Moving forward #rethinkingbipolar

Yesterday’s funeral was especially difficult. It always is when our friends are dying are so young.  Fortunately, the burial plot was well sheltered from the wind and the sun came out for the service. We were offered some herbs we could drop down into the grave on the coffin if we wanted to. As I did this I promised my friend (it seemed rational at the time to be making a promise to a dead person) that I would make a big difference in the world to help others avoid the bipolar label that took his life. – I say ‘that took his life’ because I know only too well how we are taught in hospital and reminded constantly of the suicide option. I am not saying the nurses do this on purpose, but the question is always there. Even my excellent GP is obliged to ask in various ways if I am going to be alright… essentially her job requires her to ask me about suicide… I struggle with this aspect of the mental illness system. My feeling is that thinking about it again and again is not good, because when things go very wrong it is an option that pops into the heads of all us people who have been trained at some time to believe we are the ones most likely to take our own lives. It becomes for many a self-fulfilling prophecy.