If You Had To Teach About Living With Bipolar Disorder, What Media Would You Use?
Posted by IT CommentatorOct 3
People with bipolar disorder need information about the medical side of their condition but also project management skills to minimise the damage of an oncoming episode, as well as devising strategies to stay employed, married or in vocational education. IQ distribution is the same as the rest of the population.
There are literally a handful of courses around the world.
What would be your educational response to bipolar? It affects a minimum of 1.2% of all populations. Would you write a book? How would you develop a course, and what media would you use for the course? What other methods do you consider worth trying?
I’ve been looking for information to control my bipolar disorder since 1985. That has come from a huge variety of sources, mostly random. I am hoping to get an Australian Churchill Fellowship to research this point and this is part of my preliminary research.
Thanks folks.
Books have been written, but very few are language appropriate for the audience. Professors and doctors need to write books aimed at the medically illiterate, meaning most of the populace. Bi-polar For Dummies took a good approach for this.
In ther medical realm, picture plates of comparative brain scans and topography can be very enlightening.
In the practical world of social interaction, there are a few suggestions:
1. A basic english definition to start off.
2. Case examples of couples who deal with it, balanced between successful and non-successful, with an eye towards minimizing the bi-polar sufferer’s guilt.
3. A section on communicating. By coming out and being honest and communicative about the disorder with family, friends, and co-workers, it is possible to create a buffer of compassionate understanding which will reduce episodic impact.
Free lectures and lunch-and-learn seminars in various venues could help at the community level.
Starting an e-newsletter which could offer late-breaking news and coping tips for sufferers and their loved ones.
If you could manage it, a film of dramatizations and tips on how to handle the most common issues which can arise might be a real boon.
Feature articles in local papers. A local support group where folks can feel less isolated, on both sides of the condition. The list goes on and on.