At Mayden, we strive to make a difference – improving the way that treatment is delivered by services and experienced by patients. This week we were honoured to welcome Joanna, a relative of one of our team members, to talk to us about her experience of living with bipolar disorder. Joanna’s story is very moving, and she had nothing but praise for the wonderful NHS staff that have helped her manage her condition.
Joanna first became unwell whilst working as a junior teacher. She was juggling a demanding working life with bringing up her young daughter, and found herself in the position of not receiving the support she needed from work colleagues at school. She found work so stressful that she made the decision to retrain as a yoga instructor, and began studying for this whilst still working as a teacher. Work and study deadlines piled up and Joanna found it difficult to express her growing distress to those around her.
During a family holiday in France, Joanna started to display escalating symptoms of mania which worried her husband. He managed to get her home and within a week she was suffering with paranoia, behaving erratically, hearing voices, and having difficulty distinguishing between reality and hallucinations. A family friend who is a GP recognised that Joanna was having a psychotic episode and helped arrange an emergency referral to a mental health hospital.
After her discharge from hospital several weeks later, Joanna continued with regular medication and was cared for at home with visits by a mental health nurse and appointments with a psychiatrist. Over time, the appointments became less frequent and Joanna’s medication was reduced. A course of mindfulness, alongside CBT and talking therapies helped Joanna to deal with her diagnosis, start to express her feelings more effectively and develop coping mechanisms. Joanna praised the support that she received from her family and from NHS mental health teams – particularly her mental health nurse.
Reflecting on the past five years since her first manic episode, Joanna talked about the impact of her condition, and about how her treatment has affected her physically, spiritually and creatively, as well as the impact it has had on her relationships with those around her. She’s learned to manage her condition and now lives happily with her family in France, where she teaches yoga and practices meditation to help keep her life in balance. She feels very positive and through her yoga classes, she’s able to help others keep their lives in balance too.
Joanna is very open about her bipolar diagnosis, her treatment and how it’s affected her life. By sharing her story, Joanna has helped us to understand the impact of bipolar and how it can be managed.
Visit Joanna’s YouTube channel to watch her videos about living with bipolar.
For more information and advice on bipolar go to www.bipolaruk.org
