Last night, BBC in the UK aired a harrowing documentary, “Heston: My Life with Bipolar.”  The documentary was superbly produced and leads to a far better understanding of Bipolar for those of us who don’t yet understand the extremes of the poles experienced.

Bipolar disorder changes a person’s ‘personality’.  It’s called ‘disorder’ because unchecked it leads to literal disorder and chaos. The documentary clearly shows the extremes. Heston Blumenthal is an icon of creativity – even of extreme creativity. He is now an ambassador for Bipolar UK.

If you are Bipolar, your disinhibited stance and higher tolerance for risk can lead to brilliance, but it can also lead to a negative impact. But can you sit with mediocrity because of the drugs? This was a recurring theme and fear throughout the programme: if treated, does the treatment kill imagination. Bipolar creatives face the challenge that medication could curtail the breadth of their creativity.

It’s takes on average 10 years to get a diagnosis of bipolar in the UK. Moodscope measurements and record keeping can be of enormous help to doctors, psychiatrists, and other professionals in the health service. Based on proven and approved indicators, the ‘scope’ which is at the heart of Moodscope’s origin can become a catalyst to accelerate the assignment of appropriate treatment. We have evidence of people who have been diagnosed through their tracking with Moodscope.

Bipolar has an impact on the people we love. Heston is asked about the impact on his children. It’s clear that they found it very hard to cope with, and that the manic phase led to massive distance from his children in his role as a father. It was if they didn’t matter. Understanding what it was like for his children was the toughest part of Heston’s change in awareness.

You can have it all – success, popularity, all the trappings of success as measured by society – but this can’t stop bipolar leading to a terminal outcome. Bipolar needs care, a support network, a long-term commitment to managing the drugs. Without help, poorly treated Bipolar disorder the life-expectancy of those suffering with the disorder is 10-15 earlier than the general population. This is why Moodscope is so important. Catch it, track it, report it, change it.

Bbc.co.uk/bipolar – and follow the links to the Open University.

Lex

A Moodscope member