“The greatest communication barrier known to man is the lack of the common core of experience “When’s the last time you had a Manic Episode Doctor”?”
― Stanley Victor Paskavich
I think I appreciate Docs who suffer or who have a personal experience with mood disorders (aside from their patients that is). After all, how do you explain a depression that makes you sleep 15+ hours a day?? Or makes you stay in pajamas for days on end without you not sounding “lazy”??
Or how do you explain the circus you heard in the hall from “psychosis”, from the inability to sleep? The images that scroll through your mind 50mph that leave you exhausted?
What about the 10 books you have begun reading, all at the same time, or the 10 different projects you took on only to leave them all incomplete?
How do you explain the poor decisions made impulsively that destroyed your life during a manic episode?? Or how you feel like you cannot go on because the life you loved is now in a billion shards on the floor under your very feet?
How do you explain such things to a person who has zero personal experience in the matter of mood disorders…aside from textbooks?
A difficult balance indeed.
What a fun convo with your PDoc though, ” So Doc, tell me, are you a manic depressive? Do you lack interest in activities? Or become promiscuous when manic?” LOL… I should ask my Doc.
© bipolarmuse 2012
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