- by Matt Murray
- BBC Wales News
Fashion model Sara de Garnum said her bipolar diagnosis was reassuring that she was “not going crazy”.
Thousands of people in Wales have been waiting for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder for nearly 12 years, according to the Welsh Bipolar Disorder Commission.
The National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) Bipolar Disorder Committee plans to publish more findings in the coming days.
“Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wasn’t normal, whatever normal is,” said Sarah de Garnum, who was diagnosed in 2017.
Britain, who has bipolar disorder, is asking the Welsh government to reduce the average waiting time to five years.
The charity said more than 60,000 people living with mental illness in Wales were not benefiting from the health care system.
The Welsh government has announced increased funding for mental health services.
Waiting time for a diagnosis in Wales is now two years longer than in England.
De Garnum, a fashion model who lives in Kumafan, Niceport Talbot, was originally misdiagnosed with depression before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“I knew I would react differently to things compared to my friends, but they acted differently towards me,” the 35-year-old said.
Doctors told De Garnum that her pregnancy had triggered her bipolar disorder.
“Having been diagnosed made me feel like I wasn’t crazy or crazy. It has a name and now I can learn about it and do something useful.” she said.
But getting the diagnosis wasn’t easy for a single mother.
she said: “I went to a doctor and explained what was happening to me and he said, ‘Don’t be silly, you’re not bipolar, you’re dramatic.'”
“I went to see a psychiatrist who explained that I was bipolar and that shouldn’t have happened. It made me feel like I couldn’t go insane. I got to that point. It wasn’t easy, but we have to keep pushing and keep fighting.”
De Garnum was told by her doctor that she developed bipolar disorder when she was pregnant with her son, Harley.
De Garnum said the model helped her cope with her diagnosis.
“When I was a kid, models used to have long, well-styled hair, but I don’t.
“I’m a shaved head, plus size woman, and I have bipolar disorder, but if I can do it, so can you. You really can. What’s off limits?” There is nothing.
“This career has saved me. Mental health is a big issue for me on social media and I always try to talk about it as openly as possible because I want to live the perfect life.” I don’t want people to think I’m there. ”
‘Surprisingly poor provision’
Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition in which individuals exhibit extreme moods that can last for weeks. People with bipolar disorder have a higher mortality rate from suicide, but many people with bipolar disorder can be treated with drugs.
“When you’re in a manic state, you feel like you can’t finish a sentence or you start something and you can’t finish it. Once I was cleaning and I was having a manic day. I just hit the hammer,” he said. “All the tiles in the kitchen are coming off the walls. It’s really annoying and it’s different for everyone.”
The charity Bipolar UK said there are more than one million people with the condition in the UK, and millions more are affected through close friends and family.
The ‘Bipolar Problem’ report calls for immediate restructuring of the Welsh health care system.
Bipolar UK chief executive Simon Kitchen said preparedness for bipolar disorder was “surprisingly low” in Wales.
“Imagine living with this disease for nearly 12 years without access to proper treatment and support. People across Wales have to deal with it. That’s enough.” not.
“This reflects the social stigma surrounding the condition, the inability to see a primary care physician when experiencing a hypomanic or manic episode, and the lack of professional training on bipolar disorder throughout the health care sector. It is a combination of factors such as
“Change literally saves lives”
Kitchen added that the risk of suicide for people living with bipolar disorder is 20 times higher than for people without bipolar disorder.
He said the charity’s mission is to clear up the confusion surrounding bipolar disorder and facilitate faster diagnosis.
“These changes will not only improve the quality of life for people with bipolar disorder in Wales, they will literally save lives,” he said.
“We are calling on the Welsh government to reduce the average time to diagnosis of bipolar disorder from nearly 12 years to five years in the next five years.”
The Welsh government said it had increased funding for mental health services “to meet local needs”.
The spokesperson added: “This year we have invested £6m in implementing the Welsh Strategic Mental Health Workforce Plan which sets out actions to achieve a sustainable mental health workforce.”
Professor Ian Jones, Director of the National Center for Mental Health and Professor of Perinatal Psychiatry at Cardiff University, said the center was “delighted” to publish the findings.
“Together, we are reaching out to people with real-life experiences of bipolar disorder, a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to developing a better understanding of what causes bipolar disorder, what triggers it, and how best to manage it. We want to build a strong collaborative research community,” he said.
