BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LOCAL Psychiatrist Sharon Halliday, at a recently held Mental Health and Behavioural Disorders Press Conference, spoke about Bipolar Disorder, which is also known as manic depression, an illness that causes serious shifts in mood, energy, thinking, and behavior – from the highs of mania on one extreme, to the lows of depression on the other.
“Bipolar people experience extreme emotions; you will never understand how low a bipolar person can get unless you suffer from the illness,” she said.
“The illness is described as feeling low, hopeless like they’re in a bottomless pit from which they could never climb out.”
The Press Conference which also included the expertise of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Patrick Martin and Director of the Counseling Centre, Michelle Delacoudray-Blake was held because the Ministry of Health was concerned with the increase in the number of persons seeking the services of the Counseling Centre at Greenlands.
The Ministry hopes to sensitize the general public via the media about Mental Health in general.
Halliday said that if a person is bipolar their brain is not is not functioning correctly.
“You get a strained sense of loss and hopelessness. Even if everything is going well in your life, your brain tells you that everything is wrong,” she said.
The psychiatrist noted that it does not matter if everything seems right in your life.
“Even if you’re an educated person, have a nice family, you have a nice job, the person cannot feel that - the brain functions where you have a negative view of yourself, your worth, a negative view of your future, an extreme sense of darkness and hopelessness and deep despair where the only way out seems to be death.”
She urges anyone who is feeling sad or down to seek help as every sort of depression is often deadly and suicidal.
She added that there are a lot of people in society that are hurting and may even experience unexplainable physical pain.
“Certain pains are also a symptom of depression; if you have continual pain, headaches, backache, you can be depressed or anxious and experience ‘Somatic Symptoms’.
‘Somatic symptoms’ signify a form of Mental Disorder that is characterized by physical symptoms that suggest physical illness.
“You might be having the somatic symptom that your doctor cannot explain; it means that whatever problem you have in life no matter how small, you are not coping with it. You need to come see the
Psychiatrist or Counseling centre. You are not coping with it psychologically and your body is reacting to it,” Halliday said.
She said that those in the federation suffering from mental disorder can visit a Mental Health Clinic in their district. There is one every Thursday afternoon at the Basseterre Health Centre, another every second Thursday morning in Molineaux and another every fourth Thursday morning in Sandy Point at the Pogson Hospital.
On Nevis, patients are seen on Tuesday and Friday afternoons at the Alexandria Hospital and also at the Prison.
Persons can also call Medical Associates at 465-5348 or 465-5349 to book appointments.
