Mental health treatment crucial and accessible

Dear Dr. Peg,
I’m looking for someone to help me with my husband who is bipolar and refuses to get the help he needs. Please help me contact somebody I can talk to about this issue.

Dear Spouse,
The short answer to your question is 277-4537. That is the phone number for Counseling Services at Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) at UNM. They can either help you and your husband or refer you to someone who can.

You raise several important issues: the nature of bipolar disorder, local mental health resources and living with someone with a mental illness. Let’s look at these one at a time.

Bipolar disorder is named so because those who have it dwell in opposite extremes, as if they bounced back and forth between the globe’s poles, or positive to negative on a battery. It is also known as manic depressive disorder, reflecting the same radical changes in mood. We’re not talking about the moderate mood swings that most of us have from time to time. People with bipolar disorder have excruciating lows and over-the-top highs.

Consider an imaginary patient, Lisa, as an example. When Lisa is in her manic phase, she rarely sleeps. She is in constant motion and talks fast, rambling from one topic to another. Entertaining and fun to be around much of the time, she also flares into angry behavior with little provocation. She thinks she is something special, but in fact shows poor judgment, overspending, binge eating or drinking, sleeping around and the like. She might appear happy on the outside, but inside she is manic. Manic phases typically last weeks to months. When Lisa is in the depressed phase of her illness, she is a different woman. She seems sad and tired. She can’t concentrate, sleeps too much and keeps to herself. She eats too much or too little and may gain or lose weight. She drinks too much or does drugs. Her self-esteem is in the toilet. She may want to take her own life. In fact, the risk of suicide in those with bipolar disorder is quite high in the depressed phase.

In between these phases, Lisa can have long periods of normality. Or not. These are generalizations. The illness, which is at least partly hereditary, has many variations and nuances. It is a serious mental illness that affects millions of Americans. Estimates range from 1 to 3 percent of the population. It usually starts in the teens or 20s and is equally common in women and men.

For those who live with a bipolar person, the challenges are many, from keeping them alive when they are despondent to preventing them from spending all their money when they are manic. It is important that bipolar disorder gets treated, however, many resist getting treatment, just like with other mental illnesses. There are in fact several effective medications that can allow someone with this disorder to live a productive and satisfying life.

As far as resources, if you or your husband are students, you can start right here at SHAC Counseling Services. We have several licensed therapists, a psychologist and a psychiatrist on staff. They can do an evaluation to see if your husband does in fact have bipolar disorder (it is sometimes misdiagnosed or over-diagnosed) and make sure he gets the treatment he needs, either here or elsewhere. They can also offer you counseling if you are a student, or couples counseling for the two of you together.

Since bipolar disorder is so common, there are many specific resources in the local and national community. In Albuquerque, contact National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)- New Mexico at 260-0154 or Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) of Albuquerque at 889-3632 or dbsa4albq@yahoo.com. You can also find more information and referrals at the National Mental Health Association at nmha.org, the American Psychiatric Association at Healthymind.org or NAMI at Nami.org. If you or your loved one is feeling suicidal, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or the Agora Crisis Center at 277-3013.