Just a quick post to say thank you to everyone who has contacted me, and sorry for being a bit slack over the last few days in replying. Regarding the bipolar issue, I do have a blog where I write about mental health issues (particularly how they are covered in the media). If anyone wishes to have a look at it, they are most welcome. It doesn't get updated regularly, I have to say, but just on an ad hoc basis when something crops up and I feel the urge! https://mentalhealthmediame.wordpress.com/
I like your blog darinfan, very thought-provoking!
There's one little thing I want to say about depression and mental health issues in general that might just be a valid part of the huge patchwork of potential causes, triggers etc. And that is that the word 'inflammation' seems to be getting a high profile these days in discussions about so many ills. And PsA is one hell of an inflamer, I'm pretty sure of that. There is some evidence, as others have touched on, that PsA may cause depression directly as opposed to just being depressing.
Okay, that's depression, not bipolar. But I can't help wondering whether this PsA lark at least contributes to various mental health conditions. Just read your response to another thread & it is great to hear that physically you're feeling better, it'd be wonderful if that improvement had a knock on effect on the bipolar as well.
Yes, I'm sure that PsA can cause depression rather than just being depressing - with me, though, I had the bipolar a couple of decades before the PsA. I'm not sure whether inflammation itself can cause it, but we know that the condition known as "depression" is, at least in part, a chemical imbalance - and any look at out blood tests will show we have plenty of that going on!
Hi darinfan,
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BPI rapid-cycling, mixed-manic) 6 years before being diagnosed with PsA. Getting inflammation down from PsA was difficult because I could not take steroids (particularly prednisone) or NSAIDS due to 5+ years of lithium use. I tend to lean towards more manic episodes rather than depression, but I have noticed over time that the more my PsA improved with biologics and DMARDS (Enbrel and Methotrexate specifically), the better I have been able to manage moods and be aware of my moods. I take less lithium and sleep more easily. I have been episode free for almost 2 years, which I never imagined possible in my wildest dreams. While I was skeptical that bipolar disorder and PsA are linked for some time, I am beginning to believe through first hand experience that the inflammation is connected. Our bodies are more connected and whole than we or our physicians believe sometimes!
On another note, I completely empathize with your comment about bipolar disorder and stigma. As a person who now identifies as having two disabilities, I am way more apt to talk about PsA than I ever am about bipolar disorder. Most people closest to me have no idea that BPD is part of my identity, and I unfortunately, but intentionally, keep it that way.
Best.
darinfan said:
Yes, I'm sure that PsA can cause depression rather than just being depressing - with me, though, I had the bipolar a couple of decades before the PsA. I'm not sure whether inflammation itself can cause it, but we know that the condition known as "depression" is, at least in part, a chemical imbalance - and any look at out blood tests will show we have plenty of that going on!
Thanks for the reply. My guess is that PsA certainly effects how bipolar behaves and vice versa, particularly as stress and anxiety is an obvious trigger for me when it comes to bipolar, and a depressive spell of bipolar often means we move about less or spend more time asleep and that then makes the PsA worse, and so on. Whether there is more of a link than that, I'm not sure. I fully understand your reluctance to admit to having bipolar. I confess that I made a decision a little while back that, if people couldn't accept it and the foibles that come with it, then they should go take a running jump. I was fed up and tired of trying to fit in with other people's expectations of how we should behave - even those of friends who have known me for twenty years and known about my bipolar during that time too, who should by now have just accepted who I was and got on with it. Sadly, some of them did indeed decide to "take a running jump" - but life is easier with a small group of friends who don't judge than a larger group who are always making comments when you behave in a way slightly different to how most people do.