So my name is Nikolas Blanchet, I'm thirty
one years old. I currently live in San Francisco,
California though I have lived all over the
United States, and I am di, have been diagnosed
with Bipolar II Disorder. Bipolar II Disorder is
characterized by long periods of depression like symptoms. so
lethargy, lack of motivation, lack of ambition. periods that,
periods of hopelessness, periods of sadness, although not everyone
had, experiences it in the same way. in addition to that, Bipolar II
has a fun little twist, where you've
also got periods of what's called Hypomania.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Hypomania is like a less extreme form of
mania. Mania being, where you have a complete break
from reality, and you are hyper-energetic, hyper-optimistic. you usually
take a lot of risky behavior. For example sort of
the characteristic that my doctor always tells me
to watch out for is, give me a call
if you decided that you're going to Vegas, and
going to buy a yacht for the weekend, because
it might seem like a lot of fun, so bring me in on the fun. Hypomania in
my case, manifested as periods of extreme sociability hypersexuality
extreme productivity at work, and less sleep than normal.
Also, with Bipolar II disorder, the hypomanic periods
are rare. So one to two time a
year, and fairly brief. somewhere between three and
seven days, which is very different than standard mania.
>> I see. And when were you diagnosed?
>> I was diagnosed Bipolar II Disorder in November of 2012.
>> Okay, so you've only known then for a little bit of time.
>> Right.
>> And how, how's that affected you? How did,
how, how did that come about?
>> So I had been diagnosed with depression for, and this is apparently, by the
way, a very typical story. I had been
tia, diagnosed with depression for about five years.
I was going to a psychiatrist and a
psychologist regularly. and they would prescribe various antidepressants,
none of which would work. And in fact,
my symptoms over time gradually but, but noticeably,
trended worse and worse and worse. after I
moved to the Bay area my psychiatrist that I
got out here, pointed out that I might
actually not be responding well to the medication, because
it was treating something that I didn't have.
And, instead, he su, suggested that I switch to
mood stabilizers. Well, the confirming fact came after I
was taking a very high dosage of an antidepressant,
and through the end of November and through most December, I had a very,
very bad period of depression. I had
no motivation to do anything, I stopped going
to work, it was pretty bad. And then when I went back in and saw
him again, he prescribed a, what's called
a mood stabilizer, which is different than antidepressant.
>> Well, that leads me to another
question about sort of advantages, and disadvantages here.
You've touched on them briefly, but from your
own perspective, I mean, are there any advantages
to being or having showing symptoms of bipolar
and, and, and I'm also curious in the disadvantages.
>> So, the advantages. I've never really thought of it that
way. one thing they don't tell you, is that hypomania is awesome.
[LAUGH]
>>
[LAUGH]
>> It feels really good. you're, you're an animal in
bed, you are hyperproductive at work. You have a lot of
energy. You are really social. You're really charming. You're really dynamic.
you can be a little bit more risky with your behavior,
but not so much so that people around you are like
scared for you. So, people just think, wow Nick's really on
par this week. You basically feel like you are king of
the world, for a period of time. The disadvantages are obviously,
work disruption. Right? So, that's the biggest one. With me
these long drawn out periods of silence. And you know as
a, as a friend of mine, like I would go
through periods where no one would hear from Nick. Where is
Nick? I would just disappear, because keeping up appearances and
and making sure that people around me are comfortable and having
a good time, is important to me. And so when
I was in a bad place, I instead of like being
the negative guy around everyone all the time, I just sort
of removed myself from the situation. And, of course, there's social
stigma and stuff attached with it, too, which makes it complicated.
It makes it difficult to have relationships. It makes it difficult to
stick to tasks. I stopped and started college a, a number
of times, and looking back, it probably had a lot to
do with this. I don't want to blame this for all
of my problems. Right? I still have good days and bad days,
I'm still mortal, I still make mistakes. But I suppose
now that I think about it, another advantage of Bipolar
Disorder, and having had it diagnosed, is I get insight.
I know a little bit more about why things happen,
why am I this way, why. Why? It gives context.
It doesn't excuse things. I still things that I need
to work on. But it gives a little context about
what my struggles might be, about the things that I need
to watch out for. It also makes
sure that I exercise, because that's very helpful.
>> How do other people perceive you as someone who is
Bipolar? What's the general reaction? How, how is it perceived by
others, both strangers, just say, the general public, but also your
friends. Have they responded and, and what's your reaction to their reactions?
>> When people who I know, and have known for
a period of time, find out that I'm Bipolar, I
tend to get one of two reactions. One is generally
supportive. And saying oh, well, I'm glad you're just getting this
managed, I'm glad you've got some stuff. And the other one's
sort of like a duh, I could have told you that!
Not because it manifested, because, but because you know, their because
they have noticed these trends that I have. And they knew
that there was something up, but they never knew what it
was. And so, okay, this makes sense that you've got this.
>> We're curious in knowing, what is your family history of Bipolar,
and any other mental health condition that you think might be related.
>> So, my Mom, my Mom was diagnosed with Bipolar II
Disorder and she's, she was actually on the same medication that
I am on now, for a while, but she never told
me this. My sister one of my younger sisters suffers from depression.
my Dad is the, actually, on that side of the family, he is the most ADD
person I have ever met in my entire
life. Like, you know the Wikipedia hole, where
you just keep clicking on hyperlink, after hyperlink,
after hyperlink, until you've got a million tabs
open? Yeah, like he can't use Wikipedia because
it's paralyzing. His, his weekend will be gone.
>> What do you think about the portrayal of
mental health in general, both in the media, and
in society at large? How we deal with it as a
population? Do you think we take mental health seriously? Do you think
it's portrayed in a meaningful way that gets the right kind of
attention, or do you think we still have some work to do?
>> I definitely believe that in the area of portrayal of mental health well,
in the area of how the average person thinks of mental health, we have
some work to do. Because it's one, it's, it's easy to look at someone and
say, you have a broken leg. You have a scratch. You've been burned. But when it
permeates the mind. When it permeates the thing
that's sitting behind the eyes, and looking back
at you. It's hard to say, well you're an asshole versus you have an issue. And,
because it's so difficult to recognize in the first
place, we tend to overlook it, minimize it, and,
and not give it the type of treatment that we should. If I had to have
a message for somebody who's Bipolar II I
would definitely say, seek medical assistance. this is
something that responds very well to treatment. And
once you've gotten that proper treatment, once you've
been able to help yourself out, then you
can live a very, very satisfying and happy life.