|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
You and Yours - Transcript 大象传媒 Radio 4 |
|
|
|
Print This Page |
|
|
|
|
|
TX: 18.03.10 - Bipolar Diary PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON |
|
|
|
THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 大象传媒 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON Bipolar disorder or manic depression affects around four million people in the UK and one of those is Chris Danes who has been keeping an audio-diary for us. He lives with his wife Ruth and he relies on a combination of her care and constant medication to help him though the extreme manic "highs" and the lows of sadness and hopelessness. And here's the latest extract from his diary. DANES I've been feeling terrific, really terrific. So that's all good - lovely, beautiful day outside - I'm going to venture out later, I feel a lot braver today. I don't go out very much, I go out because I'm actually frightened a bit about other people's reactions to me. If I'm well I occasionally go for a drink in the pub but people can be quite cruel you know - oh he's living off the state - and all that comes out again. And you know I just - it's appalling. So anyway that's what's going on with me at the moment and see you all soon. It's Tuesday morning, I'm just taking my pills here. I seem to be taking a rather large amount. In the morning I've got to take one mood stabiliser, I take an antidepressant as well. Hang on. Right that's them gone. And in the evening I take another lot of mood stabiliser and 200 milligrams of yet another mood stabiliser. One gets used to living one's life on pills, I don't mind it really, I think it does remind that having bipolar disorder is a bit of a life sentence but it's a hell of a lot better than what it used to be when I didn't used to take them. It was almost as though I was a different person. I was this bloke called Christopher Danes who was somewhere around but basically I've left him behind. Anyway I'll see what tomorrow holds. Hi, I was up all of last night, which is not good and of course Ruth is not happy and neither am I. The doc says, you know, it's one of the worst things that you can do - is to have disturbed sleep patterns and of course it is awful for Ruth because she gets very, very worried and it disturbs her sleep as well. Hi, I've just done some calculations here, I'm not very good at maths but I've had some help from Ruthie. I have actually been up without sleep for 31 hours so far and I shall certainly be up for a couple of hours later. I feel - I feel a little strange but not in any sense exhausted or anything like that. I don't know whether that's to do with sort of stuff flooding the old brain cells you know, noradrenalines and stuff like that, that doctors talk about but I don't understand. But it could be couldn't it? Hi, I've got a couple of things I suppose to be happy about. I've got some teaching - four hours a week - supportive work teaching at the local disabled place. That's good. For a long, long time now I haven't done any teaching and I'm really, really enjoying it. There was some nastiness over it, some quite violent opposition to my appointment there, I think the gist of it was that people don't like me because I'm - because I'm ill, people can be very cruel. I've got a certain amount of lesson preparation and stuff to do. I'm completely incapable of doing them today, I feel down and miserable and just can't get any motivation at all, which is boring. It's funny, I thought I was feeling quite normal yesterday, whatever normal means, more or less in the middle and then I was very extreme or very low. Just today, towards the end of the day, I feel I'm going down again, seem to be very rapidly cycling at the moment, which is a bit worrying. I can't think of anything else I wanted to say. Thought I might talk to Ruth, I know she's got pretty insightful things to say, which I don't have but her coming from the other side I think it would possibly be interesting to hear those things. ROBINSON And the next extract from Chris Danes' audio-diary is on Monday when we'll hear him discussing his condition with his wife. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 大象传媒 is not responsible for external websites |
| About the 大象传媒 | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy |