Consumer Interview

Age: 29

Gender: Female

Are you under care of a Doctor, Psychiatrist, Therapist, Other? Please List

Under the care of a Psychiatrist and Therapist

What is your diagnosis or diagnoses? 

Bipolar disorder with suggestion of Borderline Personality.

At what age were you diagnosed with the borderline personality disorder and/or bipolar disorder? 18

What age are you now? 29

Have you gotten better or worse?  Better 

** Very Important Question If You Could Answer Fully -> If you have gotten better, what specifically has helped you? This could be different for every person.

Medication and accepting I needed it as much as diabetics need insulin. I want to also say that several years of therapy make you more mentally healthy than people without mental illness. You just get to know yourself by talking to a perfect stranger. But, I have been in 4 mental hospitals, introduced to dozens of meds and been through years of therapy and the most important was missing-God. My relationship with him is a pivotal part of why I am doing better. 

With God, I learned I was not outcast and I was just a person with a chemical imbalance in my brain. I needed to just "suck it up" and not let it be her entire life. God's grace extends to mentally ill people too. After my family and I having to spend over 150,000 on hospitals, doctors, medications ect…the only true cure is what I found in relationship with God…it costs me nothing.

Has medication helped? 

Yes, if you have someone that knows what they are doing.

*What advice would you like to give to others who are suffering from your same illness('s)? 

Don't let people tell you this is a spiritual thing or make you feel as if you are just bringing it on yourself. Sometimes the ignorance of others can really affect someone who already has a distorted self-image. 

Use what you have to your advantage and tame the wild beasts that come with it.

Find a support group of people with common interests, for me that was not support groups that focused on BPD. 

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