Lifetime battle with bipolar disorder

For patients with mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, the world can be a dark place to live in. Light flickers in and out as they go from remission to exacerbation or worsening.

Now, there is a support program to help them with their condition. “Light One’s Life: A Patient Quality of Life Program” is a project of Otsuka (Philippines) Pharmaceutical Inc. (OPPI), together with the Philippine Psychiatric Association (PPA), which will help these patients learn more about their condition and cope with it.

This advocacy campaign aims to break the stigma attached to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Likewise, the program educates the patients and their families on how to manage and cope with these conditions. A helpline is provided to direct patients to specialists who can help them live normal and productive lives.

Elaine (not her real name), 38, has bipolar disorder that she has to deal with for life. “When I was diagnosed with the disease, my doctor told me that I’ll have it (bipolar disease) for life,” she narrated. 

Elaine is battling with the disease for 10 years now and learned about her condition only after a major marital conflict. “My husband and I were separated for almost three years due to marital turmoil,” she said. At present, fortunately, they are back in each other’s arms.

Learning about this lifetime condition, Elaine felt really sad. However, with the support she has been getting from her family most especially from her aunt, whom she acknowledged as her spiritual adviser, she is coping with the problem. 

Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depressive illness, is a condition that affects over 200 million people worldwide. It is brought about by an imbalance of key chemicals in the brain. It ranks as sixth leading cause of disabilities worldwide between the ages of 15 and 30, according to the World Health Organization. This is characterized as alternating patterns of emotional highs (mania) and lows (depression) or it can be both (mixed episodes). 

Elaine’s encounter with the disease has never been easy. “When I am depressed, I cannot eat or sleep well,” she said. There were times when Elaine really cried hard when she would be in her depressive moments.

Meanwhile, when she feels the mania, she is up on her heels. “I feel overly excited whenever I experience that period in my life,” she revealed.

Like Elaine, patients with manic episodes experience symptoms such as elevated mood, extreme irritability, and anxiety, increased energy and reduced need for sleep. 

Patients with depressive episodes suffer from overwhelming feeling of emptiness or sadness, lack of energy, loss of interest in things, trouble concentrating, changes in normal sleep or appetite, and thoughts of dying or suicide.

A mother of four boys, Elaine believes that without her faith in God, she would not survive this disease. “Nothing is impossible, with God in your heart,” she said.

She accepted her fate wholeheartedly without fear. She also makes herself busy by doing the following services such as reflexology, manicure and pedicure at her client’s home. Her work becomes her means of coping with the situation. It is also her way to pay for her medication and consultation costs. 

Elaine shares her ways on managing the disease. “For me, unending love and support from your family and other loved ones, continuous medication, help and guidance from your trusted doctor or psychiatrist, and last but not the least, prayer, are the ways to cope with this disease,” Elaine stressed. These factors help her cope with her disease and manage it successfully.

For more information, call Otsuka’s Helpline at 811-4723 for people in Metro Manila or 1-800-1888-4-723 for people outside Metro Manila. The helpline is open Mondays to Fridays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. only.