By Alexis Maislen
Patricia Ready, LCSW, spoke at the April 15 education meeting on how the proper
education for families and friends of a person with bipolar/unipolar disorder
may help alleviate and assuage misunderstanding and resentment over a person’s
erratic behavior during an episode.
“The symptoms of a bipolar person can change the way loved ones interact with the person with the illness,” said Ready. “The difficulties a person has can quickly become family issues.”
Psychoeducation support groups moderated by a social worker can help loved ones understand that the behavior the ill person exhibits is part of the disorder and not personal toward members of the family.
Psychoeducation is treatment for the loved ones of persons affected with bipolar/unipolar disorder. Its main focus is to have families learn as much as possible about the illness and strategies to maintain future episodes. Management strategies are discussed conjointly with the person afflicted with the illness.
Psychoeducation also aims to correct misconceptions about mental illness, prejudice and resentments about obnoxious behavior during episodes. “People who don’t know much about bipolar/unipolar disorder often misinterpret a person having a manic episode as having an alcohol or drug problem. Or they misinterpret them as having a mean personality,” said Ready.
These days, with patient encounters with treatment and physicians becoming shorter and shorter due to HMOs and other bureaucratic processes, the nature of health care is becoming more and more abbreviated. “There is no opportunity for families/loved ones to interact with clinicians and ask, ‘Was he/she always this mean, or is this change just recent?” said Ready.
As part of the psychoeducation process, the affected person and their family/loved ones should design a management plan. A calm member of the family whom the person trusts should be depended on to make observations about whether the person’s behavior has changed in the past few months.
Ready emphasized that one of the most important goals of psychoeducation focuses on how the shame and humiliation of an affected person’s behavior affects the rest of the family.
“It is important for people with bipolar/unipolar disorder not to blame themselves and not to let family members blame, hurt and anger affect their self-esteem,” said Ready. “Loved ones have to be given the opportunity to understand the person’s actions in a context other than a blaming, incriminating environment.”
This was published in the April 2003 edition of the Spectrum newsletter, the journal of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Greater Chicago.