From: Elena (Canada)
#yourvoicematters
Mania can be a devastating blow to your family, sometimes with many long-lasting consequences. It can take years to mend relationships and finances. There can be job loss, hospitalization and even incarceration. When my husband entered into mania last Christmas (2013), I was determined for it not to go the way of the previous ones. I was not going to be able to endure a six month to a year of chaos. I was not going to have this one end like the last, incarceration.
It was very difficult to get ahold of any doctor or psychiatrist anytime around the holidays. That was a dead-end. So I turned toward mental health organizations and stumbled upon COAST, Crisis Outreach and Support Team. They have a 24 hour help line. They are trained to triage mental health crisis situations and give support and create a plan for intervention. So I called and spoke to them about what my husband symptoms were. They wanted to schedule an appointment, same day, to come and speak to both of us. That sounded great but how was I going to get my husband to agree?
So now I’m going to let in on a little secret. The only way to get my husband to do something he doesn’t want to do, is to either a) make him think it was his idea or b) show him a benefit he would receive by doing it. I had shared the information about COAST with my husband and approached it like this. “I know you are getting really tired of everyone telling you, you are manic when you think you’re not. Let’s call and book an appointment for them to come out. If they say you’re not manic, I won’t mention it again.” He agreed and made the call himself!
The appointment went like this. A registered nurse and an off duty, volunteer policeman came to our house that same afternoon. They did a health questionnaire, asked him some questions, asked me some questions and basically observed his behaviour. I was really worried about this part. My husband during mania is capable of masking his symptoms for a short period of time. He can and has fooled the best, but not this time. He was not given any choice. They were taking him to the hospital. I could follow in my car. Needless to say my husband was shocked, but he was still confident that the doctors at the hospital would side with him and send him home.
The nurse and policeman guarded my husband the whole time we were in the ER. They left when they had successfully passed him over to the psychiatric unit. It is a locked wing. There I sat by myself in the waiting room for hours until a doctor came out to speak with me. She told me she was going to section him for 48 hours and reevaluate then. At that time he could be re-sectioned or released. That meant that he had to stay in the hospital. He did have smoking privileges by himself, but if he did not return, the police would be called to pick him up.
I was able to now see my husband for the first time in the hospital. He was absolutely furious at me. He believed I convinced the doctor with my lies to have him put away. The usual spewing of divorce threats followed. I was upset and knew this was not the end but the beginning. I knew that night he would at least be safe and I went home to get some long missed sleep time.
Bipolarmania.com
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For those of you that live in Ontario, Canada:
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Ontario Mental Health Helpline 1-866-531-2600.
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MentalHealthHelpline.ca