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    Brett Polar
    Brett Polar
    Brett Polar
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    Brett Polar

    By Brett Hardy

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    About this ebook

    Brett Polar is an intoxicating rollercoaster ride that will leave you as much elated as devastated. It is engaging, empowering, educational and ultimately gives hope to people living with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses.

    Brett’s story involves a mental health sojourn that spans twenty years from 2000 to 2020. Prepare to ride alongside him as he goes through the bipolar motions of extreme highs, devastating lows and all the semi-stable moments in between.

    His story is proof that if a diagnosis is accepted and the right support embraced, then an individual living with mental illness can not only survive but thrive!

    Jump on in to find out more.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAustin Macauley Publishers
    Release dateMar 31, 2022
    ISBN9781398434226

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      Book preview

      Brett Polar - Brett Hardy

      Disclaimer

      This book is an opinion piece and not necessarily founded on scientific fact.

      Intro

      It’s interesting that bipolar disorder seems to be characterised as separate to the person, like something they possess. "Oh, he has bipolar disorder," to me there is no distinction between the ‘disorder’ and the person, they are the same entity.

      Bipolar Disorder brings with it so many things. Of course, there are the mood extremes that it is famous for, but there are also the characteristic personality traits of creativity, intensity, emotional sensitivity and intelligence.

      There have been studies highlighting the correlation between creativity and bipolar disorder aka ‘the illness of the stars’.

      The other traits (intensity, emotional sensitivity and intelligence) I have studied myself. This research has come from my own lifetime as a bipolar person and being around and observing other bipolar people.

      I would say bipolar people are born with these traits. Sure, they can be either stunted or promoted with nurture, however they are with a person for life.

      As far as the mood extreme aspect of bipolar goes I would say this is initially brought on when the individual crosses a certain stress threshold.

      It’s possible that the individual may never actually cross this stress threshold in their lifetime. If so, then the mood extremes would never present. I would say this would be extremely rare.

      With each episode, the individual becomes more vulnerable. Future episodes can be triggered by a less amount of stress each time. After multiple episodes a person needs to become wiser and surround them self with care. This could be in the form of meds, health professionals, family and friends or soothing activities/exercises.

      With each episode the brain can become more damaged and more vulnerable. One episode too many can result in permanent psychosis. A person may then require permanent care to function in society.

      Each bipolar person has different episode triggers. What stresses out one person and causes them to episode may not necessarily do the same in another person.

      For me personally, the episode trigger has often been relationship breakdown. I learnt to manage this trigger the hard way. It almost cost me my life, several times.

      These days I have a much better handle on it. How you ask? Perhaps we’d better start from the beginning…

      Chapter One:

      Genetics

      Talk to any bipolar person and you can bet your house that someone in their family was bipolar. Statistically, if a parent is bipolar, you have a 10% chance of being bipolar and if you have a twin with bipolar it’s 50% chance. I had both.

      My twin was diagnosed in 2007, my father was never officially diagnosed but was basically a bipolar pinup boy, had all the traits and mood extremes and sadly without a diagnosis he was never properly treated and is now in jail for life for murder and suffers permanent psychosis.

      Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common story for a proportion of bipolar people. I often like to paint the rose-tinted version of bipolar with magical skills and creativity. The harsh reality is that this condition can be extremely dangerous if poorly managed. Not just for the bipolar person themself but for the people around them.

      The suicide rate for bipolar people is 10% i.e., one person out of every ten who are diagnosed will take their own life. A scary statistic, and that’s just the depressive side of the mood extremes.

      The manic side is just as dangerous. If a person enters the psychosis stage, they can do things completely out of character and be a great danger to themselves or others.

      Bottom Line: BIPOLAR PEOPLE NEED SUPPORT. Whether they arrange this themselves or via a carer, it is absolutely essential for bipolar people to have support to be able to function in this society.

      To expect a bipolar person to just grind nine to five for eternity chasing the CPMK (career/partner/mortgage/kids) unsupported is just lunacy. This is not how bipolar people are naturally designed to operate.

      Throw them on a utopian desert island with no deadlines or responsibilities and they’ll probably be sweet. They could just roll with the moods and lack of stress and have a sweet old time.

      In this western society at least they’re going to need medication and as much care as possible to keep the mood extremes at bay.

      The nature of the beast is that mood extremes are inevitable. There are life pressures, party temptations and well, 2020.

      The key is managing these mood extremes. Basically, you have to be a god damn psychic. When you’re doing well you can’t take on too many things so that you burn out when your mood comes down. Vice versa when you’re down, you can’t do too little so that you completely isolate and stay down. Yep, it’s a heck of a battle!

      I guess it’s the price you pay for the bipolar gifts of creativity and intelligence you were granted at birth.

      Bipolar people seem to have an extraordinary knack of creating ideas out of thin air. Kurt Cobain, Eminem, Marilyn Monroe, Carrie Fisher, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Amy Winehouse, Andy Irons, Jimi Hendrix … to name but a few.

      These are the ones that have turned their gifts into cash cow $, but did you also notice that almost half that list is in the 27 club? (Dead at 27.) I think 27 is about that age where everyone has pushed their youthful ‘invincibility’ as far as possible. Where most discovered the edge and turned back, those in the club did not. In the case of these bipolar celebs, they probably didn’t even see the edge. They were too manic to notice.

      These celebs may have had plenty of money, just not enough care. So how did I make it past 27? God Only Knows.

      Chapter Two:

      Mood Extremes

      Part One (2001)

      Ahh! Everyone remembers their first love. For me, it brings back memories of bright summer colours, laughter, giddiness, so fresh albums and of course the youthful naivety that this could never end.

      I guess I never really experienced bipolar mood extremes until my first love, at age 21, came to a grinding halt.

      I guess for non-bipolar people a first love breakup would result in a miserable couple of weeks. They would feel really down, really lost, feeling like there was nothing that could get you of this pit. For a bipolar depressed person (in this case me) this can go on for six months.

      Really really horrible shit. For me, depressive episodes are very internalised and often quite easy to hide. For some people clinical depression means they are unable to get out of bed, unable to move or talk. For me, depression means I can still go to work, fake smile and tell everyone I’m fine.

      Meanwhile underneath I’m in agony, ruminating over and over about really negative stuff. In this case the breakup. What went wrong? How could I have changed that? Why can’t it go back how it was?

      These kinds of tormenting thoughts are a common theme in

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