LaFemme...I was in denial about being bipolar, I jsut couldn't see it...all I saw was depression. It took 2 psychiatrists and one counselor to convince me....and a really bad negative mania that put me in the hospital after reducing my medication to only depression treatment. (I dropped the amnxiety med whcih was sedating the mania)
Now that I have read avidly to learn what it is...it is pretty clear to me.
I will say that the 1st pdoc would just ask me if I might be bipolar. No I am not was my answer to that, and I believed it.
We are encouraged to trace our family tree for bipolar and related disorders, alcoholism and substance abuse are to be counted as relevant disorders when we fill in our family tree. They are considered to be related brain disorders and there is more of a clustering of these disorders along hereditary lines.
I think education would strongly help in earlier recignition and treatment, at least in the classic forms of mental illness...I can't really speak for subtance abuse or alcoholism.
For myself....I have two siblings....one is alcoholic and the other I often wonder if she is...she would definitely say: no... but I can state for a fact that whether or not it is an addiction with her, she does have sibstance abuse issues and alcohol abuse both in the past and currently. She would be highly offended if I even suggested as mcuh to her.
I have both substqnce abuse and alcohol abuse in my past...I thoguht I had an addiction problem with the xanax for awhile.... but have found that while I had the dependence upon the chemical such that I had withdrawals and needed to take it to avoid withdrawals..that it was basically the same as my effexor. Certian madications have to be tapered onto and tapered off of and some I just plain need to take.
scuse the typos...just got my nails done..too long, just the way I like them LOL