http://thesidewalkpsychiatrist.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/weight-gain-and-bipolar-medication/ Practical answers to mental health questions Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:58:33 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://thesidewalkpsychiatrist.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/weight-gain-and-bipolar-medication/#comment-1963 doctordan Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:03:07 +0000 http://thesidewalkpsychiatrist.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/weight-gain-and-bipolar-medication/#comment-1963 Rebecca--I appreciate your letter more than you can know. It is inherent in the system that things get missed. My goal is to miss less and less as I get more experienced in this field. I am glad that life is good for you now and wish you the best. Your comments are important enough to be used as a lead blarticle for today (jan 13th). Please read and feel free to comment again. I will also email you an idea that you have sparked that will, hopefully, avoid your situation from repeating. --DH MD Rebecca–I appreciate your letter more than you can know. It is inherent in the system that things get missed. My goal is to miss less and less as I get more experienced in this field. I am glad that life is good for you now and wish you the best. Your comments are important enough to be used as a lead blarticle for today (jan 13th). Please read and feel free to comment again. I will also email you an idea that you have sparked that will, hopefully, avoid your situation from repeating.
–DH MD

]]> http://thesidewalkpsychiatrist.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/weight-gain-and-bipolar-medication/#comment-1959 Rebecca Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:53:48 +0000 http://thesidewalkpsychiatrist.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/weight-gain-and-bipolar-medication/#comment-1959 I was a patient of yours 5-6 years ago when I was between the ages of 14-16 at PGC. I was quickly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed pills (first depacote then, after learning the side effects, zyprexa). Every session we had never seemed to last long and consisted mainly of you and my mother discussing my acting out. Any time I consisntently acted out it was because I was "spitting out my pills" (even if I wasn't) which led me to realize something was seriously wrong. I felt as if you never listened to me, the patient taking the pills. When I was 17 I researched the disorder and found how difficult it is to diagnose in teens. Much like ADD, ADHD, and depression, bipolar disorder has many of the same "symptoms" of growing up and being a teenager. I stopped taking medication and going to therapy and am now a happy, functioning, well-adjusted adult with a secure job and homelife. I wanted to give you this update/feedback to help you to not to make the same mistake with other kids. By undermining my feelings you ended up advocating my mothers delusional thoughts about me and my life. Not to sound rude, but you probably have less experience in teens with BD than you think. Not to say that there aren't kids out there with serious mental health issues but you need to better consider the idea that maybe they are just rebelious teenagers. Pills should be the last resort, especially for minors who don't get much say in what happens. Please, Dr. Hartman, don't do to others what you did to me. Listen, listen, listen... I was a patient of yours 5-6 years ago when I was between the ages of 14-16 at PGC. I was quickly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed pills (first depacote then, after learning the side effects, zyprexa). Every session we had never seemed to last long and consisted mainly of you and my mother discussing my acting out. Any time I consisntently acted out it was because I was “spitting out my pills” (even if I wasn’t) which led me to realize something was seriously wrong. I felt as if you never listened to me, the patient taking the pills. When I was 17 I researched the disorder and found how difficult it is to diagnose in teens. Much like ADD, ADHD, and depression, bipolar disorder has many of the same “symptoms” of growing up and being a teenager. I stopped taking medication and going to therapy and am now a happy, functioning, well-adjusted adult with a secure job and homelife. I wanted to give you this update/feedback to help you to not to make the same mistake with other kids. By undermining my feelings you ended up advocating my mothers delusional thoughts about me and my life. Not to sound rude, but you probably have less experience in teens with BD than you think. Not to say that there aren’t kids out there with serious mental health issues but you need to better consider the idea that maybe they are just rebelious teenagers. Pills should be the last resort, especially for minors who don’t get much say in what happens. Please, Dr. Hartman, don’t do to others what you did to me. Listen, listen, listen…

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