatment imminently under a different management to help manage risks of mania after treatment and close follow ups and extensive clinical supportive and assessment meetings. I would love to hear from family members that support those living with Bipolar and would love to do another episode with a family member in the future. Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org [https://www.bipolaruk.org/] Insta: @bipolar_uk [https://www.instagram.com/bipolar_uk/] Twitter: bipolaruk [https://twitter.com/BipolarUK] Facebook: bipolaruk [https://www.facebook.com/bipolaruk] Hosted by Emma Belle: Insta: @emmakbelle [https://www.instagram.com/emmakbelle/] Facebook: bellekemma [https://www.facebook.com/bellekemma] www.emmakbelle.com [https://www.emmakbelle.com/]

2.06 Natalie Leeke - lived as a nun for 11 years and has recently been diagnosed with Bipolar - navigating multiple medication changes to find what works best.

Yogini, triathlete, vegan, mother and lover, Natalie Leeke, has created and enjoys an unconventional and beautiful life with her 7 year old daughter in South west Florida. After 11 years as a nun and a broad range of experience, Natalie consults for small to medium businesses on marketing and business strategy. Transitioning from one way of living to living outside of that community has been a huge shift and Natalie talks about this with me in our conversation. We also talk about the journey of navigating finding the right medication that works for you and how sometimes it can take many changes to get to what works best for each of us. Natalie has gone through 9 medication changes to find what works best for her. We talk about how we can be softer with ourselves and offer ourselves as much compassion as we can along the way to avoid shaming ourselves when we are already dealing with so much. We also talk about the importance of having boundaries in place for our working hours and how this differs for all of us. Since her diagnosis of bipolar in 2019, she has been learning to manage life more effectively. Friendships have been a large part of her support system. Her experience of authentic friendships prompted her to host "Social Animals" - a podcast about friendship. FB @natalieleeke [https://www.facebook.com/natalieleeke] IG @nun2fun [https://www.instagram.com/nun2fun/] pondb.com [http://pondb.com/] Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org [https://www.bipolaruk.org/] Insta: @bipolar_uk [https://www.instagram.com/bipolar_uk/] Twitter: bipolaruk [https://twitter.com/BipolarUK] Facebook: bipolaruk [https://www.facebook.com/bipolaruk] Hosted by Emma Belle: Insta: @emmakbelle [https://www.instagram.com/emmakbelle/] Facebook: bellekemma [https://www.facebook.com/bellekemma] www.emmakbelle.com [https://www.emmakbelle.com/]